The requested apache plugin does not appear to be installed

I ran this command:

sudo certbot --apache

It produced this output:

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
The requested apache plugin does not appear to be installed

This is the output of the logs:
2019-06-12 10:09:35,941:DEBUG:certbot.main:certbot version: 0.35.1
2019-06-12 10:09:35,942:DEBUG:certbot.main:Arguments: [’–apache’]
2019-06-12 10:09:35,942:DEBUG:certbot.main:Discovered plugins: PluginsRegistry(PluginEntryPoint#dns-cloudflare,PluginEntryPoint#dns-digitalocean,PluginEntryPoint#manual,PluginEntryPoint#null,PluginEntryPoint#standalone,PluginEntryPoint#webroot)
2019-06-12 10:09:35,950:DEBUG:certbot.log:Root logging level set at 20
2019-06-12 10:09:35,950:INFO:certbot.log:Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
2019-06-12 10:09:35,951:DEBUG:certbot.plugins.selection:Requested authenticator apache and installer apache
2019-06-12 10:09:35,951:DEBUG:certbot.plugins.selection:No candidate plugin
2019-06-12 10:09:35,951:DEBUG:certbot.plugins.selection:Selected authenticator None and installer None

My web server is (include version): Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu)

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Ubuntu 14.04

The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you’re using Certbot): certbot 0.35.1

Any ideas? I’ve tried everything I could find on any forums.

1 Like

Hi @igorop,

Welcome to the community forum! Please review the certbot installation instructions at https://certbot.eff.org/lets-encrypt/ubuntutrusty-apache.

Let me know if this fixes the issue.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache 
1 Like

I’ve tried it. No change.

What does “sudo which certbot” show? How was Certbot installed? Is the Apache plugin installed?

What did the apt-get install command do?

@igorop

Following along with @mnordhoff, I was able to successfully install certbot and the apache plugin in an Ubuntu Trusty (14.04) container.

root@b4a9ab65bfd2:/# certbot  plugins
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* apache
Description: Apache Web Server plugin
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IInstaller, IPlugin
Entry point: apache = certbot_apache.entrypoint:ENTRYPOINT

* standalone
Description: Spin up a temporary webserver
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: standalone = certbot.plugins.standalone:Authenticator

* webroot
Description: Place files in webroot directory
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: webroot = certbot.plugins.webroot:Authenticator
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

root@b4a9ab65bfd2:/# certbot --version
certbot 0.31.0

root@b4a9ab65bfd2:/# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.6 LTS
Release:        14.04
Codename:       trusty
root@b4a9ab65bfd2:/# 

So the plugin is not installed:

root@ubuntu:~# certbot  plugins
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* dns-cloudflare
Description: Obtain certificates using a DNS TXT record (if you are using
Cloudflare for DNS).
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: dns-cloudflare =
certbot_dns_cloudflare.dns_cloudflare:Authenticator

* dns-digitalocean
Description: Obtain certs using a DNS TXT record (if you are using DigitalOcean
for DNS).
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: dns-digitalocean =
certbot_dns_digitalocean.dns_digitalocean:Authenticator

* standalone
Description: Spin up a temporary webserver
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: standalone = certbot.plugins.standalone:Authenticator

* webroot
Description: Place files in webroot directory
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: webroot = certbot.plugins.webroot:Authenticator
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

when I try to install it it says it at the latest version:

root@ubuntu:~# sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
python-certbot-apache is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 276 not upgraded.

I am on certbot 0.35.1

root@ubuntu:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
Release:	14.04
Codename:	trusty

Can you show us the output of which certbot and sudo which certbot please?

/usr/local/bin/certbot

Exact same issue here

apt-get install python-certbot-apache

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
python-certbot-apache is already the newest version (0.31.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+1).

lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

Here’s what I noticed on an Ubuntu 19.04 machine that has been upgraded through several Ubuntu releases. At one point in time certbot had been installed in /usr/local/bin/certbot.

$ which certbot
/usr/local/bin/certbot

$ sudo apt install python-certbot-apache -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  apache2 apache2-data apache2-utils certbot python-pyicu python3-acme python3-augeas python3-certbot python3-certbot-apache python3-configargparse python3-configobj
  python3-future python3-josepy python3-mock python3-parsedatetime python3-pbr python3-requests-toolbelt python3-zope.component python3-zope.event python3-zope.hookable
  python3-zope.interface
Suggested packages:
  apache2-doc apache2-suexec-pristine | apache2-suexec-custom python3-certbot-nginx python-certbot-doc python-acme-doc python-certbot-apache-doc python-configobj-doc
  python-future-doc python-mock-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  apache2 apache2-data apache2-utils certbot python-certbot-apache python-pyicu python3-acme python3-augeas python3-certbot python3-certbot-apache python3-configargparse
  python3-configobj python3-future python3-josepy python3-mock python3-parsedatetime python3-pbr python3-requests-toolbelt python3-zope.component python3-zope.event
  python3-zope.hookable python3-zope.interface
0 upgraded, 22 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,656 kB of archives.
After this operation, 9,128 kB of additional disk space will be used.
....

$ certbot plugins
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* standalone
Description: Spin up a temporary webserver
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: standalone = certbot.plugins.standalone:Authenticator

* webroot
Description: Place files in webroot directory
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: webroot = certbot.plugins.webroot:Authenticator
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I then sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/certbot, restarted my shell, and ran the following. This showed me exactly what I expected. Can both of you try that?

$ which certbot
/usr/bin/certbot

$ certbot plugins
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* apache
Description: Apache Web Server plugin
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IInstaller, IPlugin
Entry point: apache = certbot_apache.entrypoint:ENTRYPOINT

* standalone
Description: Spin up a temporary webserver
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: standalone = certbot.plugins.standalone:Authenticator

* webroot
Description: Place files in webroot directory
Interfaces: IAuthenticator, IPlugin
Entry point: webroot = certbot.plugins.webroot:Authenticator
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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