Installing on Debian Based Distributions

Installation

This guide will assume you are on Debian Stretch. This guide should also work with Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04. 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 pleroma; in this case, use su <username> -s $SHELL -c 'command' instead.

Required packages

• postgresql (9.6+, Ubuntu 16.04 comes with 9.5, you can get a newer version from here)
• postgresql-contrib (9.6+, same situtation as above)
• elixir (1.5+, install from here, Debian and Ubuntu ship older versions or use asdf as the pleroma user)
• erlang-dev
• erlang-tools
• erlang-parsetools
• erlang-eldap, if you want to enable ldap authenticator
• erlang-ssh
• erlang-xmerl
• git
• build-essential

Optional packages used in this guide

• nginx (preferred, example configs for other reverse proxies can be found in the repo)
• certbot (or any other ACME client for Let’s Encrypt certificates)

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

Install Elixir and Erlang

• Download and add the Erlang repository:

wget -P /tmp/ https://packages.erlang-solutions.com/erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb

• Install Elixir and Erlang:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install elixir erlang-dev erlang-parsetools erlang-xmerl erlang-tools erlang-ssh

Install PleromaBE

• Add a new system user for the Pleroma service:

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

Note: To execute a single command as the Pleroma system user, use sudo -Hu pleroma command. You can also switch to a shell by using sudo -Hu pleroma $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 pleroma -s $SHELL -c 'command' and su -l pleroma -s $SHELL for starting a shell.

• Git clone the PleromaBE repository and make the Pleroma user the owner of the directory:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/pleroma
sudo chown -R pleroma:pleroma /opt/pleroma
sudo -Hu pleroma git clone -b stable https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma /opt/pleroma

• Change to the new directory:

cd /opt/pleroma

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

sudo -Hu pleroma mix deps.get

• Generate the configuration: sudo -Hu pleroma mix pleroma.instance gen

  • Answer with yes if it asks you to install rebar3.
  • This may take some time, because parts of pleroma 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 Pleroma will load it (prod.secret.exs for productive instance, dev.secret.exs for development instances):

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 pleroma MIX_ENV=prod mix ecto.migrate

• Now you can start Pleroma already

sudo -Hu pleroma 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 Pleroma and you should consider to create a systemd service file for Pleroma.

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/pleroma/installation/pleroma.nginx /etc/nginx/sites-available/pleroma.nginx
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pleroma.nginx /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/pleroma.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/pleroma/installation/.

Systemd service

• Copy example service file

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

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

sudo systemctl enable --now pleroma.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 pleroma MIX_ENV=prod mix pleroma.user new <username> <your@emailaddress> --admin

Further reading

• Backup your instance
• Configuration tips
• Hardening your instance
• How to activate mediaproxy
• Small Pleroma-FE customizations
• Updating your instance

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.