Installing Flarum on FreeBSD

Flarum is a free, open-source forum software that is designed to be fast, lightweight and easy to use. In this tutorial, we'll guide you through the process of installing Flarum on the latest version of FreeBSD.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need to ensure that your FreeBSD server is up-to-date and has the necessary packages installed. Here's what you need:

1. FreeBSD Server (version 12 or higher)
2. Apache or Nginx web server
3. PHP 7.3 or higher
4. MySQL or MariaDB

Step 1: Install Dependencies

First, you need to install some dependencies that are required to run Flarum. To install them, use the following command:

sudo pkg install php73 php73-mysqli php73-json php73-mbstring php73-filter php73-gd php73-curl php73-pdo_mysql php73-zip

This command will install PHP required extensions and necessary dependencies. You may need to update the command to suit the version of PHP that you have installed.

Step 2: Download and Extract Flarum

Next, download Flarum from the official website using wget, and extract the zip file using unzip.

sudo wget https://flarum.org/download -O flarum.zip
sudo unzip flarum.zip -d /var/www/html/

This will create a new directory called flarum in /var/www/html/, which will contain all the files required to run Flarum.

Step 3: Create a Virtual Host for Flarum

Now you need to create a virtual host so that Apache or Nginx can serve Flarum. Here's how to create a new virtual host file:

sudo touch /usr/local/etc/apache24/Includes/flarum.conf
sudo nano /usr/local/etc/apache24/Includes/flarum.conf

Add the following configuration to the file and save it:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName flarum.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/flarum/public"
    <Directory "/var/www/html/flarum/public">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace flarum.example.com with your own domain name.

Step 4: Setup Database

Now login to MySQL and create a new database for Flarum:

sudo mysql -u root -p

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

Note: Replace your-password with a strong password.

Step 5: Install Flarum

Now that you have everything setup, it's time to install Flarum. Navigate to the Flarum directory and run the following command:

sudo php flarum install --database-name=flarum --database-host=localhost --database-port=3306 --database-user=flarumuser --database-pass=your-password

You will be prompted to enter a username, email, and password for the administrator account.

Step 6: Configure Apache and Nginx

Finally, you need to configure Apache or Nginx to serve Flarum. Depending on which web server you're using, you need to add the following configuration inside the respective configuration file.

Apache

sudo nano /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf

Add the following configuration to the bottom of the file:

Include etc/apache24/Includes/flarum.conf

Restart Apache:

sudo service apache24 restart

Nginx

sudo nano /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add the following configuration to the bottom of the file:

include /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/flarum.conf;

Now, create a new file called flarum.conf in /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/, and add the following to the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name flarum.example.com;
    root /var/www/html/flarum/public;
    index index.php;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

Restart Nginx:

sudo service nginx restart

Step 7 : Access Flarum

That's it! You can now access Flarum by navigating to http://flarum.example.com in your web browser. You should see the Flarum installation page if everything has been set up correctly.

Congratulations, you have now successfully installed Flarum on FreeBSD!

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!