Owncloud
References
Tools:
- DAVDroid — paid sync app on Android
- Outlook CalDav Synchronizer — Sync Outlook with Google, SOGo, Horde or any other CalDAV server
- Also on GitHub.
- CardDAV-Sync — Another CardDAV sync app for Android (free / paid).
Alternatives:
- Nextcloud, here a complete setup example (with backup, etc).
Install Owncloud Server
Install packages
From Owncloud page, on Ubuntu:
wget -nv https://download.owncloud.org/download/repositories/stable/xUbuntu_14.04/Release.key -O Release.key
apt-key add - < Release.key
sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.owncloud.org/download/repositories/stable/xUbuntu_14.04/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list"
apt-get update
apt-get install owncloud
On Debian 8:
wget -nv https://download.owncloud.org/download/repositories/9.0/Debian_8.0/Release.key -O Release.key
apt-key add - < Release.key
sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.owncloud.org/download/repositories/9.0/Debian_8.0/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list"
apt-get update
apt-get install owncloud
Note:
- Installing owncloud-files was not enough. Not sure what are the missing dependencies.
Optional:
- Install php5-imagick to get image preview (but beware of recent vulnerabilities. See Linux security).
Configuration
☒ | TODO: Consider installing Redis [1] as caching server. |
When installed, Owncloud is available at URL http://localhost/owncloud/. This is configured in apache2 file /etc/apache2/conf-available/owncloud.conf:
Alias /owncloud "/var/www/owncloud/"
<Directory "/var/www/owncloud">
Options +FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
<IfModule mod_dav.c>
Dav off
</IfModule>
SetEnv HOME /var/www/owncloud
SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/owncloud
</Directory>
<Directory "/var/www/owncloud/data/">
# just in case if .htaccess gets disabled
Require all denied
</Directory>
Note that owncloud files /var/www/owncloud are outside the regular http root (i.e. /var/www/html).
Before completing the installation, we first setup a virtual access to allow accessing Owncloud via HTTPS. This is also recommended for remote installs. For this create the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/owncloud.immie.org.conf, with content:
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName owncloud.immie.org
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
# Owncloud configuration: see conf-available/owncloud.conf
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-owncloud.immie.org.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-owncloud.immie.org.key
# ...
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>
We only list the most relevant settings. Basically we only setup the server name and give the SSL certificates. For now, we leave File:/owncloud as a global alias.
Enable the site:
a2ensite owncloud.immie.org
service apache2 reload
We also need to create a new MySQL user and database for owncloud. This way owncloud will not use MySQL root access.
MYSQL_HISTFILE=/dev/null mysql --user=root -p mysql # You'll need MySQL root user password
CREATE DATABASE owncloud_immie;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON owncloud_immie.* TO owncloud_immie@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '********************';
quit
Of course, replace ********************
with your own password.
Proceed to the URL https://owncloud.immie.org/owncloud:
- Enter a new admin account user name and password.
- Click on Storage & database
- Keep data folder as is (
/var/www/owncloud/data
). Make sure it is outside web server root. - Select MySQL / MariaDB.
- Enter MySQL user name, password, database name. Keep
localhost
for the DB server name. - Click Finish setup.
Owncloud also requires running a cron job at regular interval [2]:
crontab -u www-data -e
# Add the line:
#
# */15 * * * * php -f /var/www/owncloud/cron.php
In particular this cron job may help fixing file locking issue (error File is locked
[3]).
Upgrade from 9 to 10 on debian 8.0 Jessie
We mostly follow the procedure in OwnCloud manual [4]. First change repository to v10:
echo "deb http://download.owncloud.org/download/repositories/10.0/Debian_8.0/ /" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list
apt update
In principle we should first disable 3rd-party app. We don't, just hoping for the best...
# Get a list of installed app...
cd /var/www/owncloud
sudo -u www-data php occ app:list
Enable maintenance mode and disable web server:
sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --on
service apache2 stop
Backup the old configuration (we must at least keep config/config.php):
mv /var/www/owncloud /var/www/owncloud-old-9.0.11
tar cvzf /root/backup/var_www_owncloud-9.0.11.tgz /var/www/owncloud-old-9.0.11
mysqldump -uowncloud_immie -p owncloud_immie | gzip > /root/backup/owncloud_immie-9.0.11.sql.gz
Upgrade:
# Upgrade package
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/owncloud
# Restore the config and run the upgrade
cd /var/www/owncloud
cp /var/www/owncloud-old-9.0.11/config/config.php /var/www/owncloud/config
# ... AND RESTORE THE DATA!!!
cp /var/www/owncloud-old-9.0.11/data /var/www/owncloud/
sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade
# We have some issues with 3rd-party app, disable and resume:
sudo -u www-data php occ app:disable documents
sudo -u www-data php occ app:disable news
sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade
Everything is fine, restart the server:
sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --off
sudo service apache2 start
- Troubleshoot
- After upgrade, all clients failed sync because of file not found.
- Did a *hard reset* of all clients:
- Delete all clients data and metadata.
- On server, delete all files (had some
file locked
issue). - Reinstall the clients.
- Import back the files.
- Whoopsie... Turned out we forgot to restore the files from previous install. Should have done
cp /var/www/owncloud-old-9.0.11/data /var/www/owncloud/
before upgrading.
Issues
Download failed
- Suddenly on Owncloud client, any file downloaded says "Download failed".
- Solution: https://central.owncloud.org/t/download-failed-unknown-error/47935/5
- Add
SetEnv ap_trust_cgilike_cl
to /var/www/owncloud/.htaccess.
Install Owncloud Client
From the repository:
sudo apt install owncloud-client
On Bionic Beaver, there is a missing dependency. Package libgnome-keyring0 must be installed as well:
sudo apt install owncloud-client libgnome-keyring0
However version 2.1.1+dfsg-1ubuntu1.1
in Ubuntu Xenial is broken (fails to reconnect after suspend), and version in Zesty has too many dependencies. We rebuild from the sources:
apt source -t zesty owncloud-client
cd owncloud-client-2.2.4+dfsg/
# We must disable a test (check_vio_ext) because it gives a segfault:
#
# Start 18: check_vio_ext
# 18/36 Test #18: check_vio_ext ....................***Exception: SegFault 0.31 sec
# [==========] Running 4 test(s).
# [ RUN ] check_readdir_shorttree
# Test failed with exception: Segmentation fault
# C:/tmp/csync_test/alibaba
# [ FAILED ] check_readdir_shorttree
# ================== Tearing down!
#
# [ RUN ] check_readdir_with_content
#
vi csync/tests/CMakeLists.txt # COMMENT OUT the line as shown below
# ...
# add_cmocka_test(check_vio_file_stat vio_tests/check_vio_file_stat.c ${TEST_TARGET_LIBRARIES})
# add_cmocka_test(check_vio vio_tests/check_vio.c ${TEST_TARGET_LIBRARIES})
# # add_cmocka_test(check_vio_ext vio_tests/check_vio_ext.c ${TEST_TARGET_LIBRARIES})
# ...
sudo apt build-dep owncloud-client # WRITE DOWN the list of packages!
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
sudo dpkg -i owncloud-client_2.2.4+dfsg-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb owncloud-client-l10n_2.2.4+dfsg-2ubuntu2_all.deb libowncloudsync0_2.2.4+dfsg-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -f
sudo apt remove owncloud-client-cmd owncloud-client-data owncloud-client-doc
sudo apt remove automoc ... # Remove builddeps (175MB!) - Same list as installed by build-dep
top
Maintenance or Upgrade
When upgrading with apt-get dist-upgrade
, we get the message:
Leaving server in maintenance mode. Please run occ upgrade manually.
See https://doc.owncloud.org/server/9.0/admin_manual/maintenance/upgrade.html
ownCloud or one of the apps require upgrade - only a limited number of commands are available
You may use your browser or the occ upgrade command to do the upgrade
Maintenance mode enabled
To upgrade:
cd /var/www/owncloud
sudo -u www-data php occ upgrade
sudo -u www-data php occ status
sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --off
sudo -u www-data php occ status # Check that server is no longer in maintenance mode
Hardening
See Linux Security.
CalDav applications (contacts / calendar)
Contacts and Calendar are applications that must be installed via the admin account.
To synchronize with other applications, you often require the DAV URL on Owncloud:
- Open your Owncloud account, and go to Contacts application.
- In the bottom left corner, click Settings
- Then click on the chain link icon labelled show URL, and copy the URL.
- The URL is something like
https://owncloud.immie.org/owncloud/remote.php/dav/addressbooks/users/xyz/default/
.
Sync with Thunderbird
Reference: Thunderbird - Synchronize Addressbook
To synchronize with Thunderbird, first install the following extensions:
- SOGO Connector
- Lightning (calendar extension)
Then, in TB,
- click on Address Book to show up the address book window;
- click on File → New → Remote Address Book;
- enter a name;
- enter your DAV URL; and
- select other options as desired (for instance sync period).
- Multiple calendars
- TB cannot import multiple calendars from different owncloud accounts. It can only import from a single account.
- To import calendars from different own different owncloud accounts, first share these accounts in Owncloud, then import the shared calendar from your account.
Sync with Android
I use the (non-free) application DAVDroid.
To ease setup of the DAVDroid account with Owncloud [5], I configure the well-known URL in Apache. This require that the server responds to addresses
To setup these addresses, add to /etc/apache2/sites-available/owncloud.immie.org.conf:
Redirect 301 /.well-known/carddav /owncloud/remote.php/dav
Redirect 301 /.well-known/caldav /owncloud/remote.php/dav
Now, in DAVDroid, setup the account with:
- Server:
https://owncloud.immie.org
- Owncloud username
- Owncloud password
- Troubleshoot
- Samsung Alpha, getting message
S Planner has stopped
when adding new entry to sync'ed calendar.
- Go to Application Manager ← all, and force stop + clear cache + 'clear data for the following applications: Calendar, Calendar storage, DAVdroid, S Planner (2x), Samsung Calendar SyncAdapter.
Sync with Outlook
Use Outlook CalDav Synchronizer to synchronize Outlook contacts and calendars with Owncloud.
- In Outlook, go to People pane, and create a new contact folder, for instance named
Owncloud
. - Open menu CalDav Synchronizer → Synchronization profiles.
- Click Add new profile. For Owncloud, we enter the following settings:
- Select profile type Generic CalDAV/CardDAV.
- Enter DAV Url, replace
XYZ
with user login:
- Enter username and password.
- Select Synchronize items immediately after change.
- Troubleshoot
hexadecimal value 0x1E, is an invalid character
tickets 517
- Fixed by browsing calendar on Owncloud web interface, narrowing down offending month, then week, then day. Delete all entries on that day.