In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Remark42 on the latest version of POP! OS. Remark42 is an open-source commenting system that can be self-hosted on your own server. It is easy to install and has minimal requirements.
Before starting with the installation process, you should have the following:
Remark42 is written in Go language, so you need to install Go on your POP! OS system. To install Go, open the terminal and run the following command:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install golang-go
After installing, you can check the Go version by running the following command:
go version
Remark42 requires a MySQL database server to store user data, comments, and settings. To install MySQL, run the following command:
sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
Once installed, you can access the MySQL shell by running the following command:
mysql -u root -p
When prompted for the password, enter the root password you set during installation.
After installing the MySQL server, create a new database for Remark42 to use. Run the following command to access the MySQL shell:
mysql -u root -p
When prompted, enter your root password.
Create a new database named remark42:
CREATE DATABASE remark42;
Create a new user remark42user and set a password for it:
CREATE USER 'remark42user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Grant all privileges to the user on the remark42 database:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON remark42.* TO 'remark42user'@'localhost';
Flush the privileges and exit from the MySQL shell:
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
To download and install Remark42, run the following command:
go get -u github.com/umputun/remark42/cmd/remark42
This will install Remark42 and its dependencies in your $GOPATH.
Next, create the configuration file for Remark42. Navigate to the config directory located at $GOPATH/src/github.com/umputun/remark42/config/ and make a copy of the remark42.yml.sample file:
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/umputun/remark42/config/
cp remark42.yml.sample remark42.yml
Edit the configuration file and replace the domain and database details with your own. It should look something like this:
server:
domain: example.com # insert your own domain name
port: ":8080"
db:
host: "localhost"
user: "remark42user"
name: "remark42"
password: "password" # insert your own password
poolsize: 5
redis:
server: "localhost:6379"
password: ""
db: 0
email:
user: "noreply@example.com"
Save the changes and exit the editor.
To start the Remark42 server, navigate to the cmd directory located at $GOPATH/src/github.com/umputun/remark42/cmd/remark42 and run the following command:
go run main.go -config ../config/remark42.yml
This will start the server on port 8080. You can access the web interface by opening your browser and navigating to http://localhost:8080.
You can use Nginx to proxy requests to the Remark42 server. To do this, first, install Nginx on POP! OS by running the following command:
sudo apt-get install nginx
Next, create a new Nginx configuration file by navigating to the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory and creating a file named remark42.conf:
cd /etc/nginx/sites-available/
sudo nano remark42.conf
Paste the following configuration in the file:
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com; # insert your own domain name
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
}
}
Save the changes and exit the editor.
Next, create a symbolic link to the configuration file in the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/remark42.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Test the Nginx configuration and restart Nginx:
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Remark42 on POP! OS and configured it with Nginx. You can now have an open-source commenting system on your website.
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!
