Issue with Prosody when setting up a Jitsi server (returning a nil value).

Question

I followed the tutorial and seem to have a problem with Prosody generating the error below (hostname removed for security reasons):

Oct 24 19:06:17 <my hostname> prosody[2325]: A problem occurred while reading the config file /etc/prosody/prosody.cfg.lua

Oct 24 19:06:17 <my hostname> prosody[2325]: Error: /etc/prosody/conf.d/<my hostname>.cfg.lua:98: attempt to call global ‘Virtualhost’ (a nil value)

Oct 24 19:06:17 <my hostname> prosody[2325]: More help on configuring Prosody can be found at https://prosody.im/doc/configure

Oct 24 19:06:17 <my hostname> prosody[2325]: Good luck!

I have checked both the cfg.lua files in both conf.d and conf.avail subfolders in case of a miss-spelling of the host name, and they checked out OK. When I go to use the Jitsi server, I’m not greeted with a log-in prompt when I want to start a meeting. I also am unable to create a user in the console using the line command:

sudo prosodyctl register user my_domain password

Again I get an error as per the log entries above.

I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to server configuration, so any advice on how I can fix this would be of great help please. Many thanks.

The droplet I’ve set up is using Ubuntu 20.04.1LTS, and fully updated.

Bobby · Answer

Hello,

The error you’re experiencing suggests that there might be a syntax error or a misconfiguration in your Prosody configuration files.

Here are a few steps you can take to further troubleshoot the issue:

Double Check the Configuration Syntax: Ensure that there is no typographical error in your config file /etc/prosody/conf.d/<my hostname>.cfg.lua. This file should contain the following block:

VirtualHost "<my hostname>"
    authentication = "internal_plain"

Remember to replace “<my hostname>” with your actual hostname.

Ensure Correct File Permissions: The Prosody service must have read access to its configuration files. You can ensure this with the following commands:

sudo chown -R prosody: /etc/prosody
sudo chmod -R 644 /etc/prosody

Check Prosody Version: Some functions in Prosody, like VirtualHost, may not be available in older versions. Make sure you are running a recent version of Prosody. You can check the version with the command: