Logged In: YES 
user_id=416927

Putting

EMAIL_SIGNATURE_POSITION = 'bottom'
INSTANCE_NAME = 'Roundup issue tracker'

into my instance_config.py solves the problem,
so it seems that importing localconfig did not
work. Where do I have to place this file? Putting
it into the same directory as instance_config.py
did not work, as a

try:
    from localconfig import *
except ImportError:
    localconfig = None
print localconfig

shows - localconfig is None.

Anyway, this is a different problem, and most
likely a user error.

After removing the try/except around import dbinit
(as suggested on the roundup list) reveals the real
problem:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./roundup-admin", line 30, in ?
    sys.exit(tool.main())
  File "roundup/admin.py", line 987, in main
    ret = self.run_command(args)
  File "roundup/admin.py", line 904, in run_command
    instance = roundup.instance.open(self.instance_home)
  File "./roundup/instance.py", line 47, in open
    return imp.load_package(modname, instance_home)
  File "../unstable/tool-issues/__init__.py", line 22, in ?
    from dbinit import *
  File "../unstable/tool-issues/dbinit.py", line 35, in ?
    class IssueClass(roundupdb.IssueClass):
  File "../unstable/tool-issues/dbinit.py", line 38, in IssueClass
    INSTANCE_NAME = instance_config.INSTANCE_NAME
AttributeError: '_roundup_instance_1.instance_config' module has no attribute 'INSTANCE_NAME'