How to Install Vanilla Forums on EndeavourOS Latest

Vanilla Forums is a free open-source forum software that can be installed on various operating systems including Linux. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of Vanilla Forums on EndeavourOS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before starting with the installation process, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

• EndeavourOS Latest installed on your system
• Terminal or command-line access
• Root privileges

Step 1: Install LAMP Stack

To run Vanilla Forums, you need to have a LAMP stack installed on your system. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

To install the LAMP stack on EndeavourOS, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S apache mariadb php php-apache

Once the installation process is complete, start and enable the MySQL and Apache services by running the following commands:

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd

Step 2: Create a Database

Next, you need to create a database for your Vanilla Forums installation. To do this, log in to the MySQL prompt by running the following command:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password when prompted. Once you are logged in to the MySQL prompt, run the following commands:

CREATE DATABASE vanilla_db;
CREATE USER 'vanilla_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON vanilla_db.* TO 'vanilla_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Replace your_password with a secure password of your choice. These commands will create a database named vanilla_db and a user vanilla_user with full privileges to manage the database.

Step 3: Download and Install Vanilla Forums

To download and install Vanilla Forums, you can choose one of two methods - manual installation or installation via Composer.

Method 1: Manual Installation

1. Download the latest stable release of Vanilla Forums from the official website: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/vanilla-core-3.3

2. Extract the downloaded archive to the web server document root /srv/http:

   sudo tar -xzf vanilla-forums-3.3.X.tar.gz -C /srv/http/
   

   Replace 3.3.X with the version you have downloaded.

3. Rename the extracted directory to your preferred name. For example, if you want to use the name forum, run the following command:

   sudo mv /srv/http/vanilla-forums-3.3.X /srv/http/forum
   

Method 2: Installation via Composer

1. Install Composer, a dependency manager for PHP, by running the following command:

   sudo pacman -S composer
   

2. Create a new project for Vanilla Forums using Composer by running the following command:

   composer create-project --prefer-dist vanilla/vanilla:3.3.X /srv/http/forum
   

   Replace 3.3.X with the version you want to install.

Step 4: Configure Vanilla Forums

Next, you need to configure Vanilla Forums to use the database you have created and set up your email settings.

1. Copy the conf/config-sample.php file to conf/config.php and edit it with your preferred text editor:

   sudo cp /srv/http/forum/conf/config-sample.php /srv/http/forum/conf/config.php
   sudo nano /srv/http/forum/conf/config.php
   

2. Find the following lines of code and modify them as shown below:

   // Database
   $Configuration['Database']['Name'] = 'vanilla_db';
   $Configuration['Database']['User'] = 'vanilla_user';
   $Configuration['Database']['Password'] = 'your_password';
   
   //Email
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['SupportAddress'] = 'your@email.com';
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['FromName'] = 'Your Name';
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['UseSmtp'] = true;
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['SmtpHost'] = 'smtp.gmail.com';
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['SmtpPort'] = 587;
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['SmtpUser'] = 'your@gmail.com';
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['SmtpPassword'] = 'your_gmail_password';
   $Configuration['Garden']['Email']['SmtpEncryption'] = 'tls';
   

   Replace vanilla_db, vanilla_user, your_password, and the email settings with your own values.

3. Save and close the file.

Step 5: Set Permissions and Restart Services

Finally, set the appropriate file permissions and restart the services to complete the installation process.

sudo chown -R http:http /srv/http/forum/
sudo chmod -R 755 /srv/http/forum/
sudo systemctl restart httpd mariadb

Step 6: Access Vanilla Forums

Now you can access your Vanilla Forums installation by navigating to the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost/forum

You can now create an admin account and configure your forum settings through the web interface.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Vanilla Forums on EndeavourOS Latest.

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