fix(templates): the terminal was not the whole of that refusal

[aaldersondev]

What happened

v0.19.2 shipped a diagnosis saying Missing configuration means the install container had a terminal, and telling the operator to update their node.

An installation then ran on a node already carrying that fix — daemon 0.19.2, commit a9faf43, TERM unset inside the container — and its first attempt refused with exactly that message. The second downloaded all 6.87 GB and the server installed.

So the message sent somebody to check a version that was already right. That is the worst kind of diagnosis: precise, confident, and pointing away from the fix.

What was actually measured, and what was assumed

Measured, and it stands: a terminal fails every time — seven out of seven with one, three out of three without, interleaved so neither time nor a Steam outage explains it. A warm-up +quit before the real call does not help, and no redirection inside the script escapes it. Tty: false stays.

Assumed, and wrong: that a cause found first was the only one. With no terminal at all, a cold SteamCMD still refuses its first call now and then — twice in the runs watched, once on the node above.

What changes

Only what the script says when it gives up:

SteamCMD logged in and then refused the app configuration,
three times, without downloading anything. Two things do that:

  - A terminal on the install container. The panel stopped
    giving it one in Hopper 0.19.2, and against an older node
    no number of attempts gets past it. Check that first.

  - A cold SteamCMD refusing its first call. That one the next
    attempt usually gets through, which is what these three
    were for. Reinstall in a few minutes.

The comment above the retry loop and docs/templates.md carry the same correction, and the daemon's own docblock no longer claims that line decides whether Steam installs at all — it takes down a wall, and the retry handles what is left standing.

The retry that carried the installation through was already there. This is what it was for.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code