Web GUI not created; /var/www/davis/public does not exist

[beinfisk]

Davis version

v5.4.2

Installation method

Bare metal / manual

PHP version (bare metal only)

8.4.21

Database

MariaDB

Reverse proxy

Caddy

Authentication method

Internal (ADMIN_LOGIN / ADMIN_PASSWORD)

Affected protocol(s)

• CalDAV
• CardDAV
• WebDAV
• Admin dashboard
• API

Client(s) exhibiting the issue

N/A; could not get to the point of setting up a client

Relevant environment variables

Unsure which are relevant. This is my entire .env.local:

APP_ENV=prod

DATABASE_DRIVER=mysql
DATABASE_URL=mysql://***:***@localhost:3306/davis?serverVersion=11.8.6-MariaDB&charset=utf8mb4
ADMIN_LOGIN=admin
ADMIN_PASSWORD=***

CALDAV_ENABLED=true
CARDDAV_ENABLED=true
WEBDAV_ENABLED=false

APP_TIMEZONE=America/Indianapolis

Steps to reproduce

1. Follow instructions under "Installation" section of readme (create database, install using composer install --no-dev, run the migration).
2. Use Example Caddy 2 configuration

Expected behaviour

Going to the TLD indicated in the Caddy configuration will allow the user to access a GUI

Actual behaviour

There is no /var/www/davis/public folder. The example Caddy configuration has nothing to point to.

Logs

[2026-05-27T22:01:15.782816+00:00] php.INFO: User Deprecated: Please install the "intl" PHP extension for best performance. {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): User Deprecated: Please install the \"intl\" PHP extension for best performance. at /home/livali/davis/vendor/symfony/framework-bundle/DependencyInjection/FrameworkExtension.php:375)"} []
[2026-05-27T22:01:15.782881+00:00] php.INFO: User Deprecated: Since symfony/var-exporter 7.3: The "Symfony\Component\VarExporter\LazyGhostTrait" trait is deprecated, use native lazy objects instead. {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): User Deprecated: Since symfony/var-exporter 7.3: The \"Symfony\\Component\\VarExporter\\LazyGhostTrait\" trait is deprecated, use native lazy objects instead. at /home/livali/davis/vendor/symfony/var-exporter/LazyGhostTrait.php:21)"} []
[2026-05-27T22:01:15.782900+00:00] php.INFO: User Deprecated: Since symfony/var-exporter 7.3: Using ProxyHelper::generateLazyGhost() is deprecated, use native lazy objects instead. {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): User Deprecated: Since symfony/var-exporter 7.3: Using ProxyHelper::generateLazyGhost() is deprecated, use native lazy objects instead. at /home/livali/davis/vendor/symfony/var-exporter/ProxyHelper.php:34)"} []
[2026-05-27T22:01:15.783486+00:00] php.ERROR: Notice: date_default_timezone_set(): Timezone ID 'America/Indianapolis' is invalid {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): Notice: date_default_timezone_set(): Timezone ID 'America/Indianapolis' is invalid at /home/livali/davis/src/Kernel.php:20)"} []
[2026-05-27T22:01:30.376234+00:00] console.CRITICAL: Error thrown while running command "doctrine:migrations:migrate". Message: "An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver" {"exception":"[object] (Doctrine\\DBAL\\Exception\\DriverException(code: 0): An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver at /home/livali/davis/vendor/doctrine/dbal/src/Driver/API/MySQL/ExceptionConverter.php:129)\n[previous exception] [object] (Doctrine\\DBAL\\Driver\\PDO\\Exception(code: 0): could not find driver at /home/livali/davis/vendor/doctrine/dbal/src/Driver/PDO/Exception.php:24)\n[previous exception] [object] (PDOException(code: 0): could not find driver at /home/livali/davis/vendor/doctrine/dbal/src/Driver/PDO/PDOConnect.php:28)","command":"doctrine:migrations:migrate","message":"An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver"} []
[2026-05-27T22:01:30.395448+00:00] console.DEBUG: Command "doctrine:migrations:migrate" exited with code "1" {"command":"doctrine:migrations:migrate","code":1} []
[2026-05-27T22:03:51.516843+00:00] php.INFO: User Deprecated: AbstractMySQLPlatform::getName() is deprecated. Identify platforms by their class. (AbstractMySQLPlatform.php:1248 called by Version20191030113307.php:22, https://github.com/doctrine/dbal/issues/4749, package doctrine/dbal) {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): User Deprecated: AbstractMySQLPlatform::getName() is deprecated. Identify platforms by their class. (AbstractMySQLPlatform.php:1248 called by Version20191030113307.php:22, https://github.com/doctrine/dbal/issues/4749, package doctrine/dbal) at /home/livali/davis/vendor/doctrine/deprecations/src/Deprecation.php:208)"} []
[2026-05-27T22:03:51.861767+00:00] php.INFO: User Deprecated: Context: trying to commit a transaction Problem: the transaction is already committed, relying on silencing is deprecated. Solution: override `AbstractMigration::isTransactional()` so that it returns false. Automate that by setting `transactional` to false in the configuration. More details at https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-migrations/en/stable/explanation/implicit-commits.html (TransactionHelper.php:20 called by DbalExecutor.php:193, https://github.com/doctrine/migrations/issues/1169, package doctrine/migrations) {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): User Deprecated: Context: trying to commit a transaction\nProblem: the transaction is already committed, relying on silencing is deprecated.\nSolution: override `AbstractMigration::isTransactional()` so that it returns false.\nAutomate that by setting `transactional` to false in the configuration.\nMore details at https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-migrations/en/stable/explanation/implicit-commits.html (TransactionHelper.php:20 called by DbalExecutor.php:193, https://github.com/doctrine/migrations/issues/1169, package doctrine/migrations) at /home/livali/davis/vendor/doctrine/deprecations/src/Deprecation.php:208)"} []
[2026-05-27T22:03:51.862004+00:00] php.INFO: User Deprecated: Nesting transactions without enabling savepoints is deprecated. Call Doctrine\DBAL\Connection::setNestTransactionsWithSavepoints(true) to enable savepoints. (Connection.php:1406 called by DbalExecutor.php:111, https://github.com/doctrine/dbal/pull/5383, package doctrine/dbal) {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): User Deprecated: Nesting transactions without enabling savepoints is deprecated.\nCall Doctrine\\DBAL\\Connection::setNestTransactionsWithSavepoints(true) to enable savepoints. (Connection.php:1406 called by DbalExecutor.php:111, https://github.com/doctrine/dbal/pull/5383, package doctrine/dbal) at /home/livali/davis/vendor/doctrine/deprecations/src/Deprecation.php:208)"} []

Additional context

I'm unsure which parts of the log are relevant, so I added one of each message I saw. Some were repeated many times.

I followed the instructions in the readme to the best of my ability, but I do not know much about PHP or composer so it is very possible I missed something obvious. I had tried first to install using Podman Quadlets, based on an example I found in a different issue thread, but that did not work, so this was my second attempt.

I thought perhaps Davis didn't have adequate permissions to create the /var/www/davis folder, so I created it manually and chowned it to my own user, then ran composer install --no-dev in the Davis folder again on the off chance that that would do anything. (It did not.)

[tchapi]

Hi

• the public folder is directly committed in this repository, so if you don't have it, then somehow you didn't clone the repository correctly or deleted the folder at some point. What path did you clone in?
• based on the logs, your setup seem to miss a SQL driver at least (so you cannot connect to a database), and your timezone doesn't exist

[beinfisk]

I cloned the repository to my home folder, and there is indeed a public folder in there. I did point the root in my Caddyfile to that folder just now after reading this, and it gave me a 403 error, for what that's worth. I have also updated my timezone to the correct one. I did install php-mysql at some point in the troubleshooting, so it's possible those logs are from before I did so. Would that solve the SQL driver problem? Do I need to do something in particular after updating the .env.local file?

[tchapi]

Which page are you trying to reach? What logs do you have now?

[beinfisk]

The web root is now /home/(my-name)/davis/public and there are no new log entries since yesterday.

[tchapi]

Sounds like the 403 is coming from your reverse proxy setup, not Davis. Have you checked the logs there? And those of PHP too?

[beinfisk]

I ended up giving up and trying a different software. Thank you for your help nevertheless! I suspect much if not all of the problem is me/my setup so I'm closing the issue.