briefkasten is a web-based, encrypted message recipient. It provides end-to-end encryption for messages and is compatible with OpenPGP.
In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Briefkasten on Manjaro.
Before we begin, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:
First, ensure that your system is up-to-date by running the following command in your terminal:
sudo pacman -Syu
Once your system is up-to-date, install the required dependencies by running the following command:
sudo pacman -S nodejs npm mariadb nginx certbot certbot-nginx
Next, we will download the latest version of briefkasten from the official github repository using the git command.
git clone https://github.com/ndom91/briefkasten.git
Then, navigate to the directory where the cloned files are located by using the cd command:
cd briefkasten
Now, we need to install all the dependencies of the project. To do this, we will use the npm command:
npm install
By using the above command, npm will install all the required packages defined in the package.json file.
Briefkasten requires a database to store messages, so we need to configure and set up MariaDB.
First, we must log in to MariaDB as the root user:
sudo mariadb -u root
Once you have successfully logged in, create a new database:
CREATE DATABASE briefkasten;
Then, create a new user and grant privileges to the database:
CREATE USER 'briefkasten_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON briefkasten.* TO 'briefkasten_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Finally, exit the MariaDB command-line by running the following command:
exit
Now, we need to configure Briefkasten to connect to the MariaDB database.
In the briefkasten directory, create a new file named .env by running the following command:
nano .env
Inside the .env file, add the following configurations:
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USER=briefkasten_user
DB_PASS=yourpassword
DB_NAME=briefkasten
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.example.com
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_USER=user@example.com
EMAIL_PASS=yourpassword
Ensure that you replace the placeholders such as yourpassword and example.com with appropriate values.
Save and close the .env file by using the following keyboard shortcuts:
Ctrl+XY to save the changes.Enter to exit.We need to set up Nginx to serve briefkasten on port 80.
First, create a new Nginx configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/briefkasten.conf
Inside the file, add the following configurations:
server {
listen 80;
server_name your-domain.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}
location /socket.io/ {
proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/socket.io/;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
}
}
Replace your-domain.com with the domain name you wish to use.
Next, test the validity of the Nginx configuration by running the following command:
sudo nginx -t
If the output is nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful, then the configuration file is valid.
Restart Nginx to apply the configuration:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Finally, start Briefkasten by running the following command:
npm start
By running the above command, Briefkasten starts on port 8080.
We will now apply an SSL certificate to secure Briefkasten:
sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com
Replace your-domain.com with the actual domain name of your website.
Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the SSL certificate installation process.
Congratulation! You have successfully installed Briefkasten on your Manjaro machine. Now, you can securely send and receive messages using Briefkasten platform.
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