"no repositories found": cgit + gitolite + nginx -- git/ssh access OK, web access OK, no errors, but no repos found/displayed?

[PGNet Dev]

I installed a server with,

	nginx -v
		nginx version: nginx/1.17.3

	uwsgi --version
		2.0.18

	cgit/cgit.cgi --version
		CGit v1.2.1 | https://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/

		Compiled in features:
		[-] Lua scripting
		[+] Linux sendfile() usage

	cd gitolite
	git log | head
		commit ef9ab68412cbee93c24eb920dbabbb6daa8b1c08
		Author: Sitaram Chamarty <sitaramc at gmail.com>
		Date:   Tue Jun 11 11:53:30 2019 +0530

Users/groups are setup as

	id wwwrun
		uid=30(wwwrun) gid=8(www) groups=8(www),475(gitolite)
	id wwwrun-cgit
		uid=474(wwwrun-cgit) gid=8(www) groups=8(www),475(gitolite)
	id gitolite
		uid=475(gitolite) gid=475(gitolite) groups=475(gitolite)

where, nginx/webserver user:group are

	wwwrun:www


gitolite initial repo's are installed

	ls -al /data/git/gitolite/repositories/
		total 16K
		drwxr-x--- 4 gitolite gitolite 4.0K Aug 12 20:05 ./
		drwxr-x--- 9 gitolite gitolite 4.0K Aug 12 20:06 ../
		drwxr-x--- 8 gitolite gitolite 4.0K Aug 12 20:05 gitolite-admin.git/
		drwxr-x--- 7 gitolite gitolite 4.0K Aug 12 20:05 testing.git/

	cat /data/git/gitolite/projects.list
		testing.git

from desktop, I can checkout from gitolite directly

	git clone git01:gitolite-admin
		Cloning into 'gitolite-admin'...
		remote: Enumerating objects: 6, done.
		remote: Counting objects: 100% (6/6), done.
		remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
		remote: Total 6 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
		Receiving objects: 100% (6/6), done.

	cat conf/gitolite.conf
		repo gitolite-admin
		    RW+     =   pgnd

		repo testing
		    RW+     =   @all

i can mod, push, etc,

	git clone git01:testing
	cd testing
	touch git-daemon-export-ok
	echo "test1 description" > description
	git add .
	git commit -m 'initial testing commit' -a
	git push origin master

, and changes are correctly reflected @ gitolite server's repo tree.

for cgit web access, uwsgi's cgit config is

	/etc/uwsgi/apps-available/cgit.ini
		[uwsgi]
		master = true
		cheap = true
		idle = 600
		manage-script-name = true
		plugins = cgi,logfile
		cgi = /srv/www/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi

in browser, @ cgit site page, I see the  CGit UI

	https://i.imgur.com/2zhl7ax.png

but there's no repo content, it simply displays

	No repositories found


	generated by cgit v1.2.1 (git 2.18.1) at 2019-08-13 17:44:46 +0000

iiuc, this is a perm problem.

atm, I see no related errors in

	nginx logs
	uwsgi logs
	systemd journal

what's a likely cause of the "no repositories found"?