GNU Social is an open-source social networking platform that is similar to Twitter. It is written in PHP and is compatible with the OStatus standard. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install GNU Social on the latest version of Fedora Server.
Before proceeding with the installation, make sure your server has the following components installed:
First, update the operating system to the latest version by running the following command:
sudo dnf update
Next, install the required packages for GNU Social by running the following command:
sudo dnf install httpd mariadb mariadb-server php php-common php-json php-xml php-mysqli php-mbstring php-gd php-dom unzip wget
Start the Apache and MariaDB services by running the following commands:
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Now we need to secure the MariaDB installation by running the following command:
sudo mysql_secure_installation
You will be asked several questions to configure the MariaDB installation. Follow the prompts on the screen and configure the database server according to your requirements.
Log in to the MySQL shell with the following command:
mysql -u root -p
Enter the password you set in the previous step. Now create a new database for GNU Social using the following command:
CREATE DATABASE socialdb;
Create a new MySQL user with the following command:
CREATE USER 'socialuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Replace 'password' with a strong password.
Grant appropriate privileges to the socialuser with the following command:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON socialdb.* TO 'socialuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Next, download the latest version of GNU Social from the official website, https://gnu.io/social/. You can download it to the /var/www/html directory using the following commands:
cd /var/www/html
sudo wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/social/social-1.3.3.tar.gz
sudo tar xvf social-1.3.3.tar.gz
Rename the extracted directory to social:
sudo mv social-1.3.3 social
Set the appropriate permission to the GNU Social directory:
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/social
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/social
Now we need to configure GNU Social. Navigate to /var/www/html/social/config/ directory:
cd /var/www/html/social/config/
Copy the example configuration file and make it writable using the following commands:
sudo cp config.php.example config.php
sudo chmod 777 config.php
Open the config.php file and set the appropriate values for the following configurations:
$_config['site']['name'] = 'Your Site Name';
$_config['db']['database'] = 'socialdb';
$_config['db']['user'] = 'socialuser';
$_config['db']['pass'] = 'password';
Save the file and change the permission to the config.php file to the default state:
sudo chmod 644 config.php
Finally, you can access GNU Social by opening your browser and navigating to http://your_ip_address/social. Replace 'your_ip_address' with the actual IP address of your server.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed GNU Social on Fedora Server. You can now create your account and start using the open-source social media platform.
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!
