Installing Ghost without a Domain Name

I'm trying to install Ghost and I keep having issues at the last step of ghost install.

The most recent attempt yielded this error (I've changed my actual domain name to "foobar.net"):

✔ Starting Ghost
One or more errors occurred.

1) ProcessError

Message: Command failed: /bin/sh -c sudo -S -p '#node-sudo-passwd#'  /etc/letsencrypt/acme.sh --issue --home /etc/letsencrypt --domain foobar.net --webroot /var/www/foobarnet/system/nginx-root --reloadcmd "nginx -s reload" --accountemail mail@foobar.net
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:42 UTC 2021] foobar.net:Verify error:Invalid response from http://www.foobar.net/.well-known/acme-challenge/FLobh63O7QtJ0ohUaBTzml1azQNpsWgsnwIo_zaupiQ [66.33.212.171]: 
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:42 UTC 2021] Please add '--debug' or '--log' to check more details.
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:42 UTC 2021] See: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-debug-acme.sh

[Fri Apr 23 17:44:35 UTC 2021] Using CA: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:35 UTC 2021] Create account key ok.
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:35 UTC 2021] Registering account: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:36 UTC 2021] Registered
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:36 UTC 2021] ACCOUNT_THUMBPRINT='GKbkiqE2ycdNrp0C9MoRBrRWFpnQ2066RbG9Mebw8A0'
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:36 UTC 2021] Creating domain key
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:36 UTC 2021] The domain key is here: /etc/letsencrypt/foobar.net/foobar.net.key
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:36 UTC 2021] Single domain='foobar.net'
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:36 UTC 2021] Getting domain auth token for each domain
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:37 UTC 2021] Getting webroot for domain='foobar.net'
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:37 UTC 2021] Verifying: foobar.net
[Fri Apr 23 17:44:39 UTC 2021] Pending

Exit code: 1

I think the issue may be that I'm installing Ghost to run without a domain name. You see, I already have a site up at foobar.net (not really, that's just a placeholder) and I just want to see what I think of Ghost. I spun up a Linode, but I have no domain name.

I'm gonna try doing the entire install again and not using SSL… any other ideas?

5 Replies

I believe that to acquire a Let's Encrypt cert, you need a domain name. A cert doesn't make much sense without one.

See: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certificate-for-public-ip-without-domain-name/6082

You write:

I'm gonna try doing the entire install again and not using SSL… any other ideas?

That's what I would do… I have no idea what Ghost is or what it does but, if it's dependent on TLS, that's not going to work either. If you can make the install with TLS use a self-signed cert instead of acquiring a Let's Encrypt cert, you could try that as well. This would be the procedure you would use if you purchase a cert from a commercial CA.

Creating self-signed certs is pretty easy…a few steps of throw-away work:

https://www.ryangeddes.com/how-to-guides/linux/how-to-create-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-on-linux/

-- sw

Well, it worked! :)

Thanks for your time and expertise.

Hmm. No, it didn't work.

I can't access the Ghost site without a domain name; I hoped just the IP address would work.

Try putting foobar.com in your local /etc/hosts file (on your home PC…not on your Linode). You could do the same on your Linode but that wouldn't help your issue.

-- sw

That worked… thanks so much! :)

OK… time to play.

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