Workaround for Nginx Proxy Manager: 'certbot: error: unrecognized arguments' even though I ran '/app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins'

[githubaff0]

Proxmox Virtual Environment 8.3.1
Nginx Proxy Manager v2.12.1 © 2024 jc21.com / Theme by Tabler / Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts.

I just installed NGINX Proxy Manager LXC and ran into an issue with certbot: error: unrecognized arguments even though I installed the plugins. I wanted to share the info I found and a potential workaround for anyone else running into the same issue.

• I installed Nginx Proxy Manager LXC via helper script https://community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE/scripts?id=nginxproxymanager
• I ran /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins in the nginxproxymanager LXC console to install the plugins
• In the Nginx Proxy Manager web GUI, I tried to add a Let's Encrypt Certificate using DNS Challenge for the DuckDNS provider
• I got an error back: certbot: error: unrecognized arguments: --dns-duckdns-credentials ... --dns-duckdns-no-txt-restore ...

As noted above, I did run /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins and one of the plugins had an error, but the duckdns plugin seemed to install fine. I reran the install-certbot-plugins script again just in case, but still got the certbot error when trying to create the SSL cert.

The issue is something about python dist-packages vs site-packages as reported in this comment in a Nginx Proxy Manager issue: NginxProxyManager/nginx-proxy-manager#4191 (comment)

• 3 people in that thread that are having the same issue are using ProxmoxVE script to install Nginx Proxy Manager LXC.
• /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins installs the plugins using a certbot Python virtualenv, e.g. '/opt/certbot/bin/activate && pip install --no-cache-dir certbot-dns-duckdns~=1.0 && /opt/certbot/bin/deactivate' so they get installed in '/opt/certbot/lib/python3.11/site-packages/'
• However, when I try to create a cert from the Nginx Proxy Manager Web GUI, it seems the certbot command doesn't see the plugins installed in site-packages (because its not using the virtualenv?).
• The people in the thread said to use the MultiDns plugin instead, but I wasn't sure how to use MultiDns with DuckDNS.

The workaround for me was to install the duckdns certbot plugin without the python virtualenv used by /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins, i.e. I ran pip install --no-cache-dir certbot-dns-duckdns~=1.0 in the nginxproxymanager LXC console, which installed the plugin in /usr/local/lib/python3.11/dist-packages/.

After doing that, I was able to create my SSL cert via the Nginx Proxy Manager Web GUI successfully.

I don't think that's the proper solution for the issue, but I wanted to post the workaround to help anyone else.

I'm out of my depth with Python, but there's an explanation here about Debian using dist-packages vs site-packages: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9387928/whats-the-difference-between-dist-packages-and-site-packages.

I'm not sure if this a bug in NginxProxyManager or if this is due to some subtle difference between NginxProxyManager under Docker vs NginxProxyManager under ProxmoxVE/LXC or if its a one-off issue for me because of how I installed things because I'm a newbie to Proxmox and the helper scripts.

[cmayr123]

Awesome. I had the same issue and your command helped. Thanks!

[githubaff0]

Thanks - your feedback confirms it was worth the effort to post the info.

[metal-x11]

Can't you just specify to install the duckdns plugin exclusively rather than installing all plugins?

If in root folder:
/app/scripts/./install-certbot-plugins duckdns

If in /app/scripts folder:
./install-certbot-plugins duckdns

[metal-x11]

After testing this on my own, I found I am running into the same issue!
certbot: error: unrecognized arguments: --dns-duckdns-credentials ... --dns-duckdns-no-txt-restore ...

[githubaff0]

The problem wasn't about installing 1 plugin vs all of them.

It was with how the /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins script installs the plugins. Running the /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins script for a single plugin still puts the plugin in the certbot site-packages directory where they don't get seen when the certbot command is run from the GUI.

The workaround is to run the raw pip install command directly, i.e. so it runs without the python virtualenv 'wrapper' commands that the /app/scripts/install-certbot-plugins script was using around the pip install command. This will end up installing the plugin in the (global?) dist-packages directory.

A better solution might be to figure out how to get the certbot command to recognize the 'site-packages' directory when the certbot command is run from the GUI, but that will need someone smarter than me to figure out.