Another Debian 13 question

Hey all,
I'm so confused.. I installed a fresh Debian 13 + ISPConfig 3.3.1 this last thursday.. all went well, I just had to disable the 000-default vhost, as that caused problems with creating SSL certs for the first site.. but then it all works..

Installing another server today, same thing.. Debian 13.. ISPConfig (stable/3.3.1 specific).. but now it doesn't work..

I get HTTP error 500 when I try to enter the ISPConfig GUI web. this is the contents of the /var/log/apache2/error.log;

Code:

[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/T9 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:669 ]: Signal received. Gracefully shutting down... (send signal 2 more time(s) to force shutdown)
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1242 ]: Received command to shutdown gracefully. Waiting until all clients have disconnected...
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/T9 Ser/Server.h:895 ]: [ServerThr.1] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/T9 Ser/Server.h:552 ]: [ServerThr.1] Shutdown finished
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/Tc Ser/Server.h:895 ]: [ServerThr.2] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/Tc Ser/Server.h:552 ]: [ServerThr.2] Shutdown finished
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/Td Ser/Server.h:895 ]: [ServerThr.3] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/Tf Ser/Server.h:895 ]: [ServerThr.4] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2523 4353/Td Ser/Server.h:552 ]: [ServerThr.3] Shutdown finished
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2524 4353/Tf Ser/Server.h:552 ]: [ServerThr.4] Shutdown finished
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2524 4353/Th Ser/Server.h:895 ]: [ApiServer] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2525 4353/Th Ser/Server.h:552 ]: [ApiServer] Shutdown finished
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.2960 4388/T1 age/Wat/WatchdogMain.cpp:1367 ]: Starting Passenger watchdog...
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.3205 4394/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1337 ]: Starting Passenger core...
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.3206 4394/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:255 ]: Passenger core running in multi-application mode.
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.3265 4394/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1012 ]: Passenger core online, PID 4394
[Sun Feb 01 13:54:26.363033 2026] [ssl:warn] [pid 4380:tid 4380] AH01909: localhost:8080:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Sun Feb 01 13:54:26.363783 2026] [ssl:warn] [pid 4380:tid 4380] AH01909: localhost:8081:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Sun Feb 01 13:54:26.368867 2026] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 4380:tid 4380] AH00163: Apache/2.4.66 (Debian) mod_fcgid/2.3.9 Phusion_Passenger/6.0.26 OpenSSL/3.5.4 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Sun Feb 01 13:54:26.368884 2026] [core:notice] [pid 4380:tid 4380] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2'
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.4468 4353/T1 age/Cor/TelemetryCollector.h:531 ]: Message from Phusion: End time can not be before or equal to begin time
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:26.4978 4353/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1322 ]: Passenger core shutdown finished
[ N 2026-02-01 13:54:28.5397 4394/T6 age/Cor/SecurityUpdateChecker.h:519 ]: Security update check: no update found (next check in 24 hours)
suexec policy violation: see suexec log for more details
[Sun Feb 01 13:54:39.231752 2026] [fcgid:warn] [pid 4424:tid 4424] (104)Connection reset by peer: [client 192.168.1.99:60651] mod_fcgid: error reading data from FastCGI server
[Sun Feb 01 13:54:39.231777 2026] [core:error] [pid 4424:tid 4424] [client 192.168.1.99:60651] End of script output before headers: index.php
[Sun Feb 01 13:55:02.530431 2026] [autoindex:error] [pid 4420:tid 4420] [client ::1:56916] AH01276: Cannot serve directory /var/www/html/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,standard_index.html) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive
[Sun Feb 01 13:58:52.832473 2026] [autoindex:error] [pid 4420:tid 4420] [client 192.168.100.20:37652] AH01276: Cannot serve directory /var/www/html/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,standard_index.html) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive
[Sun Feb 01 13:58:53.107392 2026] [autoindex:error] [pid 4420:tid 4420] [client 192.168.100.20:37652] AH01276: Cannot serve directory /var/www/html/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,standard_index.html) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive
[Sun Feb 01 14:00:02.838823 2026] [autoindex:error] [pid 4421:tid 4421] [client ::1:36788] AH01276: Cannot serve directory /var/www/html/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,standard_index.html) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive
[Sun Feb 01 14:05:03.137500 2026] [autoindex:error] [pid 4602:tid 4602] [client ::1:40156] AH01276: Cannot serve directory /var/www/html/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm,standard_index.html) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive

Nothing otherwise in any ISPConfig logs under /var/log/ispconfig


Just got thinking.. I wonder if I can add another vhost on the server I created last thursday, or if the acme will try and add the check file to the "first" vhost.. I gotta try that, I'll get back on that.. Because that was the problem before I disabled 000-default.. it tried adding or checking for the acme file on 000-default instead of on the vhost I try to enable Let's Encrypt on..

I reinstalled the server 5 or 6 times.. over the last two weeks, I've had so much grief with this - its incredible.. it just won't work.. but then I disabled the 000-default and it worked.. so I gotta check if I can add another vhost, or if the problem still exists..

This has never happened before, I don't understand why all these problems now..

 

Just found an "error" of some sort.. when I created the new site on this whc009 server, then one I created last Thursday.. I get this in the "/var/log/ispconfig/cron.log" file;

Code:

Sun Feb 1 15:11:01 EET 2026 PHP Warning:  Undefined variable $include_file in /usr/local/ispconfig/server/plugins-available/apache2_plugin.inc.php on line 3109

Update..
The new site got Let's Encrypt without any problems, so it doesn't seem to get messed up, like when I had 000-default vhost enabled..

Lets just hope that this doesn't interfere with the first site/domain I added.. but really, I love ISPConfig and it has worked so well over the years.. so I hope and think that it shouldn't be any problem now that it works on the whc009 server..

Its just the newest server that I've struggled with for so long.. I've tried Debian 12 and different ISPConfig versions, I've had problems with the install script not working properly, troubles during the install, troubles after the install.. just all sorts of problems.. some are with Debian 12, some with Debian 13.. just impossible to figure out exactly what combination creates which problem..

But today I've reinstalled the server twice with Debian 13 and one time using ISPConfig stable, and once downloading specifically 3.3.1 version.. same result with the HTTP error 500 page after installation of ISPConfig..

 

More or less, exactly the following, following your Debian 12 perfect server guide, but "adapted" to Debian 13. This is also the exact same procedure for both the Thursday server and the "today" server...

Code:

hostnamectl set-hostname *****
nano /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.1.1       *****

hostname
getent hosts *****

apt update
apt upgrade
reboot

apt -y install mariadb-server mariadb-client curl wget gnupg2 lsb-release locate

mysql

CREATE USER 'ispconfiguser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '***';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'ispconfiguser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

Comment the following row
#bind-address           = 127.0.0.1


mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/
nano /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/limits.conf

Paste into file;
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=infinity

mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service.d/
nano /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service.d/limits.conf

Paste into file;
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=infinity

systemctl daemon-reexec
systemctl restart mariadb

apt -y install apache2 apache2-utils php php-fpm php-common php-cli php-cgi php-gd php-mysql php-curl php-intl php-pspell php-sqlite3 php-tidy php-xmlrpc php-xsl php-zip php-mbstring php-soap php-opcache php-apcu php-imagick imagemagick memcached php-memcached php-pear libapache2-mod-fcgid apache2-suexec-pristine libapache2-mod-passenger

a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif
a2enconf php8.4-fpm
a2enmod suexec rewrite ssl include cgi headers alias

nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/httpoxy.conf

Paste into file;
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    RequestHeader unset Proxy early
</IfModule>

a2enconf httpoxy
systemctl restart apache2

curl https://get.acme.sh | sh -s
ln -s /root/.acme.sh/acme.sh /usr/local/bin/acme.sh
acme.sh --set-default-ca --server letsencrypt

cd /tmp
wget http://www.ispconfig.org/downloads/ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz
tar xfz ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz
cd ispconfig3_install/install/
php -q install.php

 

If you getting 500 on panel on debian 13 it could be a php permission issue, that I had:

chattr -i /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/ispconfig/.php-fcgi-starter
chmod 755 /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/ispconfig/.php-fcgi-starter

and your panel will start working

and start using autoinstaller that ispconfig now use. old guides are old.
use this to install ispconfig on debian 13 (with system default php installation will fail, so you have to use sury which will be handled by autoinstaller). You have to set ip/hostname (if you didnt via debian installer), double check resolveconf is working and you ready to go, no need to install apache/mysql/php
wget -O - https://get.ispconfig.org | sh -s -- --use-php=8.4

 

dont forget about --use-php=8.4 without it installer abort complaining that package is missing.

 

You are right, its default:
root@ispconfig5:~# umask
0002
every instance that I install return same thing, and I'm more than sure I did not tweak that, I only updated hosts, updated network settings, installed systemd-resolved and then autoinstall.

 

thx for the tip, my new install with ispconfig on debian 13 finished with an error 500.
fyi : on the same server it works nice with debian 12. And with the same host provider it works on a VPS with debian 13 ...

 

I did the exact same way for debian 12 and debian 13, using the auto install from your tutorial

 

I did a su -
pastebin.com/EiHdu8va