joseverde@gmail.com writes:
Hi folks, I spent many hours last night trying to get Mailman 3 up and running. I am using Ubuntu on a Digital Ocean LAMP droplet (so PHP, Apache, Sql, and Postfix are already installed). The LAMP stack works as I have a successful installation of YOURLS going on. So, I tried to use this guide (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xIcSsoNFp2nHi7r4eQys00s9a0k2sHhu1V5Plant...)
That's not our guide, we don't support it, and at least I don't recognize the author offhand, can't speak for the rest of the team.
Now that our NO WARRANTY notice is out of the way, I will say that guide is written in very good style, with great attention to detail and appropriate warnings about delicate parts of the procedure. If you end up succeeding with it, I'll add a link to it to our docs.
to install the Mailman3 package and got to the configuration screen (the one with all the DOS-esque GUI).
That's Ubuntu's UI, not ours. Your questions so far are all really Ubuntu questions, not Mailman questions. We'll do what we can to answer, but I don't think any of the core developers use Ubuntu packages to manage their Mailman installations. You are likely to get more help, more accurate help, and faster help in Ubuntu (or perhaps Debian) channels.
I ran it but it kept saying the DB wasn't installed.
Mailman can use any of several database backends (at least SQLite3, PostgreSQL, and MySQL). It seems possible that Ubuntu Mailman is configured for one, and the preinstalled one is another. Which SQL implementation was preinstalled, and which one are Mailman and Django configured to use?
- Does that guide actually work?
Ask the author, not us. Internal evidence (quality of presentation, dates, the NOTE at the top) strongly suggests it works for somebody.
Did I just foul up the database part?
Not clear what got fouled up or where in the process, but clearly getting database installation and configuration right is necessary to proceed.
- Is there a better way to install mailman3 with some nice step-by-step directions to follow?
Don't know. We provide docker containers, but I don't know if those are compatible with Digital Ocean's droplets.
Our docs are at mailman.readthedocs.io, but they're not step-by-step the way the guide you reference is because they're distribution- agnostic, and generally oriented toward a build from source.
- Is there a way to completely wipe my previous installs without wiping the server? ( I didn't back up...silly I know ).
Just wipe the server and create a backup image. Multiple, if you have the space for one every time you successfully install and configure a subsystem. You will save yourself a lot of time.
dpkg --purge will wipe out the Mailman stuff, but if your config process touched anything else (the database, the MTA config) rerunning the process is not guaranteed to do the right thing. It probably will do the right thing, but why not be sure you have a reset to known state?
Steve