How to Install Homer on OpenBSD

Homer is a free and open-source web-based dashboard that helps you track and visualize various data. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of Homer on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, you need to ensure that OpenBSD is up to date and that you have sudo privileges. You also need to make sure that the following dependencies are installed:

• Nginx
• PHP
• MySQL or MariaDB

You can install them by running the following command:

sudo pkg_add -i nginx php php-mysql mariadb-server

Step 1: Clone Homer Repository

First, you need to clone Homer's repository by running the following command in your terminal:

git clone https://github.com/bastienwirtz/homer.git

Once the cloning process completes, navigate to the homer directory:

cd homer

Step 2: Install Composer

Next, you need to install Composer to manage the project dependencies. You can use the following commands to do so:

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Verify that the Composer is installed by running the following command:

composer --version

Step 3: Install Homer Dependencies

Now, to install Homer dependencies, you need to run the following command:

composer install

Step 4: Configure the Database

Create a database and user for Homer to use. For example, using the MariaDB shell:

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE homer;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON homer.* TO 'homer'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Where password is the password for the database.

Next, you need to configure Homer to use the newly created database. Copy the .env.example file to .env:

cp .env.example .env

Then, edit the .env file using your preferred text editor:

nano .env

Set the following variables according to your database configuration:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=homer
DB_USERNAME=homer
DB_PASSWORD=password

Save and exit the file.

Step 5: Configure Nginx

Create a new Nginx virtual host file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/homer-server

And add the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name homer.example.com; # Replace with your domain name or IP address

    root /path/to/homer/public;

    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Save and exit the file.

Create a symbolic link to the sites-enabled directory:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/homer-server /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test the Nginx configuration file:

sudo nginx -t

If there are no errors, reload the Nginx service to apply the changes:

sudo service nginx reload

Step 6: Run Homer

Ensure that the Nginx service and the MariaDB server are running:

sudo service nginx start
sudo service mysql start

Then, use the following command to run the Laravel development server:

php artisan serve --host=homer.example.com --port=8000

Where homer.example.com is your domain name or IP address.

You can now visit http://homer.example.com:8000 in your web browser to use Homer.

Conclusion

That's it! You have learned how to install Homer on OpenBSD. You can now use this powerful tool to track and visualize all the data you need.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!