EpochTalk is a free and open-source discussion forum software that is designed to allow users to create their online communities. MXLinux is a popular Linux distribution known for its simplicity and ease of use. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of EpochTalk on MXLinux.
Before installing EpochTalk, ensure that you have the following:
EpochTalk requires some dependencies that are not included in MXLinux by default. Install these dependencies by running the following command in your terminal:
sudo apt-get install git curl wget build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev libpq-dev python python-pip python-virtualenv virtualenvwrapper
This command will download and install all the required packages for EpochTalk to run smoothly.
After installing the dependencies, clone the EpochTalk repository using the following command:
git clone https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk.git
This will clone the repository to your local machine.
EpochTalk requires Node.js, a JavaScript runtime, and npm, a package manager, to build and run. You can install Node.js and npm using nvm (Node Version Manager) by running the following commands:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install 12
This will install Node.js version 12 on your system.
Yarn is another package manager that is used by EpochTalk to manage dependencies. Install Yarn by running the following command:
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-get update && sudo apt-get install yarn
This will install Yarn on your system.
EpochTalk requires a PostgreSQL database to store forum data. Install PostgreSQL by running the following command:
sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib
This will install PostgreSQL on your system.
Create a new PostgreSQL database and user that will be used by EpochTalk:
sudo su - postgres
psql
CREATE USER epo_user WITH PASSWORD '<password>';
ALTER USER epo_user WITH SUPERUSER;
CREATE DATABASE epo_dev WITH OWNER epo_user;
\q
exit
Change <password> to a strong password for the database user. This will create a new PostgreSQL user named epo_user, a database named epo_dev, and grant ownership to the new user.
Install the dependencies required by EpochTalk by running the command below:
cd epochtalk
yarn install
This will install all the dependencies specified in the package.json file.
Configure EpochTalk by creating a .env file in the project root directory:
cd epochtalk
cp server/.env.example server/.env
Edit the .env file and change the following fields:
DB_CONNECTION_STRING=postgresql://epo_user:<password>@localhost:5432/epo_dev
SECRET=<randomstring>
Change <password> to the password you set in Step 6, and set a random string for the SECRET field.
EpochTalk requires a migration to create the necessary database schema. Run the migrations by running the following command:
yarn migrate
This will create the necessary database schema.
Start the server by running the following command:
yarn start
This will start the EpochTalk server and it will be accessible at http://localhost:3000.
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install EpochTalk on MXLinux Latest. You can now go ahead and customize the software to suit your needs and start building your online community.
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