How to Install Dendrite on OpenBSD

Dendrite is an open source matrix server developed by matrix.org. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Dendrite on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

• OpenBSD installed on your computer or server.
• You have root access or sudo privileges on the server.
• Basic knowledge of command line tools.

Step 1: Update Packages

Before installing any new package, it is always recommended to update the system's packages to the latest version. To do this, run the following command:

$ doas pkg_add -u

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

Dendrite requires certain dependencies to be installed on the system before proceeding with the installation. Run the following command to install the necessary dependencies:

$ doas pkg_add go cmake libsodium git postgresql

Step 3: Clone Dendrite Repository

We will now clone the Dendrite repository from its official GitHub repository. Run the following command to clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite.git

Step 4: Build Dendrite

After cloning the repository, navigate to the Dendrite directory by running the following command:

$ cd dendrite

Once inside the directory, run the following command to build Dendrite:

$ GO111MODULE=on go build -tags "sqlite json" -o dendrite cmd/dendrite/dendrite.go

The above command will build Dendrite using SQLite and JSON as the default data stores.

Step 5: Configure PostgreSQL

To configure PostgreSQL, we need to create a new database and a user with appropriate permissions. Run the following commands to create a new database and user:

$ su - _postgresql
$ createdb dendrite
$ createuser dendrite

Next, we need to grant permissions to the user by editing the pg_hba.conf configuration file. Run the following command to open the file:

$ doas vi /var/postgresql/pg_hba.conf

Add the following line at the end of the file:

host dendrite dendrite 127.0.0.1/32 md5

Save and close the file.

Step 6: Configure Dendrite

We now need to configure Dendrite. Navigate to the config directory inside the Dendrite directory and copy the base configuration file to a new file called config.yaml.

$ cd config
$ cp base.yaml config.yaml

Edit the config.yaml file to include the following settings:

Database:
  # The database type to use
  # Valid values: sqlite|postgres
  Type: postgres

  # The database connection information
  ConnectionString: "postgres://dendrite:dendrite@localhost/dendrite?sslmode=disable"

Save and close the file.

Step 7: Run Dendrite

To run Dendrite, run the following command from the Dendrite directory:

$ ./dendrite -config config.yaml

Dendrite should start up and you should see it connecting to the database and setting up the necessary tables.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to install Dendrite on OpenBSD. We also learned how to configure PostgreSQL and Dendrite, and start it up for use.

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