How to Install EpochTalk on Fedora Server

EpochTalk is a modern forum software that can be installed on various operating systems. This tutorial shows how to install EpochTalk on a Fedora Server.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, make sure that your Fedora Server is up-to-date and has the following software installed:

• Node.js
• MariaDB or MySQL
• Git

You can install these prerequisites by running the following command:

sudo dnf install nodejs mariadb mariadb-server git

Step 1: Clone EpochTalk from Github

To get started, clone the latest version of EpochTalk from the Github repository:

git clone https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk.git

This will download the EpochTalk files to your current directory.

Step 2: Install and Configure MariaDB

EpochTalk requires a database to store its data. MariaDB is a popular choice for this purpose. You can install MariaDB Server by running the following commands:

sudo dnf install mariadb-server
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

Once MariaDB is installed, we need to create a new database and a new user for EpochTalk. Run the following command to log in to the MariaDB command-line interface:

sudo mysql -u root

Once you are logged in, create a new database:

CREATE DATABASE epochtalk;

Next, create a new user that will have access to the epochtalk database:

CREATE USER 'epochtalk_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'DATABASE_PASSWORD';

Replace DATABASE_PASSWORD with a secure password for the epochtalk_user.

Finally, grant the new user full access to the epochtalk database:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON epochtalk.* TO 'epochtalk_user'@'localhost';

Once done, exit the MariaDB prompt by typing:

exit

Step 3: Install Dependencies

Change into the EpochTalk directory:

cd epochtalk

Then install the required dependencies by running:

npm install

Step 4: Configuration

Before running EpochTalk for the first time, some configuration is needed. To configure EpochTalk, create a .env file in the root directory of EpochTalk:

nano .env

Then copy the sample configuration from the sample file and modify it to match your setup. Here is an example configuration:

PORT=8080
URL=http://localhost:8090
SESSION_SECRET=mysecret
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_NAME=epochtalk
DB_USER=epochtalk_user
DB_PASSWORD=DATABASE_PASSWORD
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=465
SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com
SMTP_PASS=your_email_password
SMTP_FROM=EpochTalk Admin <noreply@epochtalk.com>

Step 5: Running the Server

To start the EpochTalk server, run:

npm start

If everything is set up correctly, you should see something like the following output:

Starting EpochTalk...
Express server listening on port 8080
Next, go to http://localhost:8080 to use EpochTalk

Conclusion

That's it! You have now successfully installed and configured EpochTalk on your Fedora Server. You can access the EpochTalk user interface by navigating to the URL displayed in the output section of Step 5.

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