In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to install Flarum, a free and open-source forum software that is designed to be fast, free, and simple. We will be installing it on Alpine Linux, a minimalistic Linux distribution that is known for its lightweight and secure architecture.
Before we start with the installation process, make sure that your system meets the following requirements:
Before we proceed with installing Flarum, we need to update our system packages to the latest versions available. To do this, open a terminal window and run the following command:
sudo apk update && sudo apk upgrade
Next, we need to install some additional packages that Flarum requires to function properly. To do this, run the following command:
sudo apk add nginx mariadb mariadb-client php7 php7-fpm php7-mysqli php7-json php7-gd php7-dom php7-mbstring php7-zip php7-curl php7-openssl
Once all the required packages are installed, we can proceed with the installation of Flarum itself. To do this, we will be using Composer, a dependency manager for PHP. To install Composer, run the following command:
sudo apk add composer
Once you have installed Composer, you can use it to install Flarum. Run the following commands to install it:
sudo mkdir /var/www/flarum
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/flarum
cd /var/www/flarum
sudo -u www-data composer create-project flarum/flarum .
Now that Flarum is installed, we need to configure Nginx to serve our website. Start by creating a new Nginx configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/flarum.conf
And enter the following configuration inside the file:
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;
root /var/www/flarum/public;
index index.php index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm7.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
Note: Replace "example.com" with your domain name.
Finally, restart Nginx to apply your changes:
sudo service nginx restart
Next, we need to configure MariaDB, which is a database management system that Flarum uses to store its data. To do this, start by logging in to MariaDB as the root user:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Once you are logged in, create a new database, user, and grant privileges to that user with the following commands:
CREATE DATABASE flarum;
CREATE USER 'flarum_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON flarum.* TO 'flarum_user'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Note: Replace "password" with your desired password.
At this point, you should be able to access your newly installed Flarum software by accessing your domain name in the web browser. However, before you can start using your forum, you need to finish the installation process.
To do this, navigate to your forum's URL in the web browser and follow the instructions in the install wizard. You will need to input the database connection details (host, username, password), and set up an administrator account.
Once you have completed the installation process, Congratulations! You have successfully installed Flarum on Alpine Linux.
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
