!!!!!!! NOTE: !!!!!!!
Please don't take anything I say here too seriously.
The only reason I have to report this reeeeealy bad experience
is that I think you guys have an AMAZING product (I've tried v1) and I really want you guys to succeed!

Here is my experience so far...

• Created a new droplet on Digital Ocean with ubuntu 22.04
• The docs say I should follow the instructions at the end, so I tried to
• Started the server without issues but then "coder login " got me confused
• First question: do I do that from the server or my machine?
  • Looked for a CLI, found it inside administration/automation, plus...
  • The page says "We recommend automating Coder deployments through the CLI."
  • I'm assuming I don't need that to use coder (if I'm a dev)
  • So I should I'll try running login running that command in the server via SSH
• Second question: but what URL is that?
  • which URL? I didn't pick one!
  • Ok, maybe Coder will pick it up automatically so I won't try the server's IP so I don't have to reconfigure it
• Configured a new subdomain pointing to the coder server
• Tried to login using the new domain and got a cryptic message (for one who doesn't know Coder's login flow)

  build info: unexpected status code 521: unexpected non-JSON response ""
  	Error: no response body
  unexpected non-JSON response "".
  Run 'coder login --help' for usage.
  

• Ok, let's try the IP then...

  Failed to check server "https://161.35.116.193" for first user, is the URL correct and is coder accessible from your browser? 
  Error - has initial user: do: Get "https://161.35.116.193/api/v2/users/first": dial tcp 161.35.116.193:443: connect: connection refused
  Run 'coder login --help' for usage.
  

• I see there is a "connection refused" on port 443
  • I have no firewall setup yet
• Maybe it isn't running?
  • journalctl -u coder.service -b shows no message (btw, why do you ask users to run this after script completion?)
  • systemctl says it is active
• Coder must be listening to the wrong port then, where is its configuration?
  • Next step from docs says I should go to Quick Start
    
  • I decided to check there and it is another installation instruction using docker. There's in the "Installation" section and another (which looks way nicer) in the Quickstart
  • That makes me think: did I follow the right instructions? Maybe the whole "Installation" section is deprecated
• I decided to go Rambo and do it myself, no manuals, let's find the configs!
• systemctl status shows:
  
  • That's gotta be it! /home/coder/.config/coderv2
• There I found /home/coder/.config/coderv2 and the content is http://127.0.0.1:3000 (AHA!)
• Stopped Coder, updated the file with https://sub.domain.com (let's use 80 instead of 3000), Started coder again
• Trying to login again using the domain and got the "connection refused" error again
  • Oh... it has to be port 443!
• Went to updated it again and, to my surprise, http://127.0.0.1:3000 was back!
• Checked the docs again going straight to configuration section which states:

  Coder server's primary configuration is done via environment variables
  

  • Ok, my bad. I'm not Rambo after all, should have checked
• Let's check how to configure the URL

  CODER_ACCESS_URL is required if you are not using the tunnel. Set this to the external URL that users and workspaces use to connect to Coder (e.g. https://coder.example.com/). This should not be localhost.

  • Wait, "This should not be localhost" ? Why is the default 127.0.0.1 then?
  • Maybe because the default is to use a tunnel? But that's the first time I'm hearing about it
  • Let's check the value of CODER_ACCESS_URL... no value set
  • Let's set it then...
• Getting info about the variables with coder server --help shows two *_URL variables:

    --access-url string                            External URL to access your deployment.
                                              This must be accessible by all
                                              provisioned workspaces.
                                              Consumes $CODER_ACCESS_URL
    --url string            URL to a deployment.
                            Consumes $CODER_URL
  

  • Couldn't find any reference to $CODER_URL in the docs so let's go with $CODER_ACCESS_URL
  • Aaaand this too:

       --global-config coder   Path to the global coder config directory.
                            Consumes $CODER_CONFIG_DIR (default
                            "/root/.config/coderv2")
  

  • Now I'm REALLY confused!
  • But let's go looking because I REEEEALLY wanna test coder out!
• Found another config file by chance at /etc/coder.d/coder.env which has the variable I want \o/
• Set it to my domain, making sure I'm using httpS and restarted Coder
• Still no answer on :443 and content of url file is still http://127.0.0.1:3000
• So, just 'cause I had nothing to loose, I try coder login http://127.0.0.1:3000
• And Coder nicely asks...
  

YES!!!! I stopped to write this issue and I Goshh I really hope I don't have to come back here hahahaha

⚠ Do not edit this section. It is required for GitHub issue linking.

• Team: @coder/docs
• Content Source: docs/install/install.sh.md