How to Install Friendica on Alpine Linux Latest

Friendica is a free, open-source distributed social network that allows users to connect and communicate with friends and family. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Friendica on Alpine Linux Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

• A running instance of Alpine Linux Latest
• A user with sudo privileges
• SSH access to the server

Step 1: Update Your System

First, run the following command to update your system:

sudo apk update && sudo apk upgrade

This will update all the packages currently installed on your system.

Step 2: Install the Required Packages

Now, let’s install the required packages for Friendica. Run the following command:

sudo apk add nginx php7 php7-curl php7-dom php7-fpm php7-gd php7-json php7-mbstring php7-mysqli php7-pdo php7-pdo_mysql php7-zlib mariadb mariadb-client openrc

This will install the necessary packages for Friendica to run.

Step 3: Install Friendica

Now, we will download and install Friendica. Run the following command to download the latest release of Friendica:

wget https://github.com/friendica/friendica/archive/refs/tags/2021.05.tar.gz

Once the download is complete, extract the archive using the following command:

tar -xzf 2021.05.tar.gz

Now, move the extracted content to the /var/www directory like this:

sudo mv friendica-2021.05 /var/www/friendica

Ensure that the www-data user owns the directory with the following command:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/friendica

Step 4: Configure MariaDB

In this step, we will configure MariaDB to work with Friendica. Run the following command to secure your MariaDB instance:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Answer "yes" to all questions, and set a strong password for the root user.

Now, log in to the MariaDB console with the following command:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Once logged in, create a new database with the following command:

CREATE DATABASE friendica;

Create a new user with the following command:

CREATE USER 'friendica'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Ensure that the new user has access to the database with the following command:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON friendica.* TO 'friendica'@'localhost';

Then, exit the console with the following command:

exit

Step 5: Configure Nginx and PHP

In this step, we will configure Nginx and PHP to work with Friendica. Run the following command to create a new configuration file at /etc/nginx/conf.d/friendica.conf:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/friendica.conf

Add the following lines to the file:

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  example.com; ## Replace with your domain name

    root   /var/www/friendica;
    index  index.php;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/friendica.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/friendica.error.log;

    location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
        if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) {
            return 404;
        }

        fastcgi_param   QUERY_STRING       $query_string;
        fastcgi_param   REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
        fastcgi_param   CONTENT_TYPE       $content_type;
        fastcgi_param   CONTENT_LENGTH     $content_length;

        fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_NAME        $fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param   REQUEST_URI        $request_uri;
        fastcgi_param   DOCUMENT_URI       $document_uri;
        fastcgi_param   DOCUMENT_ROOT      $document_root;
        fastcgi_param   SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;

        fastcgi_param   GATEWAY_INTERFACE  CGI/1.1;
        fastcgi_param   SERVER_SOFTWARE    nginx/$nginx_version;

        fastcgi_param   REMOTE_ADDR        $remote_addr;
        fastcgi_param   REMOTE_PORT        $remote_port;
        fastcgi_param   SERVER_ADDR        $server_addr;
        fastcgi_param   SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
        fastcgi_param   SERVER_NAME        $server_name;

        fastcgi_index  index.php;

        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php7-fpm.sock;
    }
}

Save and close the file.

Next, open the PHP-FPM configuration file with the following command:

sudo nano /etc/php7/php-fpm.d/www.conf

Change the listen parameter to match the following:

listen = /run/php7-fpm.sock

Uncomment the following line:

;listen.owner = www-data

Then, save and close the file.

Finally, start the Nginx and PHP-FPM services with the following commands:

sudo rc-update add nginx
sudo rc-update add php-fpm7
sudo rc-service nginx start
sudo rc-service php-fpm7 start

Step 6: Complete the Installation

You can now complete the installation of Friendica by accessing your server’s IP address or domain name in your web browser. Follow the instructions provided by the installer to complete the installation process.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we showed you how to install Friendica on Alpine Linux Latest. You now have a working instance of Friendica that you can use for distributed social networking.

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!