Mastodon is a free, open-source, decentralized social networking platform that lets people share their thoughts, ideas, and interests with others. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Mastodon on Linux Mint Latest.
Before installing Mastodon, you need to complete the following prerequisites:
Before installing Mastodon, it's essential to ensure that your Linux Mint machine is up-to-date and has all the required dependencies. To do this, enter the following commands in the terminal:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install git-core curl zlib1g-dev build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev software-properties-common libffi-dev nodejs yarn pkg-config libpq-dev
Mastodon uses PostgreSQL as its primary database. To install it on your Linux Mint machine, you can use the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev
Once the installation is complete, start the PostgreSQL service and enable it to run on system start-up by entering these commands:
sudo systemctl enable postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql
Mastodon is written in Ruby, so you need to install it on your machine. You can use the Rbenv tool to manage and install Ruby on your system.
git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
exec $SHELL
Install Ruby Build plugin for Rbenv:
git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
Now, install Ruby:
rbenv install 2.7.3
rbenv global 2.7.3
ruby -v
You should see the Ruby version displayed in the terminal.
Now that you have installed all the necessary dependencies, it's time to install Mastodon from the GitHub repository. You can use the following commands to clone the Mastodon repository and install it:
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon.git live
cd live
git checkout $(git tag -l | sort -V | tail -n 1) #(stable branch)
gem install bundler
bundle install --deployment --without development test
Mastodon requires some initial setup before you can start using it. You need to create a configuration file and set up some environment variables.
cp .env.production.sample .env.production
nano .env.production
Update the file with your instance details:
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
LOCAL_DOMAIN |
Your Mastodon instance domain | mastodon.example.com |
LOCAL_HTTPS |
Whether HTTPS is used for your instance | true |
SMTP_SERVER |
SMTP server for sending emails | smtp.gmail.com |
SMTP_PORT |
SMTP server port number | 587 |
SMTP_LOGIN |
SMTP server login email | youremail@gmail.com |
SMTP_PASSWORD |
SMTP server password | yourpassword |
SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS |
SMTP email From address | youremail@gmail.com |
SMTP_TLS |
Whether SMTP server uses TLS | true |
The next step is to initialize the Mastodon PostgreSQL database by running the following command:
RAILS_ENV=production rake db:create db:migrate
Mastodon uses the Yarn package manager to manage front-end dependencies. You need to install it first.
curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install yarn
Compile the assets:
RAILS_ENV=production NODE_ENV=production bundle exec rails assets:precompile
Once you have completed all the above steps, start the Mastodon service by running the following command:
systemctl enable mastodon-web mastodon-sidekiq mastodon-streaming
systemctl start mastodon-web mastodon-sidekiq mastodon-streaming
After this, Mastodon will be up and running on your domain name. You can now create a new user account and start using Mastodon!
In this tutorial, you learned how to install Mastodon on Linux Mint Latest. Mastodon is an excellent platform for social networking that provides individuals and communities with a great platform for sharing their thoughts and ideas. By following this tutorial, you can have your Mastodon instance up and running quickly and easily.
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