Friendica is a free, open-source, decentralized social network software that allows users to connect with their friends and family while keeping their data private. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Friendica on Linux Mint, the latest version.
Before we start, make sure you have the following:
First, we need to install some packages that are required for the installation of Friendica. Open the terminal on your Linux Mint system and run the following command to update the package list:
sudo apt update
Next, run the following command to install the required packages:
sudo apt install git curl mariadb-server mariadb-client apache2 php php-curl php-gd php-xml php-mbstring php-zip libapache2-mod-php
We need to create a MySQL database and user to store the data for our Friendica installation. Open the MySQL CLI by executing the following command:
sudo mysql -u root
Create a database for Friendica. We will name the database friendica_db in this tutorial. You can choose any name you like:
CREATE DATABASE friendica_db;
Next, create a MySQL user for Friendica, and grant it all the required permissions to the friendica_db database. Replace friendica_user and password with your desired MySQL user and password:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON friendica_db.* TO 'friendica_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Flush the privileges to apply the changes:
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Exit the MySQL CLI:
exit;
Next, we need to configure Apache. Open the Apache default configuration file in the text editor:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
Add the following lines at the end of the <VirtualHost> block:
<Directory /var/www/html/friendica>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
Save and close the file.
Change to the Apache web root directory:
cd /var/www/html/
Download the Friendica installation package from their official website:
sudo curl -OL https://github.com/friendica/friendica/archive/refs/tags/2021.09.zip
Extract the downloaded ZIP file:
sudo unzip 2021.09.zip
Rename the extracted directory to friendica:
sudo mv friendica-2021.09 friendica
Change the ownership of the friendica directory to the Apache user:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data friendica/
Copy the sample configuration file:
sudo cp friendica/.htconfig.php.sample friendica/.htconfig.php
Edit the configuration file:
sudo nano friendica/.htconfig.php
Find the following lines:
$config['system']['baseurl'] = '';
$config['system']['dbname'] = '';
$config['system']['dbuser'] = '';
$config['system']['dbpass'] = '';
Update them with the following values:
$config['system']['baseurl'] = 'http://your-domain.com/friendica';
$config['system']['dbname'] = 'friendica_db';
$config['system']['dbuser'] = 'friendica_user';
$config['system']['dbpass'] = 'password';
Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain name.
Find the following line:
$config['system']['theme'] = 'quattro';
If you prefer a different theme, update this value accordingly.
Save and close the file.
Restart Apache to apply the changes:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Open your web browser and go to http://your-domain.com/friendica/. You should see the Friendica setup wizard.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Friendica on Linux Mint. You can now start using your own social network platform!
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