Installing Synapse on Arch Linux

In this tutorial, we will be installing Synapse, a reference implementation of Matrix homeserver, on Arch Linux.

Pre-requisites

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following installed on your system:

• Arch Linux, updated to the latest version.
• PostgreSQL, a relational database management system, which will be used to store Synapse's data.
• Python 3.7 or later.

Installing dependencies

First, we need to install some dependencies required for Synapse.

1. Open your terminal and run the following command to install required dependencies:

   sudo pacman -S python postgresql python-psycopg2
   

Installing Synapse

1. Open the terminal and run the following command to install Synapse using pip:

   sudo pip3 install matrix-synapse
   

2. Next, we need to configure Synapse. Run the following command to generate a default configuration file:

   cd /etc/matrix-synapse/
   sudo cp homeserver.yaml homeserver.yaml.bak
   sudo python3 -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path ./homeserver.yaml --generate-config
   

3. Now we need to modify the homeserver.yaml configuration file for our needs.

   • Open the homeserver.yaml file using your favorite text editor.
   • Update the server_name field to the domain name that you will be using for the Synapse server.
   • Update the database section to use the PostgreSQL database that we installed earlier.

4. Create a new database user and database in PostgreSQL by running the following commands:

   sudo su postgres
   createuser synapseuser
   createdb synapsedb -O synapseuser
   

5. Next, we need to initialize the database with the required schema for Synapse by running the following command:

   sudo python3 -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml --generate-keys --report-stats=yes
   sudo chown -R matrix:matrix /etc/matrix-synapse/
   

6. Finally, start the Synapse server by running the following command:

   sudo -u matrix python3 -m synapse.app.homeserver -c /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
   

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Synapse on Arch Linux. You can now create your own Matrix account and start chatting with others on the decentralized Matrix network.

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!