openstreetmap / openstreetmap/mod_tile

"out of the box" configuration no longer works.

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Description

Previously on Debian 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 installation "just worked" with an out-of-the-box configuration. That's one of the reasons that https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/manually-building-a-tile-server-debian-11/ and https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/manually-building-a-tile-server-ubuntu-22-04-lts/ were much shorter than previous versions. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a regression.

https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=bullseye&arch=any&mode=path&searchon=contents&keywords=renderd.conf shows that the renderd.conf for mod_tile was present in Debian 11 but https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=bookworm&arch=any&mode=path&searchon=contents&keywords=renderd.conf shows that it is missing in Debian 12. This doesn't seem to be a Debian packaging issue but instead a change here.

The replacement config seems to be in "/usr/share/doc/renderd/examples/renderd-example-map.conf", but that has a bunch of other things in it that won't work for 99% of people like port numbers and a hardcoded path "/var/www/example-map/".

https://github.com/openstreetmap/mod_tile/blob/master/README.rst is now completely muddled. It mixes up installing from the OS's repository (which "just works" on Debian 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 but fails on Debian 12), building from scratch (which also "just works" on Ubuntu 22.04 at least) and configuration (essentially unnecessary on Debian 11 and Ubuntu 22.04, some but not all sections required on Debian 12). The parts of https://github.com/openstreetmap/mod_tile/blob/master/README.rst that need to be manually executed refer to files that are not actually installed (at least not by the "apt install libapache2-mod-tile renderd" suggested earlier).

As a stopgap, I'll try put something together for Debian 12 that tries to simplify the manual tinkering required as much as possible (for the Debian 12 version of https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/manually-building-a-tile-server-ubuntu-22-04-lts/ ), but would it be possible to revert to a "working out of the box" configuration in time for the next LTS release? Essentially, restore the vanilla /etc/apache2/conf-available/renderd.conf from https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=bullseye&arch=any&mode=path&searchon=contents&keywords=renderd.conf without "example" settings that won't work for most people, and undo any other similar changes.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading README.rst and comparing Debian 11's installed renderd.conf with /usr/share/doc/renderd/examples/renderd-example-map.conf on Debian 12. Check which configuration files the suggested apt installation actually installs. Done means Debian 12 has a generic working configuration and README.rst clearly separates repository installation, source builds, and required manual configuration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
apache, debian
Domain
devops, documentation
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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