GNU social is a free social networking platform that enables users to create their own social microblogging communities. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of GNU social on Debian Latest.
Before proceeding with the installation, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:
Firstly, you need to update the system packages to the latest version. Open the terminal and type:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
The next step is to install the necessary packages and dependencies required for the GNU social installation. Open the terminal and enter the following command:
sudo apt-get install git curl apache2 libapache2-mod-php mariadb-server php php-mysql php-intl php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip
Once the dependencies are installed, you can download the latest release of GNU social from the official website. For this tutorial, we will download and install version 2.0.1.
sudo wget https://www.gnu.org/software/social/social-2.0.1.tar.gz
Next, extract the archive to the desired installation directory:
sudo tar -xvf social-2.0.1.tar.gz -C /var/www/
GNU social requires a database to store and retrieve information. In this step, we will create a new database, user, and grant permissions to the user.
Login to the MariaDB shell using the following command:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Create a new database:
MariaDB> CREATE DATABASE gnusocial_db;
Create a new user and set the password:
MariaDB> CREATE USER 'gnusocial_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
Grant privileges for the user on the database:
MariaDB> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON gnusocial_db.* TO gnusocial_user@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
Flush the privileges and exit from the MariaDB shell:
MariaDB> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB> EXIT;
Next, we need to configure Apache to serve the GNU social application on the web. Open the Apache configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/gnusocial.conf
Add the following configuration:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/social
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/social>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save and close the file.
Enable the virtual host and restart the Apache service:
sudo a2ensite gnusocial.conf
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Open your web browser and navigate to your server's domain or IP address. You will be redirected to the GNU social installation page.
Enter the database details that you created earlier, and click on the Install button. You will be directed to the admin dashboard once the installation is complete.
That's it! Congratulations, you have successfully installed GNU social on Debian Latest.
In this tutorial, we have provided a step-by-step guide on how to install GNU social on Debian Latest. With proper configuration, you can customize and launch your own microblogging platform.
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