Synapse is a popular Matrix server which allows you to host your own Matrix instance. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Synapse on the latest FreeBSD version.
Before we begin, make sure that your FreeBSD system is up to date and has Python 3.8 or newer installed. You can check your Python version using the following command:
python3 --version
You will also need root or superuser access to complete the installation process.
First, we need to install some required dependencies. Run the following command to install the required packages from the FreeBSD package repository:
pkg install py38-pip py38-cryptography py38-setuptools py38-pyasn1 py38-lxml py38-msgpack py38-numpy py38-twisted py38-acme py38-certbot-nginx py38-certbot-dns-cloudflare py38-certbot-dns-cloudxns py38-certbot-dns-digitalocean py38-certbot-dns-dnsimple py38-certbot-dns-dnsmadeeasy py38-certbot-dns-gehirn py38-certbot-dns-google py38-certbot-dns-linode py38-certbot-dns-luadns py38-certbot-dns-nsone py38-certbot-dns-ovh py38-certbot-dns-rfc2136 py38-certbot-dns-route53 py38-certbot-dns-sakuracloud py38-certbot-dns-vultr
This will install Python dependencies, cryptography libraries, and other required packages necessary for Synapse to run smoothly.
Once the dependencies are installed, you can proceed with installing Synapse. Run the following command to install Synapse using pip:
pip3 install matrix-synapse
This command installs the latest version of Synapse on your system.
Before we can start using Synapse, we need to configure it first. To do this, run the following command:
python3 -m synapse.app.homeserver --server-name example.com --config-path /path/to/config
Here, replace example.com with your server name and /path/to/config with the path to your chosen configuration file. Synapse provides a sample configuration file that you can use as a template.
cp /usr/local/etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.sample.yaml /path/to/config
Now, modify the homeserver.yaml file to suit your requirements. Set the server_name field to your domain name, and configure other settings as needed.
With the configuration completed, you can start running Synapse using the following command:
synctl start
This command brings the Synapse server online and starts accepting connections.
Visit http://your_server_ip:8008 in your web browser to confirm that Synapse is up and running. You should see a page that says “Synapse Homeserver”.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Synapse on FreeBSD.
In this tutorial, we showed you how to install the Synapse Matrix server on FreeBSD. After completing the mentioned steps and if you want to use Synapse as a production server, you may have to configure users, rooms, room hierarchies, and more to personalize the server for your needs.
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