In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing GNU social on Void Linux. GNU social is a free social networking platform that allows individuals and organizations to create and manage their own social networks.
Before we start, make sure you have the following:
It's always a good idea to update the system before installing new packages. Run the following command to update the package cache and install any available updates:
sudo xbps-install -Su
GNU social requires several packages to function properly. We can install them using the following command:
sudo xbps-install php php-gd php-curl php-mysqlnd mariadb apache
GNU social requires a MySQL database to store its data. We can create a new database and a user for it using the following commands:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Enter your MySQL root password when prompted.
CREATE DATABASE social;
GRANT ALL ON social.* TO 'socialuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;
Replace "password" with a secure password for the socialuser account.
Download the latest version of GNU social from the official website:
sudo wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/social/social-2.0.0.tar.gz
You can verify the authenticity of the downloaded file by checking the PGP signature.
Extract the downloaded file to the Apache web server document root:
sudo tar -xvf social-2.0.0.tar.gz -C /var/www/localhost/htdocs/
The extracted files will be placed in a new directory called "social".
Copy the default configuration file to the Apache configuration directory and rename it:
sudo cp /var/www/localhost/htdocs/social/config.php.example /etc/httpd/conf/usr-config/
sudo mv /etc/httpd/conf/usr-config/config.php.example /etc/httpd/conf/usr-config/config.php
Edit the configuration file using your favorite text editor:
sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/usr-config/config.php
Update the following lines to reflect your MySQL database settings:
$dbconfig['database'] = 'social';
$dbconfig['username'] = 'socialuser';
$dbconfig['password'] = 'password';
Replace "socialuser" and "password" with the MySQL user and password you created earlier.
GNU social requires some additional Apache modules to function properly. We can enable them using the following command:
sudo ln -s /etc/sv/httpd/run /var/service
sudo ln -s /etc/sv/mysqld/run /var/service
sudo ln -sf /etc/httpd/conf/usr-config/social.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/
sudo a2enmod rewrite
Start the Apache and MySQL services using the following commands:
sudo sv start httpd
sudo sv start mysqld
Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost/social. Follow the on-screen instructions to create a new administrator account and configure your social network.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed GNU social on Void Linux.
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