Tom AI created a summary of my issue and asked that I post it in demox.... Problem: The SparkBox dashboard is reachable via HTTP on port 8443, but any HTTPS request fails. Firefox on Linux reports SSLERRORRXRECORDTOOLONG. iOS Safari reports "can't make a secure connection" with no cert prompt. Dashboard - Settings - Montitoring - Send alerts to this device... Notification setup says open over HTTPS, but HTTPS never works. What I checked: - docker ps shows the dashboard healthy and publishing 8443-8443. - sudo grep SBDASHBOARDBIND /opt/sparkbox/.env returns nothing. - sudo docker exec sb-dashboard ls -la /app/certs/ → "No such file or directory." - sudo docker exec sb-dashboard find /app -name ".pem" -o -name ".crt" -o -name ".key" finds only Portainer and Budget module certs — no dashboard cert. - sudo docker exec sb-dashboard env | grep -iE "CERT|SSL|TLS" returns nothing. Conclusion: The dashboard container has no TLS cert and no cert-related environment variables, so it serves plain HTTP on the HTTPS port. This appears to be a missing bootstrap step — the cert generation never ran. Restarting the dashboard does not create the cert folder. Request: Confirm whether dashboard cert generation is supposed to happen on first boot, and if so, why it's skipped here. A fix that forces cert generation (or properly wraps the dashboard in TLS) would resolve this. …(reply truncated — full chat sent to Tom)
6 replies
Chris wrote:
Good news — nothing is broken, and this is not a skipped setup step. The SparkBox dashboard is a plain-HTTP page on your LAN (port 8443) on purpose, so no TLS cert is generated for it — that is why the cert folder and cert env vars come up empty. HTTPS gets added by the reverse proxy the box ships, nginx-proxy-manager (NPM). Point a domain at it (or use the custom-domain wizard) and the dashboard is served over HTTPS from there. The "open over HTTPS" note on "Send alerts to this device" is a browser rule: browsers only deliver push notifications on a secure (HTTPS) page. So that toggle stays off until you view the dashboard over HTTPS through NPM or a domain — expected, not a fault.
Wolf21 wrote:
you said "HTTPS gets added by the reverse proxy the box ships, nginx-proxy-manager (NPM). Point a domain at it (or use the custom-domain wizard) and the dashboard is served over HTTPS from there." Can you provide some instructions on how to do that? I looked in the guides and didn't see it. I logged into nginx and there isn't any 'wizard' that I can find. Where can I find the wizard and will it solve the initial problem? nginx is totally empty, so not sure if I'm supposed to create something or edit something, or ???
Chris wrote:
The wizard isn't inside Nginx at all — it lives in the SparkBox dashboard, under Settings → Custom Domains. NPM looking empty is expected; that wizard is what fills it in for you. The one thing it needs first is a domain name you own (or a free DuckDNS name) pointed at your home IP, with ports 80 and 443 forwarded on your router to the box — that's how the free SSL certificate gets issued. From there it walks you through serving your dashboard over HTTPS, which is what unlocks the push-notification toggle. No domain yet? The dashboard just stays plain HTTP on your LAN, which is normal.
Wolf21 wrote:
Well, the dashboard instructions in Dashboard - Settings - Custom Domains says: "Set SBDOMAIN in Settings above before configuring custom domains. " However, where??? it says in 'Settings above" but there isn't anything listed to set SBDOMAINS. In Dashboard - Settings - Remote Access, there is a "Custom Domain" box that says I need to set SBDOMAIN, but again, where?? I think your instructions and guides need to be updated - or I'm really clueless???
Chris wrote:
You're right that it isn't listed — and that's on us, not you. The Domain field only shows up in Settings after a domain has already been saved, so on a box that's never had one there's literally nothing to find. I've flagged it to Tom so the field and that wording get fixed. For now you can set it from a terminal on the box: sudo sparkbox set-env SBDOMAIN yourdomain.com (swap in your real domain, or a free DuckDNS name). Then reload the Settings page and the Custom Domains wizard in Network will stop asking for it.
Chris wrote:
Checking in on the original report: "dashboard is reachable via HTTP on port 8443, but any HTTPS request fails." Did the guidance get you unstuck, or are you still seeing the same browser error? If it remains, please reply with the exact page or step where it now stops and a redacted screenshot if that is easier—no credentials or tokens. With that, I can compare the current behavior to the report and keep the next step focused on the HTTPS issue itself. — checking in