Installing Isso on NixOS

Isso is a commenting system that can be installed on your server to enable your visitors to leave comments. In this tutorial, we will walk through how to install Isso on NixOS, the latest version.

Prerequisites

Before installing Isso on NixOS, you will need:

• A server running NixOS.
• Root access or sudo privileges on the server.
• Basic knowledge of Linux commands

Step 1 – Install Isso

1. The first step is to install Isso on your NixOS server. Open the terminal and run the following command:

sudo nix-env -i isso

2. Wait for the installation to complete.

Step 2 – Creating a Isso Configuration File

1. Create a configuration file for Isso using the following command:

$ mkdir /etc/isso
$ cp /nix/store/*/isso-latest/lib/python*/site-packages/isso/conf/* /etc/isso/
$ nano /etc/isso/isso.conf

2. In the file, add the following contents:

[general]
dbpath = /var/lib/isso/comments.db
host = http://localhost:8080
max_age = 15m
max_comments_top = 20
max_comments_nesting = 3
reply_notification = False
notify_moderator = moderator@example.com

3. Replace moderator@example.com with your email. This email will be notified when someone leaves a comment.

4. Save the changes and close the file.

Step 3 – Configure Isso Service

1. Create an Isso system service configuration file /etc/nixos/isso.nix:

{ configFile }: {
  systemd.services.isso = {
    description = "Isso comments server"
    wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ]
    after = [ "network.target" ]
    serviceConfig = {
        Type = "simple";
        ExecStart = "${pkgs.isso}/bin/isso -c ${configFile}";
        User = "isso";
        Group = "isso";
        StandardOutput = "journal+console";
        StandardError = "inherit";
    };
  };
}

2. Open /etc/nixos/configuration.nix file and add the isso.nix configuration as follows:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports = [ ./hardware-configuration.nix ];
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    pkgs.vim
    pkgs.isso
  ];
  fileSystems."/" = { device = "/dev/disk/by-label/nixos"; fsType = "ext4"; };
  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 443 ];
  services = {
    sshd.enable = true;
    isso = {
        enable = true;
        configFile = "/etc/isso/isso.conf";
    };
  };
}

3. Save the configuration file and run the following command to apply the changes:

$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Step 4 – Start and Enable Isso

1. To start the Isso service, use the following command:

sudo systemctl start isso

2. Check the status of the Isso service to ensure that it is running:

sudo systemctl status isso

3. To enable Isso on system boot, run the following command:

sudo systemctl enable isso

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Isso on NixOS, the latest version. You should now be able to install Isso and configure it on your NixOS server to enable commenting on your website.

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