Simple Machines Forum is a powerful and flexible forum software that can be installed on various platforms including Linux. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to install Simple Machines Forum on Elementary OS Latest.
Before you begin, you need to make sure that your system meets the following prerequisites:
SMF requires a LAMP stack to run. So, before starting SMF installation, we need to install Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP on our system.
To install the LAMP stack, open a terminal and run the following command:
sudo apt-get install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql
Next, we need to create a database for SMF. To do that, log in to the MySQL shell using the following command:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Once you are in the MySQL shell, run the following commands to create a new database and grant permissions to a new user:
CREATE DATABASE smf_db;
CREATE USER 'smf_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON smf_db.* TO 'smf_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Now, we can download and install SMF. To download it, run the following command:
wget https://download.simplemachines.org/index.php/smf_2-1-rc1_install.tar.gz -P ~/Downloads
Next, extract the downloaded archive using the following command:
tar -xvzf ~/Downloads/smf_2-1-rc1_install.tar.gz -C /var/www/html/
Then, rename the extracted folder to smf and change the ownership of the smf directory to the Apache user by running the following commands:
sudo mv /var/www/html/smf_2-1-rc1_install /var/www/html/smf
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/smf
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/smf
Before you can use SMF, you need to configure it. To do that, open a browser and navigate to http://your_server_IP/smf/. You will be redirected to the SMF installer.
Follow the installer's instructions and provide the following details:
After that, click on the "Continue" button and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Once the installation is complete, log in to the SMF administrative panel using the admin credentials that you entered during the installation.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Simple Machines Forum on Elementary OS Latest. Now, you can customize and use SMF to create your own online 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!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
