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Installing on Alpine Linux

OTP releases vs from-source installations

There are two ways to install Akkoma. You can use OTP releases or do a from-source installation. OTP releases are as close as you can get to binary releases with Erlang/Elixir. The release is self-contained, and provides everything needed to boot it, it is easily administered via the provided shell script to open up a remote console, start/stop/restart the release, start in the background, send remote commands, and more. With from source installations you install Akkoma from source, meaning you have to install certain dependencies like Erlang+Elixir and compile Akkoma yourself.

This guide covers a from-source installation. To install using OTP releases, please check out the OTP guide.

Installation

This guide is a step-by-step installation guide for Alpine Linux. The instructions were verified against Alpine v3.16 standard image. You might miss additional dependencies if you use netboot instead.

As of Alpine Linux v3.16, doas is the preferred way of running privileged commands, which is what this guide will use. If you are running an earlier version, replace doas with sudo (and use sudo -Hu akkoma instead of doas -u akkoma). If you want to run this guide with root, ignore the doas at the beginning of the lines, unless it calls a user like doas -u akkoma; in this case, use su -l <username> -s $SHELL -c 'command' instead.

Required dependencies

  • PostgreSQL 12+
  • Elixir 1.14+ (currently tested up to 1.16)
  • Erlang OTP 25+ (currently tested up to OTP26)
  • git
  • file / libmagic
  • gcc (clang might also work)
  • GNU make
  • CMake

Optional dependencies

  • ImageMagick
  • FFmpeg
  • exiftool

Prepare the system

  • The community repository must be enabled in /etc/apk/repositories. Depending on which version and mirror you use this looks like https://dl-5.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.16/community. If you autogenerated the mirror during installation:
awk 'NR==2' /etc/apk/repositories | sed 's/main/community/' | tee -a /etc/apk/repositories
  • Then update the system, if not already done:
doas apk update
doas apk upgrade
  • Install some tools, which are needed later:
doas apk add git build-base cmake file-dev

Install Elixir and Erlang

  • Install Erlang and Elixir:
doas apk add erlang elixir
  • Install erlang-eldap if you want to enable ldap authenticator
doas apk add erlang-eldap

Install PostgreSQL

  • Install Postgresql server:
doas apk add postgresql postgresql-contrib
  • Initialize database:
doas rc-service postgresql start
  • Enable and start postgresql server:
doas rc-update add postgresql

Install media / graphics packages (optional, see docs/installation/optional/media_graphics_packages.md)

doas apk add ffmpeg imagemagick exiftool

Install AkkomaBE

  • Add a new system user for the Akkoma service:
doas addgroup akkoma
doas adduser -S -s /bin/false -h /opt/akkoma -H -G akkoma akkoma

Note: To execute a single command as the Akkoma system user, use doas -u akkoma command. You can also switch to a shell by using doas -su akkoma. If you don’t have and want doas 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 from stable-branch and make the Akkoma user the owner of the directory:
doas mkdir -p /opt/akkoma
doas chown -R akkoma:akkoma /opt/akkoma
doas -u akkoma git clone https://akkoma.dev/AkkomaGang/akkoma.git -b stable /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:
doas -u akkoma mix deps.get
  • Generate the configuration: doas -u akkoma env 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 instances):

doas -u 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:
doas -u postgres psql -f config/setup_db.psql
  • Now run the database migration:
doas -u akkoma env MIX_ENV=prod mix ecto.migrate
  • Now you can start Akkoma already
doas -u akkoma env 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 an OpenRC service file for Akkoma.

Nginx

  • Install nginx, if not already done:
doas apk add nginx
  • Copy the example nginx configuration to the nginx folder
doas cp /opt/akkoma/installation/nginx/akkoma.nginx /etc/nginx/conf.d/akkoma.conf
  • Before starting nginx edit the configuration and change it to your needs. You must change change server_name. You can use nano (install with apk add nano if missing).
  • Enable and start nginx:
doas rc-update add nginx
doas rc-service nginx start
  • Setup your SSL cert, using your method of choice or certbot. If using certbot, first install it:
doas apk add certbot certbot-nginx

and then set it up:

doas mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt/
doas certbot --email <your@emailaddress> -d <yourdomain> -d <media_domain> --nginx

If that doesn't work the first time, add --dry-run to further attempts to avoid being ratelimited as you identify the issue, and do not remove it until the dry run succeeds. A common source of problems are nginx config syntax errors; this can be checked for by running nginx -t.

To automatically renew, set up a cron job like so:

# Enable the crond service
doas rc-update add crond
doas rc-service crond start

# Test that renewals work
doas certbot renew --cert-name yourinstance.tld --nginx --dry-run

# Add the renewal task to cron
echo '#!/bin/sh
certbot renew --cert-name yourinstance.tld --nginx
' | doas tee /etc/periodic/daily/renew-akkoma-cert
doas chmod +x /etc/periodic/daily/renew-akkoma-cert

OpenRC service

  • Copy example service file:
doas cp /opt/akkoma/installation/init.d/akkoma /etc/init.d/akkoma
  • Make sure to start it during the boot
doas rc-update add akkoma

Create your first user

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

doas -u akkoma env MIX_ENV=prod mix pleroma.user new <username> <your@emailaddress> --admin

Installing Frontends

Once your backend server is functional, you'll also want to probably install frontends.

These are no longer bundled with the distribution and need an extra command to install.

For most installations, the following will suffice:

./bin/pleroma_ctl frontend install pleroma-fe --ref stable
# and also, if desired
./bin/pleroma_ctl frontend install admin-fe --ref stable

mix pleroma.frontend install pleroma-fe --ref stable
mix pleroma.frontend install admin-fe --ref stable

./docker-resources/manage.sh mix pleroma.frontend install pleroma-fe --ref stable
./docker-resources/manage.sh mix pleroma.frontend install admin-fe --ref stable

For more customised installations, refer to Frontend Management

Further reading

Support

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

Or message via IRC on #akkoma at irc.akkoma.dev (port 6697, SSL)