Installer Step 3 fails: "MySQL server has gone away"

[PiWebswiss]

Could you please update the Docker installation guide? It looks like it uses an older Docker version. When I run your commands, I get a lot of error messages, which is discouraging especially for a security application. It’s frustrating to have to “reverse engineer” the installation just to get it working.

Right now, I’m stuck on the following error:

Database connection failed with error: Unable to connect to MySQL server! Error: MySQL server has gone away.

I’m using the official YAML file with a self-signed SSL certificate (this is only a lab environment that I need to finish). The folder is located next to the .env file and is called ssl. No SSL certificates are provided.

To make this easy to reproduce, I’m attaching my docker-compose.yml (and any related YAML files) in the appendix/annex so you can run the same setup.

The TeamPass web installer’s Step 3 (/install/install-steps/run.step3.php) is failing in the PHP code path loaded via include.php and tp.functions.php, even though:

• MariaDB is healthy
• the credentials are correct
• DB connectivity works from inside the container
• the installer file matches the official 3.1.6.3 version

So the issue is essentially:
Installer Step 3 fails with MySQL server has gone away even when DB connectivity works and official files are unchanged.

---

How to reproduce it

1. Use the official compose + env (from the TeamPass repo) with:

   • DB_NAME=teampass, DB_USER=teampass, DB_PASSWORD=root
   • INSTALL_MODE=manual
   • VIRTUAL_HOST=teampass.labo.local

2. Start the containers:

docker compose -f docker-compose.with-proxy.yml up -d

2.1. Quick Permission Fix Inside the Docker Container

docker exec teampass-app chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

It forces all files in the TeamPass web directory to be owned by the web server user, so the app can write everywhere.

It’s a bit of a “bazooka” solution.

3. Open the installer and fill in:

• https://teampass.labo.local
• /var/www/html/sk
• DB host: db, DB name: teampass, login: teampass, password: root, port: 3306, prefix: teampass_

4. On Step 3 (DB check), it fails with:

Database connection failed with error: Unable to connect to MySQL server! Error: MySQL server has gone away

Even if I POST the same values manually:

docker exec teampass-app sh -lc 'curl -s -X POST \
  -d "teampassAbsolutePath=/var/www/html" \
  -d "teampassUrl=https://teampass.labo.local" \
  -d "teampassSecurePath=/var/www/html/sk" \
  -d "dbHost=db" \
  -d "dbName=teampass" \
  -d "dbLogin=teampass" \
  -d "dbPw=root" \
  -d "dbPort=3306" \
  -d "tablePrefix=teampass_" \
  http://127.0.0.1/install/install-steps/run.step3.php'

…I still get the same error, even though DB connectivity works.

I also removed Let’s Encrypt / acme-companion and configured nginx-proxy to use self-signed local certificates mounted from ./ssl.

Annex: docker-compose.with-proxy.yml+ .env

Do you have any suggestions? This is a lab exam project that I need to build, and right now I can’t even get past the setup page.

docker-compose.with-proxy.yml

env.txt