Question

installing pgadminj4 web version ubuntu nginx

Posted on April 13, 2025
PostgreSQL
Asked by StrugglingDeveloper

I am following the tutorial https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-configure-pgadmin4-server-mode

It is outdated unfortunately and while I managed to correct the command of setup.py into python setup.py add-user --admin mymail@mail.com mypass I get an error that the pgadmin4.db has not been created. The installation process does create the sessions and the storage directories but never the database pgadmin4.db

so when it is going to read the file config_local dot py:

LOG_FILE = '/var/log/pgadmin4/pgadmin4.log'
SQLITE_PATH = '/var/lib/pgadmin4/pgadmin4.db'
SESSION_DB_PATH = '/var/lib/pgadmin4/sessions'
STORAGE_DIR = '/var/lib/pgadmin4/storage'
SERVER_MODE = True

it complains that the pgadmin4.db does not exist

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KFSys

Site Moderator

• April 14, 2025

Heya,

After installing pgAdmin and setting your configuration (like config_local.py), you must manually trigger the database initialization using python setup.py.

But first, ensure the required paths and permissions are set properly. From the pgAdmin installation directory (e.g., /usr/pgadmin4/web/ or wherever it was extracted), run:

python setup.py

This will prompt for your admin email and password and automatically create the pgadmin4.db.

Alternatively, if you already provided them using add-user, the regular setup.py call is still required to trigger the initial DB setup.

After that, confirm the database file is created:

ls -l /var/lib/pgadmin4/pgadmin4.db

Now you should be able to run python pgAdmin4.py. If you’re using a Python virtual environment, make sure you’re in it when running the above commands.

alexdo

Site Moderator

• April 14, 2025

Heya, @977ef09003a542a28c2984affdd220

You can run python setup.py from the pgAdmin install directory to initialize the DB — even if you’ve already added a user. Make sure directories in config_local.py exist and are writable.

After that, pgadmin4.db should be created and python pgAdmin4.py will work.

Let us know how it goes