Current Install Procedure?

[tylerburnsveg]

I attempted to follow the installation instructions provided in Issue #11:
#11

I'm trying to perform a fresh installation of primal-server on Ubuntu using the latest main branch, but I've run into problems reproducing the installation steps described in Issue #11. I'm hoping to determine whether there are additional undocumented prerequisites, or whether the installation procedure has changed.

Environment

• Ubuntu
• Repository: current main
• Commit:

  983ce26
  

• Nix versions tested:

  nix (Nix) 2.34.7
  nix (Nix) 2.28.5
  

  (Nix 2.28.5 was obtained using the same approach described in Issue This Primal Server installation Failed. #11:
  nix shell github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-25.05#nix.)

Repository state

Repository was cloned recursively:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/PrimalHQ/primal-server.git
cd primal-server

Confirmed that I am on the latest main:

git status
git log --oneline -1

Output:

On branch main
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.

983ce26 Add s3_backup option to purge_media_ to optionally skip backup before delete

Issue #11 instructions followed

I attempted to follow the instructions provided by @pritk in Issue #11.

From the repository root:

nix shell github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-25.05#nix -c \
    nix develop -c sh -c \
    '$setup_postgres "$PWD/var/pg" "$PWD/var/pgdata"'

Result

The command fails with:

make: 'libbech32.so' is up to date.
+ PGDIR=<repository>/var/pg
+ echo <repository>/var/pg
+ mkdir -p <repository>/var/pg
+ PGDATA=<repository>/var/pgdata
+ echo <repository>/var/pgdata
+ mkdir -p <repository>/var/pgdata
+ cd <repository>/var/pg
++ nix-store --query --deriver /nix/store/7ysvcrz2jydib0y6wkd9siix87q0pfcc-postgresql-15.16
+ drv=/nix/store/1r0n04c934cw5kl54jjrdj49hazcsjv5-postgresql-15.16.drv
+ export SHELL=/nix/store/5p86w1968gs5abgqkj9wv5gccxpy253c-bash-interactive-5.3p3/bin/bash
+ SHELL=/nix/store/5p86w1968gs5abgqkj9wv5gccxpy253c-bash-interactive-5.3p3/bin/bash
+ nix develop /nix/store/1r0n04c934cw5kl54jjrdj49hazcsjv5-postgresql-15.16.drv --unpack
error: path '/nix/store/1r0n04c934cw5kl54jjrdj49hazcsjv5-postgresql-15.16.drv' is required, but there is no substituter that can build it

Additional information

I verified that the helper scripts are present in the development shell:

nix develop -c sh -c 'echo "$setup_postgres"'
nix develop -c sh -c 'echo "$setup_pg_primal"'
nix develop -c sh -c 'echo "$start_postgres"'

which produced paths such as:

/nix/store/...-setup_postgres.sh
/nix/store/...-setup_pg_primal.sh
/nix/store/...-start_postgres.sh

I also verified that PostgreSQL binaries are available within the development environment:

which initdb
which pg_ctl
which psql
psql --version

Output:

/nix/store/.../bin/initdb
/nix/store/.../bin/pg_ctl
/nix/store/.../bin/psql
psql (PostgreSQL) 15.16

Questions

1. Is the installation procedure described in Issue This Primal Server installation Failed. #11 still expected to work on the current main branch?
2. Are there additional prerequisites or Nix configuration requirements that are not currently documented?
3. Is there a specific Nix version that is currently supported for fresh installations?
4. Has the PostgreSQL setup procedure changed since Issue This Primal Server installation Failed. #11 was posted?
5. Would it be possible to update the README (or add a dedicated installation guide) with a validated sequence of commands for a clean installation?

I'm not having much success in getting this installed.

I'd be happy to test any proposed fixes or updated instructions and report back with the results.

Thanks for your work on this project.