akkoma/docs/installation/debian_based_en.md

Installing on Debian Based Distributions

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Installation

This guide will assume you are on Debian 11 (“bullseye”) or later. This guide should also work with Ubuntu 18.04 (“Bionic Beaver”) and later. It also assumes that you have administrative rights, either as root or a user with sudo permissions. If you want to run this guide with root, ignore the sudo at the beginning of the lines, unless it calls a user like sudo -Hu akkoma; in this case, use su <username> -s $SHELL -c 'command' instead.

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Prepare the system

• First update the system, if not already done:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

• Install some of the above mentioned programs:

sudo apt install git build-essential postgresql postgresql-contrib cmake libmagic-dev

Install Elixir and Erlang

• Install Elixir and Erlang (you might need to use backports or asdf on old systems):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install elixir erlang-dev erlang-nox

Optional packages: docs/installation/optional/media_graphics_packages.md

sudo apt install imagemagick ffmpeg libimage-exiftool-perl

Install AkkomaBE

• Add a new system user for the Akkoma service:

sudo useradd -r -s /bin/false -m -d /var/lib/akkoma -U akkoma

Note: To execute a single command as the Akkoma system user, use sudo -Hu akkoma command. You can also switch to a shell by using sudo -Hu akkoma $SHELL. If you don’t have and want sudo on your system, you can use su as root user (UID 0) for a single command by using su -l akkoma -s $SHELL -c 'command' and su -l akkoma -s $SHELL for starting a shell.

• Git clone the AkkomaBE repository and make the Akkoma user the owner of the directory:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/akkoma
sudo chown -R akkoma:akkoma /opt/akkoma
sudo -Hu akkoma git clone https://akkoma.dev/AkkomaGang/akkoma.git /opt/akkoma

• Change to the new directory:

cd /opt/akkoma

• Install the dependencies for Akkoma and answer with yes if it asks you to install Hex:

sudo -Hu akkoma mix deps.get

• Generate the configuration: sudo -Hu akkoma MIX_ENV=prod mix pleroma.instance gen

  • Answer with yes if it asks you to install rebar3.
  • This may take some time, because parts of akkoma get compiled first.
  • After that it will ask you a few questions about your instance and generates a configuration file in config/generated_config.exs.

• Check the configuration and if all looks right, rename it, so Akkoma will load it (prod.secret.exs for productive instance, dev.secret.exs for development instances):

sudo -Hu akkoma mv config/{generated_config.exs,prod.secret.exs}

• The previous command creates also the file config/setup_db.psql, with which you can create the database:

sudo -Hu postgres psql -f config/setup_db.psql

• Now run the database migration:

sudo -Hu akkoma MIX_ENV=prod mix ecto.migrate

• Now you can start Akkoma already

sudo -Hu akkoma MIX_ENV=prod mix phx.server

Finalize installation

If you want to open your newly installed instance to the world, you should run nginx or some other webserver/proxy in front of Akkoma and you should consider to create a systemd service file for Akkoma.

Nginx

• Install nginx, if not already done:

sudo apt install nginx

• Setup your SSL cert, using your method of choice or certbot. If using certbot, first install it:

sudo apt install certbot

and then set it up:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt/
sudo certbot certonly --email <your@emailaddress> -d <yourdomain> --standalone

If that doesn’t work, make sure, that nginx is not already running. If it still doesn’t work, try setting up nginx first (change ssl “on” to “off” and try again).

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• Copy the example nginx configuration and activate it:

sudo cp /opt/akkoma/installation/nginx/akkoma.nginx /etc/nginx/sites-available/akkoma.nginx
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/akkoma.nginx /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/akkoma.nginx

• Before starting nginx edit the configuration and change it to your needs (e.g. change servername, change cert paths)
• Enable and start nginx:

sudo systemctl enable --now nginx.service

If you need to renew the certificate in the future, uncomment the relevant location block in the nginx config and run:

sudo certbot certonly --email <your@emailaddress> -d <yourdomain> --webroot -w /var/lib/letsencrypt/

Other webserver/proxies

You can find example configurations for them in /opt/akkoma/installation/.

Systemd service

• Copy example service file

sudo cp /opt/akkoma/installation/akkoma.service /etc/systemd/system/akkoma.service

• Edit the service file and make sure that all paths fit your installation
• Enable and start akkoma.service:

sudo systemctl enable --now akkoma.service

Create your first user

If your instance is up and running, you can create your first user with administrative rights with the following task:

sudo -Hu akkoma MIX_ENV=prod mix pleroma.user new <username> <your@emailaddress> --admin

Further reading

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Questions

If you encounter any issues or have questions regarding the install process, feel free to ask at meta.akkoma.dev.