i found a way around this.
1:
after reading this post i realised i had to create the first user myself. so, i created a user with username “master”.
2:
i verified that the user existed:
root@yuno:~# sudo php8.2 /var/www/pixelfed/artisan user:show 1
User ID: 1
Username: master
Email: master@mydomain.com
Joined: 5 minutes ago
Status Count: 0
3:
i tried running the admin command once more, still to no avail:
root@yuno:~# sudo php8.2 /var/www/pixelfed/artisan user:admin 1
Could not find any user with that username or id.
4:
i tried using the username, instead of the id, with success:
root@yuno:~# sudo php8.2 /var/www/pixelfed/artisan user:admin master
Found username: master
Add admin privileges to this user? (yes/no) [no]:
> yes
Successfully changed permissions!