How to Install Talkyard on Arch Linux

Talkyard is a modern and open-source forum software that is designed to give you great conversational experience. In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps to install Talkyard on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before we begin with the installation process, there are a few prerequisites that need to be met.

• A VPS running Arch Linux
• An account with sudo privileges
• A domain name (optional)
• A valid SSL certificate (optional)

Installation Steps

1. Update the package list and upgrade installed packages with the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu

2. Install the following dependencies that are required by Talkyard:

sudo pacman -S curl wget unzip git java-runtime-headless

3. Install Node.js and npm with the following command:

sudo pacman -S nodejs npm

4. Clone the Talkyard repository from Github with the following command:

git clone https://github.com/debiki/talkyard.git

5. Move into the Talkyard directory and install the required packages:

cd talkyard 
./scripts/install-dev-must-run-first.sh

6. Start the Talkyard server with the following command:

./scripts/start-dev-server.sh

7. Now, you should be able to access the Talkyard server by opening a web browser and navigating to http://localhost:8080.

Optional Steps

Configure a Domain Name

If you want to associate your Talkyard installation with a domain name, you can configure Nginx web server to serve Talkyard over HTTPS.

1. Install Nginx web server using the following command:

sudo pacman -S nginx

2. Create a new Nginx server block configuration file for your domain name:

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

3. Add the following content to the configuration file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }

}

Make sure to replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.

4. Test the Nginx configuration with the following command:

sudo nginx -t

5. If the test is successful, restart the Nginx service with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Enable HTTPS with SSL/TLS Certificate

1. Install Let's Encrypt client using the following command:

sudo pacman -S certbot

2. Request the SSL certificate using the following command:

sudo certbot certonly --standalone --email your_email@example.com -d yourdomain.com

You must replace your_email@example.com with your actual email address, and yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.

3. Update the Nginx server block configuration file to serve Talkyard over HTTPS:

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

Add the following content to the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/chain.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }

}

Restart Nginx web server to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned how to install Talkyard on Arch Linux, and how to configure Nginx to serve Talkyard over HTTPS with a valid SSL/TLS certificate. Now that you have set up Talkyard, you can customize it according to your needs and start building a great community!

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!