Instructions on the openproject site are apparently (badly) out of date about openproject-deploy HOT 1 OPEN

Hi @MonsieurCellophane , thanks for your report.

the container has no postgres DBMS installed (I supplied one form the outside, creating role and database)

The compose setup has a separate postgresql service that is created by default (https://github.com/opf/openproject-deploy/blob/stable/14/compose/docker-compose.yml#L30-L41). If you provide an external DB, you can disable this service: https://www.openproject.org/docs/installation-and-operations/configuration/#disabling-services-in-the-docker-compose-file

an additional migration step was required (prbly because the external DBMS I supplied is postgres16)

Could you elaborate on what you mean by that? We also support PostgreSQL 16, so there should not be additional work required to make it run.

the container listens on port 8080 (the docs say 80)

You might have mistaken the all-in-one docker container with the docker-compose setup (this repository). The documentation clearly states it is running on port 8080: https://www.openproject.org/docs/installation-and-operations/installation/docker/#quick-start

there is no user admin (or otherwise), all records in the users tables have no login field. I added a user through psql AND the ruby console (in the container)

The seeder services will migrate and seed a new installation if it can access it. I assume there has been an issue with your external database preventing that. It would be helpful to see the logs of the seeder service for this (https://github.com/opf/openproject-deploy/blob/stable/14/compose/docker-compose.yml#L111-L116)

After the instance is up and running a number of functions (notably create prj from template/copy porject) appear not to be working (they post a spinner that never terminates, project is not copied/created).

This would hint at the worker service not running correctly (performing jobs in the background). I believe this is all connected to your external database. Without further logs, there will not be a lot we can help you with.
https://github.com/opf/openproject-deploy/blob/stable/14/compose/docker-compose.yml#L91-L99

from openproject-deploy.