I hosted searxng on portainer and receive PermissionError and no python application found error

Log:

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/etc/searxng/settings.yml'

unable to load app 0 (mountpoint='') (callable not found or import error)

*** no app loaded. going in full dynamic mode ***

--- no python application found, check your startup logs for errors ---

[pid: 19|app: -1|req: -1/1] 127.0.0.1 () {28 vars in 330 bytes} [Sat May 17 05:06:00 2025] HEAD /healthz => generated 21 bytes in 0 msecs (HTTP/1.1 500) 3 headers in 102 bytes (0 switches on core 0)

I tried removing cap_drop (as instructed on https://github.com/searxng/searxng-docker/issues/115) but no luck

version: "3.7"

services:
  # caddy:
  #   container_name: caddy
  #   image: docker.io/library/caddy:2-alpine
  #   network_mode: host
  #   restart: unless-stopped
  #   volumes:
  #     - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
  #     - caddy-data:/data:rw
  #     - caddy-config:/config:rw
  #   environment:
  #     # - SEARXNG_HOSTNAME=${SEARXNG_HOSTNAME:-http://localhost/}
  #     - SEARXNG_TLS=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL:-internal}
  #   cap_drop:
  #     - ALL
  #   cap_add:
  #     - NET_BIND_SERVICE
  #   logging:
  #     driver: "json-file"
  #     options:
  #       max-size: "1m"
  #       max-file: "1"

  redis:
    container_name: redis
    image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:8-alpine
    command: valkey-server --save 30 1 --loglevel warning
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - searxng
    volumes:
      - valkey-data2:/data
    # cap_drop:
    #   - ALL
    cap_add:
      - SETGID
      - SETUID
      - DAC_OVERRIDE
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "1m"
        max-file: "1"

  searxng:
    container_name: searxng
    image: docker.io/searxng/searxng:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - searxng
    ports:
      # - "127.0.0.1:8080:8080"
      - "20054:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./searxng:/etc/searxng:rw
    environment:
      # - SEARXNG_BASE_URL=https://${SEARXNG_HOSTNAME:-localhost}/
      - SEARXNG_BASE_URL="http://mydomain:20054/"
      - UWSGI_WORKERS=${SEARXNG_UWSGI_WORKERS:-4}
      - UWSGI_THREADS=${SEARXNG_UWSGI_THREADS:-4}
    # cap_drop:
    #   - ALL
    cap_add:
      - CHOWN
      - SETGID
      - SETUID
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "1m"
        max-file: "1"

networks:
  searxng:

volumes:
  # caddy-data:
  # caddy-config:
  valkey-data2:

thx a lot!

  • irmadlad@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Question: What is redis and valkey giving you in this instance? I took a look at my notes and I’ve never invoked redis. Just curious. School me. This is what I spin up:

    spoiler
    services:
      searxng:
        image: searxng/searxng:latest
        container_name: searxng
        ports:
          - "8989:8080"
        volumes:
          - /path/to/searxng/data:/etc/searxng
        environment:
          - SEARXNG_BASE_URL=
          - SEARXNG_INSTANCE_NAME=
          - SEARXNG_CONTACT_INFO=
          - SEARXNG_LANGUAGE=en-US
          - SEARXNG_AUTOCOMPLETE=duckduckgo
          - SEARXNG_THEME=simple
          - SEARXNG_OUTGOING_METHOD=default
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_METRICS=true
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_CAPTCHA=false
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_INFINITE_SCROLL=true
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PIWIK_ANALYTICS=false
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_ADVANCED_SEARCH=true
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PRIVATE_RESULTS=true
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_TORIFICATION=false
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_HTTPS_EVERYWHERE=true
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PROXY=true
          - SEARXNG_ENABLE_PLUGINS=true
        restart: unless-stopped
    
    • Override4414@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 days ago

      Thank you so much, sorry it’s taken so long to reply. I still haven’t had the time, but I will take a closer look when I get the chance.

      • irmadlad@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        No worries mate. I was just curious. I have never incorporated both those in a searxng stack and was wondering what they brought to the stack.

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    16 days ago

    I’ve never used portainer sorry.

    If you see the published port for a very short time then something might be crashing when it tries to start.

    docker logs searxng from cli might be revealing

    edit: I do have a searxng container and my compose.yml is very similar to yours. I guess we both copied the example. The only difference I can see is that you still have the env variables for UWSGI_WORKERS and UWSGI_THREADS. I just set both of those to 4 instead of using the SEARXNG_ env vars

    • Override4414@lemmy.worldOP
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      16 days ago

      Listen on [::]:8080 doesn’t give 20054, could this be the reason?

      Listen on [::]:8080
      
      [uWSGI] getting INI configuration from /etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini
      
      open("/etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini"): Permission denied [core/io.c line 525]
      
      SearXNG version 2025.5.16+1b08324
      
      Use existing /etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini
      
      Use existing /etc/searxng/settings.yml
      
      Listen on [::]:8080
      
      [uWSGI] getting INI configuration from /etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini
      
      open("/etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini"): Permission denied [core/io.c line 525]
      
      SearXNG version 2025.5.16+1b08324
      
      Use existing /etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini
      
      Use existing /etc/searxng/settings.yml
      
      Listen on [::]:8080
      
      [uWSGI] getting INI configuration from /etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini
      
      open("/etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini"): Permission denied [core/io.c line 525]
      
      • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee
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        16 days ago

        open(“/etc/searxng/uwsgi.ini”): Permission denied [core/io.c line 525]

        I think here is your problem. Make sure that file exists and is readable from inside of the docker.

          • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee
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            16 days ago

            try opening a shell with ’ docker exec -it searxng sh" and see if you can cat the file from inside docker, if yes then I’m not sure of a solution ,if no then the problem is with permissions on your filesystem outside of docker where you have " - ./data/searxng:/etc/searxng" You need to go to ./data/searxng and correct the permissions so they can be read inside the docker.

              • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee
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                16 days ago

                Yep Probably you need to change ownership and/or permissions of the files outside of docker.

                I dont want to give the wrong suggestion from memory so hopefully thats enough info to get you going in the direction of a fix. Basically see what user id owns the files inside of docker, make it the same uid outside of docker in the folder you are bind mounting.

                • Override4414@lemmy.worldOP
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                  16 days ago
                  SN_FR_@SN:~$ sudo docker exec -it searxng sh -c "id"
                  uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
                  

                  container is running as root, so there shouldn’t be any permission error?

                  u are right its not writable, the files are read only, that is wierd

                  I’m opening those files with windows but the user permission inside docker shouldn’t cause that problem.

                  I’m scratching my head nw

  • ohshit604@sh.itjust.works
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    16 days ago

    have you checked the directory & file permissions with ls -la /Your/SearXNG/WorkingDir ?

    The error in your log is telling you that the container does not have permission to that directory/file, you can essentially bypass this with sudo chmod 777 /Your/SearXNG/WorkingDir/* and sudo chown 1000:1000 /Your/SearXNG/WorkingDir/*

    However, if you’re looking for security best practices this is not advisable but if all you care about is that it works it should be fine.

    • Override4414@lemmy.worldOP
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      16 days ago

      I think I do have permission to the directory?

      ~ # ls -la /etc/searxng
      total 72
      drwx------    1 1026     100             42 May 17 04:49 .
      drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           494 May 17 05:24 ..
      ----------    1 root     root         68667 May 17 04:49 settings.yml
      ----------    1 root     root          1223 May 17 04:49 uwsgi.ini
      

      ___

      • ohshit604@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        Taking a look at your docker-compose.yml I see this volume mount:

        volumes: 
        - /volume1/SN/Docker/searxng-stack/searxng:/etc/searxng:rw
        

        Whereas /volume1/SN/Docker/searxng-stack/searxng is the directory on your system docker is attempting to use to store the files inside the container from /etc/searxng.

        Example of a volume mount that’ll likely work better for you;

        volumes:
        - /home/YourUser/docker/config/searxng:/etc/searxng:rw
        

        The tilde (~) acts as your current users home directory (aka: /home/YourUser) not owned by root and where docker persistent volumes should be stored.

        Edit: I feel like I was wrong here, given that your run sudo in docker compose up -d the tilde will likely not work here and instead point to the /root directory instead. I’ve updated the above to reflect the appropriate directory for your volume mount.

        After making the change over to that directory and configuring SearXNG how you like re-create your docker container with sudo docker compose up -d —force-recreate

        Apologies for the poor formatting, typing this on mobile.

        Edit:

        Note: if you want to expose the port do not add the 127.0.0.1 like how I have in my docker-compose.yml.

        Edit 2: Corrected some things…

        • Override4414@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 days ago

          Thank you so much, sorry it’s taken so long to reply. I still haven’t had the time, but I will take a closer look when I get the chance.