Anthias installs and runs behind an HTTP proxy

A player whose only way out is an HTTP proxy can now be installed and kept running. The installer asks for the proxy and sets it up everywhere Anthias needs it, so you no longer configure apt, Docker and each container by hand.

August 5, 2026

If your network only lets a player out through an HTTP proxy, Anthias 2026.08.0 can now be installed and run there. The installer asks for the proxy and sets it up for you. If your player reaches the internet directly, leave that question blank and nothing changes.

Before, someone running Anthias on a PC behind a proxy had to set it by hand for the installer, apt, Docker, the host agent and the containers, one at a time, and a hand-written bypass list could cut the viewer off from the server and blank the screen.

Setting a proxy

Run the installer as usual. It now asks for a proxy URL, for example http://proxy.example.com:3128, and then for any hosts on your network that should skip the proxy. The one URL is used for both HTTP and HTTPS. Leave the first question blank if the player has direct internet access.

If you export HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and NO_PROXY (upper or lower case) before you run the installer, the questions start with those values. On a host that doesn't have whiptail yet, the questions can't appear, so export the variables first.

The installer asks every time it runs, and it doesn't fill in the proxy you gave it last time. When you run it again to upgrade, enter the proxy again or export it first. If you leave the question blank, the installer takes the proxy back out.

Where the proxy applies

• The installer's own downloads and the Ansible steps it runs.
• apt, through /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00anthias-proxy, so your own apt runs on the player stay proxied afterward.
• The Docker daemon, so it can pull the Anthias images. This adds a systemd drop-in at /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/http-proxy.conf and restarts Docker.
• The anthias-host-agent service.
• The server, viewer and Celery containers, including the web pages the viewer shows on screen.

Anthias keeps the values in /etc/anthias/proxy.env. A proxy URL can carry a username and password, so the file is readable only by root and the Anthias user's group. The installer rewrites it on every run, and it always adds localhost, 127.0.0.1, ::1, anthias-server and redis to the bypass list, so traffic between the Anthias containers never goes through your proxy.

To change the proxy, run the installer again with the new value. To remove it, run the installer with the question left blank and nothing exported: it deletes proxy.env, the apt setting and the Docker drop-in.

The balena images don't use the installer, and this release doesn't cover them.