Installing Flarum on Fedora CoreOS Latest

In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Flarum, a free, open-source forum software, on Fedora CoreOS Latest, a next-generation container operating system tailored for running containerized workloads securely.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

• A running instance of Fedora CoreOS Latest with root access
• A registered domain name or subdomain name pointing to your server IP address
• A valid SSL certificate issued for your domain or subdomain name

Step 1: Update the system

Connect to your Fedora CoreOS instance via SSH and update the system:

sudo rpm-ostree update

This command will update the system and download the latest packages available.

Step 2: Install PHP, MariaDB, and Nginx

Install the necessary packages by running the following command:

sudo dnf install -y mariadb mariadb-server nginx php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-gd php-json php-mbstring php-zip php-xml

This command will install the required packages to run Flarum on your system.

Once installed, start the MariaDB service and enable it to start automatically at boot:

sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb

Next, start the Nginx and PHP-FPM services and enable them to start automatically at boot:

sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable php-fpm
sudo systemctl start php-fpm

Step 3: Create a new MariaDB database and user

Log in to the MariaDB server as the root user:

sudo mysql -u root

Once logged in, create a new database, user, and grant privileges to the user:

CREATE DATABASE flarum;
CREATE USER 'flarumuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON flarum.* TO 'flarumuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Replace the word 'password' with a strong and secure password of your choice.

Step 4: Install and configure Certbot for SSL certificate

Secure the connection to your Flarum installation by installing an SSL certificate using Certbot.

Install the Certbot package:

sudo dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Once installed, obtain an SSL certificate for your domain or subdomain name by running the following command:

sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com

Follow the prompts, and Certbot will obtain and install a valid SSL certificate for your domain or subdomain name.

Step 5: Download and install Flarum

Download and install the latest version of Flarum by running the following command:

sudo mkdir /var/www/flarum
sudo chown $USER:$USER /var/www/flarum
cd /var/www/flarum
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
php composer.phar create-project flarum/flarum . --stability=beta

This command will download and install Flarum in the /var/www/flarum directory.

Step 6: Configure Nginx for Flarum

Create an Nginx configuration file for Flarum:

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

Add the following configuration to the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    root /var/www/flarum/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
    }

    location ^~ /assets/ {
        gzip_static on;
        expires max;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=31536000, immutable";
    }

    error_log /var/log/nginx/flarum.error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/flarum.access.log;

    listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
}

Replace the word 'your-domain.com' with your actual domain or subdomain name. Save and close the file.

Test the Nginx configuration:

sudo nginx -t

If the test is successful, restart the Nginx service:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Your Flarum installation is now accessible via a secure HTTPS connection on your domain or subdomain name.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Flarum on Fedora CoreOS Latest and secured the connection to your Flarum instance with SSL. You can now start customizing and using your forum software to build a thriving 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!