Help with reverse_proxy with/for php-wiki

antonio66 · June 26, 2025, 7:30am

1. The problem I’m having:

Trying to setup reverse_proxy for php-based wiki running on a second local server. Wiki is displayed, but layout is corrupted. I’m not sure if caddy have to be configured to display php, instead of “normal” reverse_proxing

2. Error messages and/or full log output:

Jun 25 17:09:08 caddy caddy[2157]: {"level":"error","ts":1750871348.3049283,"logger":"http.log.error","msg":"dial tcp 192.168.178.55:80: i/o timeout","request":{"remote_ip":"91.231.89.96","remote_port":"53455","proto":"HTTP/1.1","method":"GET","host":"wiki.almeida.dedyn.io","uri":"/pmwiki.php/Main/ThinkPadX60","headers":{"Connection":["close"],"User-Agent":["Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:134.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/134.0"],"Accept":["text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8"],"Accept-Language":["en-US,en;q=0.5"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4865,"proto":"","server_name":"wiki.almeida.dedyn.io"}},"duration":3.001148605,"status":502,"err_id":"r214vucp5","err_trace":"reverseproxy.statusError (reverseproxy.go:1272)"}

PASTE OVER THIS, BETWEEN THE ``` LINES.
Please use the preview pane to ensure it looks nice.

3. Caddy version:

caddy v 2.6.2

4. How I installed and ran Caddy:

debian apt installed, runnig by systemd

a. System environment:

debian bookworm , systemd, running as proxmox Container

b. Command:

caddy start, etc, but starting automated by systemd 
PASTE OVER THIS, BETWEEN THE ``` LINES.
Please use the preview pane to ensure it looks nice.

c. Service/unit/compose file:

PASTE OVER THIS, BETWEEN THE ``` LINES.
Please use the preview pane to ensure it looks nice.

d. My complete Caddy config:

# The Caddyfile is an easy way to configure your Caddy web server.
#
# Unless the file starts with a global options block, the first
# uncommented line is always the address of your site.
#
# To use your own domain name (with automatic HTTPS), first make
# sure your domain's A/AAAA DNS records are properly pointed to
# this machine's public IP, then replace ":80" below with your
# domain name.

wiki.almeida.dedyn.io {
	reverse_proxy 192.168.178.55:80 {
}

# Refer to the Caddy docs for more information:
# https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile

PASTE OVER THIS, BETWEEN THE ``` LINES.
Please use the preview pane to ensure it looks nice.

5. Links to relevant resources:

timelordx · June 26, 2025, 7:45am

Your Caddy instance is not able to talk to your second server192.168.178.55, port 80. Check your other server to make sure there’s nothing blocking such traffic. For example, a local firewall on that server or some ACLs preventing Caddy taking to your PHP server.

antonio66 · June 26, 2025, 8:12am

Hi, sorry I’m a noob with caddy and programming…
But site is displayed and I can move through the posts, only layout is not correct.

I assume the style-sheets and templates are not accessible. There is no firewall. "web"server is netbsd 9.3.
I’ll try to ckeck the lighttpd config ->error.log: 2025-06-22 01:16:56: (connections.c.716) invalid request-line → sending Status 400 (192.168.178.36)
I suppose something from caddy is disliked by netbsd/lighttpd

timelordx · June 26, 2025, 8:26am

From the server where you’re running Caddy, run this command and copy-paste the response here:

curl -v http://192.168.178.55

Can you also describe how you’re browsing that site? What does it show in your browser’s address bar?

antonio66 · June 26, 2025, 8:43am

nope, lighttpd is displaying 3x websites with module vhost. curl only sees 1x of them - the wrong one.
I’ll try to make the php-based to standard…

Y can browse it, too: https://wiki.almeida.dedyn.io . Template should be “minimous”, but it isn’t working -->like https://www.pmwiki.org/pmwiki/uploads/Skins/minimous_screenshot.jpg

timelordx · June 26, 2025, 9:00am

I can’t access it. I’m getting an HTTP 502 error, same as what you’re seeing in your error log.

Could you clarify a few things? Specifically:

What’s the vhost name configured in lighttpd?
What exact URL is showing in your browser’s address bar when you’re trying to access the site?
If the URL includes a server name, can you try resolving it and share the IP address?

You haven’t answered these questions yet, and without that info, it’s hard to troubleshoot properly. I have a couple of ideas about what might be happening, but I need those details first to help you further.

timelordx · June 26, 2025, 9:08am

OK, something’s changed since the last time I tried your wiki site. Before, I was getting an HTTP 502 error. Now, I’m seeing this content:

That’s good, it’s definitely progress since it’s no longer showing a 502.

It’s getting late for me, so I’m heading to bed now, but I’ll take another look at this when I’m up. Unless someone else helps you in the meantime!

antonio66 · June 26, 2025, 9:34am

sorry, I set php-wiki in config to “front”. locally it is displayed correctly

to1:

##
$HTTP["host"] == "(wiki\.almeida\.dedyn\.io|blog\.almeida\.dedyn\.io|beos\.almeida\.dedyn\.io)$" {
    simple-vhost.server-root    = "/var/www/servers"

## bei bedarf auszug: |mac-lc\.uk\.to|
#    simple-vhost.document-root = "/"
#    simple-vhost.default-host  ="almeida.dedyn.io"

$HTTP["host"] == "wiki.almeida.dedyn.io" {
    server.document-root="/var/www/servers/wiki.almeida.dedyn.io"
    }

to2:

to3:
CNAME

name:
wiki.almeida.dedyn.io

address:

ttl:
3568

A

name:
almeida.dedyn.io

address:
84.144.237.233

ttl:
3600

antonio66 · June 26, 2025, 1:20pm

Btw: this was an older log, where i try to setup caddy with transport fastcgi.
Now there is no error in logfile

timelordx · June 27, 2025, 6:38am

You’re exactly right.

Your wiki page is being served over HTTPS, but the HTML generated by your backend has hardcoded absolute URLs using HTTP. For example:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://wiki.almeida.dedyn.io/pub/lib/pmwiki-core.css" />
<script type="text/javascript"  src="http://wiki.almeida.dedyn.io/pub/lib/pmwiki-lib.js"></script>
<title>wiki Main/Home Page</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://wiki.almeida.dedyn.io/pub/skins/minimous/style.css" media="screen" title="style (screen)" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://wiki.almeida.dedyn.io/pub/skins/minimous/color-copper.css" media="screen" title="style (screen)" />

Browsers don’t like that .. it’s called a mixed content issue.

If you check your browser’s console, you’ll see a bunch of these warnings:

So, what can you do? The PmWiki Troubleshooting page covers this

They mention this situation specifically:

After some upgrades to website, hosting, or browser, some skin styles/colors and possibly local styles, recipes, and embedded pictures, have stopped working.

In your local configuration, if you have the variables $PubDirUrl or $FarmPubDirUrl defined with the http:// scheme, replace them with https://. On secure websites, recent browser versions do not load resources from insecure URLs.

Switching those URLs to HTTPS should solve the issue.

antonio66 · June 27, 2025, 9:43am

Great, thats the difference if a pro helps - I never suppose that simple “s” does the trick… Thx a lot works