Not using lighttpd and upgrading to v5 beta

gniting · February 2, 2020, 1:31pm

I am not using lighttpd, and so before I tried the beta, I wanted to check if not running lighttpd will break anything?

jfb · February 2, 2020, 1:42pm

This will not be a problem if you do not use the web admin GUI.

gniting · February 2, 2020, 1:58pm

I do use the web admin GUI now (extensively). So lighttpd is a requirement for v5?

jfb · February 2, 2020, 1:59pm

What web server are you currently using for the web admin page?

gniting · February 2, 2020, 2:05pm

I'm using apache and when I installed pihole a while ago, the relevant files for web GUI were put into /var/www/html from where apache picked them up and all has been working fine. I am eager to try v5 but don't want to install lighttpd because apache is running on port 80 and I have a few other services that use it.

jfb · February 2, 2020, 2:10pm

I don't know that anybody has tested 5.0 with Apache. I would make a backup of the SD card and try it.

gniting · February 2, 2020, 2:12pm

But if v4x automatically "adjusted" for an existing web server, shouldn't v5 also carry that through? Or did I end up making it compatible and just don't remember anymore!

Here's a screenshot of /var/www/html

MichaIng · March 11, 2020, 3:55pm

If you skipped webserver install during initial Pi-hole install, you need to apply one or two things manually for v5 support:

usermod -aG pihole www-data
apt install php-intl # respectively the php package version that meeds your PHP version, e.g. php7.3-intl

gniting · March 12, 2020, 3:00pm

Thanks for the hint. Are you now successfully using v5 with apache?

MichaIng · March 12, 2020, 6:20pm

apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php php-intl php-xml php-sqlite3
curl -sSL install.pi-hole.net | bash
# Install web server? => (No)
usermod -aG pihole www-data
http://192.168.178.30/admin # works fine
echo "release/v5.0" | sudo tee /etc/pihole/ftlbranch
pihole checkout core release/v5.0
pihole checkout web release/v5.0
http://192.168.178.30/admin # works still fine including all features

No issue at all with Apache.

To enable some additional configs, matching the Pi-hole lighttpd.conf on DietPi we add the following to sites-available:

github.com

MichaIng/DietPi/blob/c0377e34a7ac39e9eb12ee54d184419b8ad794bd/.conf/dps_93/apache.pihole.conf

# If the URL starts with /admin, it is the Web interface
<Directory ~ /var/www(/html)?/admin>
	# Create a response header for debugging using curl -I
	Header set X-Pi-hole "The Pi-hole Web interface is working!"
	Header set X-Frame-Options "deny"

	# Block . files from being served, such as .git, .github, .gitignore
	<Files ~ "^\.">
		Require all denied
	</Files>

</Directory>

# Block public access to blocking page
<Directory ~ /var/www(/html)?/pihole>
	Require ip 127 192.168 10 172.16.0.0/12
</Directory>

# Enable blocking page via 404 handler
#ErrorDocument 404 /html/pihole/index.php

Blocks access to dot files and denies access to the blocking page, if the the remote host has no local network IP, hence access from outside the local network. This at least makes sense since no-one will want to make the Pi-hole DNS available to www and we found some report where it leaked the local IP (although I could not replicate).
ErrorDocument 404 /html/pihole/index.php is required (with or without leading /html, depending on webroot location) to enable the blocking page, like it is done with Pi-hole default Lighttpd install.

gniting · March 12, 2020, 9:14pm

Worked like a charm! Thanks!