GNU social is a free and open-source social media platform that allows users to create their own social network. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing GNU social on Fedora CoreOS Latest.
Before getting started, make sure you have the following prerequisites:
The first step is to install the dependencies required to run GNU social.
To install the required dependencies, run the following command:
sudo dnf install -y php php-intl php-mbstring php-xml php-gd php-pgsql postgresql-server httpd certbot-apache
This command will install PHP, PostgreSQL, Apache, and other required dependencies on your system.
In the next step, we will create a PostgreSQL database and a user for GNU social.
To create a new PostgreSQL database and user, run the following commands:
sudo postgresql-setup --initdb --unit postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo -u postgres psql
CREATE USER socialuser WITH PASSWORD 'password';
CREATE DATABASE socialdb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE socialdb to socialuser;
\q
Note: Replace password with a strong password of your choice.
In this step, we will download and install GNU social.
Run the following commands to download and extract the GNU social latest release:
sudo mkdir /var/www
cd /var/www
sudo curl -L -o gnu-social.tar.bz2 https://gnu.io/social/gnu-social-latest.tar.bz2
sudo tar -xvf gnu-social.tar.bz2
sudo mv gnu-social-* social
rm -f gnu-social.tar.bz2
Once the files have been extracted, you need to configure GNU social before you can use it.
In this step, we will configure GNU social.
To do this, navigate to the GNU social directory with the following command:
cd /var/www/social
Then, copy the config.php.sample file to config.php, and configure the parameters.
cp config.php.sample config.php
vim config.php
Below are the parameters that you will need to change:
$config['site']['name'] = 'My social network';
$config['site']['default_language'] = 'en';
$config['database']['database'] = 'socialdb';
$config['database']['username'] = 'socialuser';
$config['database']['password'] = 'password';
$config['site']['url'] = 'http://my-social-network.com';
Once you have configured the parameters, save the file by pressing Esc key and typing :wq!
In this step, we will set up the web server for GNU social.
To do this, navigate to the Apache directory with the following command:
cd /etc/httpd/conf.d
Then, create a new file named social.conf with the following content:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName my-social-network.com
ServerAlias www.my-social-network.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/social
<Directory /var/www/social>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/social-error.log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/social-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Note: Replace my-social-network.com with your own domain name.
Finally, restart the Apache web server:
sudo systemctl restart httpd
In the final step, we will install an SSL certificate for GNU social.
To install an SSL certificate, run the following command:
sudo certbot --apache
Follow the on-screen instructions to generate an SSL certificate for your domain.
Once the SSL certificate is installed, you can access GNU social by visiting https://my-social-network.com.
In this tutorial, you learned how to install GNU social on Fedora CoreOS Latest. Now you can create your own social network and start connecting with your friends and colleagues.
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!
