How to Install Mediagoblin on Windows 10

Introduction

Mediagoblin is a free, decentralized, and open-source media hosting platform that allows you to share your photos, videos, and music files online. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install and set up Mediagoblin on your Windows 10 computer.

Prerequisites

To install Mediagoblin on Windows 10, you will need the following:

• A Windows 10 computer with administrative privileges
• Python 2.7 installed on your computer
• A web server like Apache or nginx installed on your computer
• MySQL or PostgreSQL database installed on your computer
• Git installed on your computer

Steps to Install and Configure Mediagoblin

Step 1: Install Python

To install Python 2.7 on your Windows 10 computer, follow these steps:

1. Go to the official Python website and download the Python 2.7.18 Windows x86-64 executable installer.
2. Run the installer as an administrator and follow the installation wizard.
3. Make sure to check the option "Add Python to PATH" during the installation process.

Step 2: Install Required Libraries and Dependencies

To install the required libraries and dependencies for Mediagoblin, follow these steps:

1. Open the command prompt on your computer as an administrator.
2. Install the following packages using pip:

pip install virtualenv
pip install SQLAlchemy
pip install Pillow
pip install bcrypt
pip install oauth2client

Step 3: Set up a Database

Mediagoblin requires a database to store content and user information. You can use either MySQL or PostgreSQL as a database server.

MySQL

To set up MySQL on your Windows 10 computer, follow these steps:

1. Download and install MySQL Community Server for Windows.
2. Follow the installation wizard and set up a root user password.

PostgreSQL

To set up PostgreSQL on your Windows 10 computer, follow these steps:

1. Download and install PostgreSQL for Windows.
2. Follow the installation wizard and set up a password for the postgres user.

Step 4: Install and Configure a Web Server

Mediagoblin requires a web server to serve content to its users. You can use either Apache or nginx as a web server.

Apache

To install and configure Apache on your Windows 10 computer, follow these steps:

1. Download Apache for Windows.
2. Extract the contents of the zip file to a folder on your computer.
3. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the bin folder inside the Apache folder.
4. Run the following command to install Apache as a service:

httpd.exe -k install -n "Apache2.4"

5. Open the file httpd.conf located in the conf folder of the Apache folder in a text editor.
6. Change the following settings in the file:

Listen 80
ServerName localhost:80

7. Save and close the file.

nginx

To install and configure nginx on your Windows 10 computer, follow these steps:

1. Download and extract nginx to a folder on your computer.
2. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the folder where you extracted nginx.
3. Run the following command to start nginx:

start nginx.exe

4. Open a web browser and go to http://localhost. If you see the nginx welcome page, then nginx is installed and working correctly.

Step 5: Download and Install Mediagoblin

To install Mediagoblin on your Windows 10 computer, follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the folder where you want to install Mediagoblin.
2. Clone the Mediagoblin repository from GitHub using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/mediagoblin/mediagoblin.git

3. Navigate to the newly cloned mediagoblin folder.
4. Install the required Python packages by running the following command:

pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Copy the file mediagoblin_local.ini.example and rename it to mediagoblin_local.ini.
6. Edit mediagoblin_local.ini in a text editor and change the database settings to match your database server settings. For example, if you are using MySQL, you would change the following lines in the file:

sqlalchemy.url = mysql+pymysql://USERNAME:PASSWORD@localhost/MEDIAGOBLINDB

7. Save and close the file.

Step 6: Initialize the Database

To initialize the database for Mediagoblin, follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the mediagoblin folder.
2. Create a virtual environment by running the following command:

virtualenv env

3. Activate the virtual environment by running the following command:

env\Scripts\activate

4. Run the following command to initialize the database:

paster setup-app mediagoblin_local.ini

Step 7: Start Mediagoblin

To start Mediagoblin, follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the mediagoblin folder.
2. Activate the virtual environment by running the following command:

env\Scripts\activate

3. Run the following command to start the server:

paster serve mediagoblin_local.ini

4. Open a web browser and go to http://localhost:6543. You should see the Mediagoblin home page if everything has been set up correctly.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and set up Mediagoblin on your Windows 10 computer. Now you can start sharing your media files with the world using the power of open-source software.

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Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!