pleroma/docs/installation/freebsd_en.md

Installing on FreeBSD

This document was written for FreeBSD 12.1, but should be trivially trailerable to future releases. Additionally, this guide document can be modified to

Required software

This assumes the target system has pkg(8).

# pkg install elixir postgresql12-server postgresql12-client postgresql12-contrib git-lite sudo nginx gmake acme.sh

Copy the rc.d scripts to the right directory:

Setup the required services to automatically start at boot, using sysrc(8).

# sysrc nginx_enable=YES
# sysrc postgresql_enable=YES

Initialize postgres

# service postgresql initdb
# service postgresql start

Configuring Pleroma

Create a user for Pleroma:

# pw add user pleroma -m
# echo 'export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"' >> /home/pleroma/.profile
# su -l pleroma

Clone the repository:

$ cd $HOME # Should be the same as /home/pleroma
$ git clone -b stable https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma.git

Configure Pleroma. Note that you need a domain name at this point:

$ cd /home/pleroma/pleroma
$ mix deps.get
$ mix pleroma.instance gen # You will be asked a few questions here.
$ cp config/generated_config.exs config/prod.secret.exs # The default values should be sufficient but you should edit it and check that everything seems OK.

Since Postgres is configured, we can now initialize the database. There should now be a file in config/setup_db.psql that makes this easier. Edit it, and change the password to a password of your choice. Make sure it is secure, since it'll be protecting your database. As root, you can now initialize the database:

# cd /home/pleroma/pleroma
# sudo -Hu postgres -g postgres psql -f config/setup_db.psql

Postgres allows connections from all users without a password by default. To fix this, edit /var/db/postgres/data12/pg_hba.conf. Change every trust to password.

Once this is done, restart Postgres with # service postgresql restart.

Run the database migrations.

Back as the pleroma user, you will need to do this whenever you update with git pull:

# su -l pleroma
$ cd /home/pleroma/pleroma
$ MIX_ENV=prod mix ecto.migrate

Configuring nginx

Install the example configuration file /home/pleroma/pleroma/installation/pleroma.nginx to /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf.

Note that it will need to be wrapped in a http {} block. You should add settings for the nginx daemon outside of the http block, for example:

user                    nginx  nginx;
error_log               /var/log/nginx/error.log;
worker_processes        4;

events {
}

Edit the defaults:

• Change ssl_certificate and ssl_trusted_certificate to /etc/ssl/example.tld/fullchain.
• Change ssl_certificate_key to /etc/ssl/example.tld/key.
• Change example.tld to your instance's domain name.

Configuring acme.sh

We'll be using acme.sh in Stateless Mode for TLS certificate renewal.

First, get your account fingerprint:

$ sudo -Hu nginx -g nginx acme.sh --register-account

You need to add the following to your nginx configuration for the server running on port 80:

  location ~ ^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/([-_a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ {
    default_type text/plain;
    return 200 "$1.6fXAG9VyG0IahirPEU2ZerUtItW2DHzDzD9wZaEKpqd";
  }

Replace the string after after $1. with your fingerprint.

Start nginx:

# service nginx start

It should now be possible to issue a cert (replace example.com with your domain name):

$ sudo -Hu nginx -g nginx acme.sh --issue -d example.com --stateless
$ acme.sh --install-cert -d example.com \
	--key-file       /path/to/keyfile/in/nginx/key.pem  \
	--fullchain-file /path/to/fullchain/nginx/cert.pem \

Let's add auto-renewal to /etc/daily.local (replace example.com with your domain):

/usr/pkg/bin/sudo -Hu nginx -g nginx \
    /usr/pkg/sbin/acme.sh -r \
    -d example.com \
    --cert-file /etc/nginx/tls/cert \
    --key-file /etc/nginx/tls/key \
    --ca-file /etc/nginx/tls/ca \
    --fullchain-file /etc/nginx/tls/fullchain \
    --stateless

Creating a startup script for Pleroma

Pleroma will need to compile when it initially starts, which typically takes a longer period of time. Therefore, it is good practice to initially run pleroma from the command-line before utilizing the rc.d script. That is done as follows:

# su -l pleroma
$ cd $HOME/pleroma
$ MIX_ENV=prod mix phx.server

Copy the startup script to the correct location and make sure it's executable:

# cp /home/pleroma/pleroma/installation/freebsd/rc.d/pleroma /usr/local/etc/rc.d/pleroma
# chmod +x /etc/rc.d/pleroma

Add the following to /etc/rc.conf:

pleroma=YES
pleroma_home="/home/pleroma"
pleroma_user="pleroma"

Run # /etc/rc.d/pleroma start to start Pleroma.

Conclusion

Restart nginx with # /etc/rc.d/nginx restart and you should be up and running.

If you need further help, contact niaa on freenode.

Make sure your time is in sync, or other instances will receive your posts with incorrect timestamps. You should have ntpd running.

Further reading

{! backend/installation/further_reading.include !}

Questions

Questions about the installation or didn’t it work as it should be, ask in #pleroma:matrix.org or IRC Channel #pleroma on Freenode.