How to Install Noosfero on FreeBSD Latest

Noosfero is a free software application for creating social networks, blogs, and online communities. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to install Noosfero on the latest version of FreeBSD.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation process, make sure the following prerequisites are met on your system:

• FreeBSD is installed and updated to the latest version
• A user account with sudo privileges

Step 1: Install Dependencies

We need to install some dependencies required by Noosfero to run. To do that, open a terminal window and run the following command:

sudo pkg install postgresql96-server postgresql96-contrib postgresql96-client imagemagick git python python37 py37-pip py37-setuptools

Step 2: Install Ruby

Noosfero is written in Ruby, so we need to install it on our system. Run the following command to install Ruby and its dependencies:

sudo pkg install ruby24-gems

Step 3: Clone Noosfero Repository

Now, we need to clone the Noosfero repository from GitLab. Run the following command to clone the repository:

git clone https://gitlab.com/noosfero/noosfero.git

Step 4: Install Gems

Noosfero requires some gems to be installed to function properly. Navigate to the Noosfero directory and run the following command to install the gems:

cd noosfero
bundle install

Step 5: Setup PostgreSQL

We need to set up the PostgreSQL database for Noosfero. Run the following command to initialize the database cluster:

sudo service postgresql initdb

Then start the PostgreSQL service using the following command:

sudo service postgresql start

Now we need to create a new user and a database with the following commands:

sudo -u postgres createuser -SDRP noosfero
sudo -u postgres createdb -O noosfero noosfero_test
sudo -u postgres createdb -O noosfero noosfero_development

Step 6: Configure Noosfero

Navigate to the config directory and copy the example configuration files:

cd config
cp database.example.yml database.yml
cp noosfero.example.yml noosfero.yml

Edit the database.yml file to match the database configuration:

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: noosfero_development
  username: noosfero
  password: password

test:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: noosfero_test
  username: noosfero
  password: password

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: noosfero_production
  username: noosfero
  password: password

Edit the noosfero.yml file to set the domain and password salt:

general:
  name: "My Noosfero Instance"
  domain: "example.com"
  language: "en_US.utf8"
  default_title: "Welcome to my Noosfero Instance!"
  password_salt: "mysecret"

Step 7: Initialize Noosfero

We are ready to initialize Noosfero now. Run the following command to create the database schema and load the initial data:

bundle exec rake db:create db:migrate db:seed db:populate

Step 8: Start Noosfero

Finally, start the Noosfero server using the following command:

bundle exec rails server

Conclusion

We have successfully installed and configured Noosfero on FreeBSD Latest. You can now access Noosfero at http://localhost:3000 and start building your own social network or online community.

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