This article describes steps one can take to install Mastodon social networking CMS on Ubuntu Linux.
Mastodon is free and open-source CMS software that let you create your own social networking website. It is written in Ruby and JavaScript with support on multiple platforms.
Similar to Twitter and Facebook, Mastodon offers microblogging features that allows users to post messages, including images, follow others and create other content.
You can self-host Mastodon on your own server in your own environment. Your users can interact with your server via mobile devices, including Android, MacOS and others.
How to Install Mastodon Social Network CMS on Ubuntu Linux
As described above, Mastodon is free and open-source CMS based software that let you create your own social networking portal. The app is written in Ruby and JavaScript with support on multiple platforms.
Below is how to install it on Ubuntu Linux.
Install dependencies
First, prepare and install package dependencies that will allow you to install and run Mastodon.
Run the commands below to update Ubuntu and install dependencies for Mastodon.
sudo apt update sudo apt install software-properties-common dirmngr apt-transport-https ca-certificates redis-server curl gcc g++ make imagemagick ffmpeg libpq-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev file git-core libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler pkg-config autoconf bison build-essential libssl-dev libyaml-dev libreadline-dev libidn11-dev libicu-dev libjemalloc-dev zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm-dev
Once you have installed the packages above, continue below.
Install Node.js and Yarn
Mastodon is written in JavaScript (Node.js). It requires Node.js to be installed. Run the commands below to install it.
Add Node.js repository to Ubuntu by running the commands below.
curl -sL | sudo bash -
After that, run the commands below to install Node.js.
sudo apt install nodejs
Additional Node.js resources can be found in the post below.
How to install Node.js on Ubuntu Linux
After installing Node.js, go and also install Yarn.
Run the commands below to add Yarn’s repository GPG key and file.
curl -sL | sudo apt-key add - echo "deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
Finally, run the commands below to update Ubuntu package index and install Yarn.
sudo apt update sudo apt install yarn
Additional Yarn resources can be found in the post below:
How to install Yarn on Ubuntu Linux
Install PostgreSQL
Mastodon needs a database server to store its content. It uses PostgreSQL database server for that.
Run the commands below to install PostgreSQL.
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
After installing, logon to PostgreSQL database shell.
sudo su - postgres psql
On the command shell, run the commands below to create a user named mastodon.
CREATE USER mastodon CREATEDB;
Exit twice.
exit exit
Additional resources on PostgreSQL can be found in the post below.
How to install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu Linux.
Install Ruby
Again, Mastodon is developed in Ruby on Rails. It needs Ruby installed to function. We will create a system account to create an environment to run Ruby.
Run the commands below to create a system account named mastodon.
sudo adduser --disabled-login --gecos 'Mastodon Server' mastodon
Next, switch to the account by typing the commands below.
sudo su - mastodon
Then create a Ruby environment.
git clone ~/.rbenv cd ~/.rbenv && src/configure && make -C src echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc exec bash git clone ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
Finally, install Ruby and update dependencies.
RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--with-jemalloc rbenv install 3.0.3 rbenv global 3.0.3 gem update --system gem install bundler --no-document
Install Mastodon
At this point, your system should be ready for Mastodon. Run the commands below to switch to the Mastodon account.
sudo su - mastodon
The clone the latest version of Mastodon.
git clone ~/live cd ~/live git checkout $(git tag -l | grep -v 'rc[0-9]*$' | sort -V | tail -n 1)
Next, install all dependencies.
bundle config deployment 'true' bundle config without 'development test' bundle install -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) yarn install --pure-lockfile
Set up Mastodon by running the commands below.
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake mastodon:setup
Answer the questions to the prompts as shown below.
Your instance is identified by its domain name. Changing it afterward will break things. Domain name: mastodon.example.com Single user mode disables registrations and redirects the landing page to your public profile. Do you want to enable single user mode? No Are you using Docker to run Mastodon? No PostgreSQL host: /var/run/postgresql PostgreSQL port: 5432 Name of PostgreSQL database: mastodon_production Name of PostgreSQL user: mastodon Password of PostgreSQL user: Database configuration works! 🎆 Redis host: localhost Redis port: 6379 Redis password: Redis configuration works! 🎆 Do you want to store uploaded files on the cloud? No Do you want to send e-mails from localhost? No SMTP server: smtp.mailgun.org SMTP port: 587 SMTP username: SMTP password: SMTP authentication: plain SMTP OpenSSL verify mode: none E-mail address to send e-mails "from": Mastodon <[email protected]> Send a test e-mail with this configuration right now? No This configuration will be written to .env.production Save configuration? Yes Now that configuration is saved, the database schema must be loaded. If the database already exists, this will erase its contents. Prepare the database now? Yes Running `RAILS_ENV=production rails db:setup` ... Created database 'mastodon' Done! The final step is compiling CSS/JS assets. This may take a while and consume a lot of RAM. Compile the assets now? Yes Running `RAILS_ENV=production rails assets:precompile` ...
You’ll be prompted to create an admin account. Do it.
All done! You can now power on the Mastodon server 🐘 Do you want to create an admin user straight away? Yes Username: admin E-mail: [email protected] You can login with the password: 1c9e2ce773933bec6a71dccd9b889d0a You can change your password once you login.
Exit when all is done above.
Create a Systemd Service for Mastodon
To efficiently manage Mastodon service, you will want to create a systemd service for it. Run the commands below to copy pre-configured scripts to use.
sudo cp /home/mastodon/live/dist/mastodon-web.service /etc/systemd/system/ sudo cp /home/mastodon/live/dist/mastodon-sidekiq.service /etc/systemd/system/ sudo cp /home/mastodon/live/dist/mastodon-streaming.service /etc/systemd/system/
Reload systemd daemon
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Now you should be able to start all necessary Mastodon services.
sudo systemctl start mastodon-web sudo systemctl start mastodon-sidekiq sudo systemctl start mastodon-streaming sudo systemctl enable mastodon-web sudo systemctl enable mastodon-sidekiq sudo systemctl enable mastodon-streaming
Setup Nginx reverse proxy for Mastodon
Mastodon is SSL enabled by default. You must setup a SSL certificate to use with Mastodon. You can use Let’s Encrypt free SSL with Mastodon, and below is how to do it.
Run the commands below to install Certbot and Nginx HTTP server.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot sudo apt update sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
For additional resources on installing and creating Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for Nginx, read the post below.
How to set up Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for Nginx on Ubuntu Linux
After installing, run the commands below to use Mastodon default Nginx server block config setting to create Nginx server block.
sudo cp /home/mastodon/live/dist/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/mastodon.conf sudo sed -i 's/example.com/mastodon.example.com/g' /etc/nginx/sites-available/mastodon.conf sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mastodon.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
If you can’t get Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on your localhost, simply use the default Ubuntu snakeoil certificate in the Nginx server block file at /etc/nginx/sites-available/mastodon.conf.
#Uncomment these lines once you acquire a certificate: ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key;
Give Nginx permission to Mastodon’s directory and restart.
sudo chown -R mastodon:www-data /home/mastodon sudo systemctl restart nginx
Once you’re done, Mastodon should be installed and ready.
Open your browser and browse to the domain name specified in Nginx server block file.
https://mastodon.example.com
Login with the Mastodon account created above.
That should do it!
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to install and use Mastodon social network CMS on Ubuntu Linux. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
