Fix Django superuser creation failing with ImproperlyConfigured error

[Copilot]

✍️ Description

Django superuser creation in healthchecks installation fails with django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting AUTH_USER_MODEL, but settings are not configured.

Root cause: Python executed directly without Django settings initialization.

Fix: Use manage.py shell to properly load Django settings before executing superuser creation code.

-python <<EOF
+$STD python manage.py shell <<EOF
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
 User = get_user_model()
 if not User.objects.filter(email="${ADMIN_EMAIL}").exists():
     User.objects.create_superuser("${ADMIN_EMAIL}", "${ADMIN_EMAIL}", "${ADMIN_PASSWORD}")
 EOF

This aligns with the pattern used in netbox-install.sh and other Django-based scripts in the repository.

🔗 Related PR / Issue

Link: #4927

✅ Prerequisites (X in brackets)

• Self-review completed – Code follows project standards.
• Tested thoroughly – Changes work as expected.
• No security risks – No hardcoded secrets, unnecessary privilege escalations, or permission issues.

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🛠️ Type of Change (X in brackets)

• 🐞 Bug fix – Resolves an issue without breaking functionality.
• ✨ New feature – Adds new, non-breaking functionality.
• 💥 Breaking change – Alters existing functionality in a way that may require updates.
• 🆕 New script – A fully functional and tested script or script set.
• 🌍 Website update – Changes to website-related JSON files or metadata.
• 🔧 Refactoring / Code Cleanup – Improves readability or maintainability without changing functionality.
• 📝 Documentation update – Changes to README, AppName.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, or other docs.

Original prompt

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This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Healthchecks: django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured on creation of superuser</issue_title>
<issue_description>### ✅ Have you read and understood the above guidelines?

yes

🔎 Did you run the script with verbose mode enabled?

Yes, verbose mode was enabled and the output is included below

📜 What is the name of the script you are using?

Healthchecks

📂 What was the exact command used to execute the script?

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/main/ct/healthchecks.sh)"

⚙️ What settings are you using?

• Default Settings
• Advanced Settings

🖥️ Which Linux distribution are you using?

Debian 13

📈 Which Proxmox version are you on?

pve-manager/8.4.1/2a5fa54a8503f96d (running kernel: 6.8.12-10-pve)

📝 Provide a clear and concise description of the issue.

Creation of superuser for healthchecks fails on fresh install

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting AUTH_USER_MODEL, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

[ERROR] in line 92: exit code 0: while executing command python <<EOF
from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
User = get_user_model()
if not User.objects.filter(email="${ADMIN_EMAIL}").exists():
    User.objects.create_superuser("${ADMIN_EMAIL}", "${ADMIN_EMAIL}", "${ADMIN_PASSWORD}")
EOF

🔄 Steps to reproduce the issue.

Fresh install using bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/main/ct/healthchecks.sh)"

❌ Paste the full error output (if available).

fixing permissions on existing directory /var/lib/postgresql/16/main ... ok
creating subdirectories ... ok
selecting dynamic shared memory implementation ... posix
selecting default max_connections ... 100
selecting default shared_buffers ... 128MB
selecting default time zone ... Europe/Berlin
creating configuration files ... ok
running bootstrap script ... ok
performing post-bootstrap initialization ... ok
syncing data to disk ... ok
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.41-12) ...
✔️ Setup PostgreSQL 16
⏳ Setting up PostgreSQL DatabaseCREATE ROLE
CREATE DATABASE
ALTER ROLE
ALTER ROLE
ALTER ROLE
✔️ Set up PostgreSQL Database
✔️ Set up Keys
✔️ Deployed: healthchecks (3.13)
⏳ Installing Healthchecks (venv)Requirement already satisfied: pip in ./venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages (25.1.1)
Collecting pip
Downloading pip-25.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.7 kB)
Collecting wheel
Downloading wheel-0.45.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.3 kB)
Downloading pip-25.3-py3-none-any.whl (1.8 MB)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1.8/1.8 MB 6.4 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Downloading wheel-0.45.1-py3-none-any.whl (72 kB)
Installing collected packages: wheel, pip
Attempting uninstall: pip
Found existing installation: pip 25.1.1
Uninstalling pip-25.1.1:
Successfully uninstalled pip-25.1.1
Successfully installed pip-25.3 wheel-0.45.1
Collecting gunicorn
Downloading gunicorn-23.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.4 kB)
Collecting aiosmtpd==1.4.6 (from -r requirements.txt (line 1))
Downloading aiosmtpd-1.4.6-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.6 kB)
Collecting cronsim==2.7 (from -r requirements.txt (line 2))
Downloading cronsim-2.7-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting Django==5.2.8 (from -r requirements.txt (line 3))
Downloading django-5.2.8-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.1 kB)
Collecting django-compressor==4.6 (from -r requirements.txt (line 4))
Downloading django_compressor-4.6.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.2 kB)
Collecting django-stubs-ext==5.2.7 (from -r requirements.txt (line 5))
Downloading django_stubs_ext-5.2.7-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.6 kB)
Collecting fido2==2.0.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 6))
Downloading fido2-2.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (7.1 kB)
Collecting oncalendar==1.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 7))
Downloading oncalendar-1.1.tar.gz (8.7 kB)
Installing build dependencies ... done
Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Collecting psycopg==3.2.13 (from -r requirements.txt (line 8))
Downloading psycopg-3.2.13-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.5 kB)
Collecting pycurl==7.45.7 (from -r requirements.txt (line 9))
Downloading pycurl-7.45.7-cp313-cp313-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (4.5 kB)
Collecting pydantic==2.12.5 (from -r requirements.txt (line 10))
Downloading pydantic-2.12.5-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (90 kB)
Collecting PyJWT==2.10.1 (from PyJWT[crypto]==2.10.1->-r requirements.txt (line 11))
Downloading PyJWT-2.10.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.0 kB)
Collecting pyotp==2.9.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 12))
Downloading pyotp-2.9.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (9.8 kB)
Collecting segno==1.6.6 (from ...

• Fixes Healthchecks: django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured on creation of superuser #9553

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