How to Install Jackal on Arch Linux

Jackal is a Jabber/XMPP server that supports multiple domains, users, and access control lists. If you are looking for a simple and secure messaging solution, Jackal is worth giving a try. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Jackal on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before we proceed, make sure the following prerequisites are met:

  • Arch Linux is installed and running
  • You have root access or sudo privileges
  • A working internet connection

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Jackal requires several dependencies to be installed on the system. Open your terminal and execute the following command to install them:

sudo pacman -S git make gcc libidn glib2 libuuid cmake libmicrohttpd libmicrohttpd mariadb mariadb-clients

Step 2: Clone Jackal

We need to clone the Jackal repository from Github. Open your terminal and execute the following command:

git clone https://github.com/ortuman/jackal.git

This will create a new directory called 'jackal' in your current working directory.

Step 3: Build and Install Jackal

Change the directory to the Jackal directory:

cd jackal

Now, it's time to build and install Jackal. Execute the following commands:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

This will build and install Jackal in your system.

Step 4: Configure Jackal

After installing Jackal, we need to configure it. Create a configuration directory for Jackal:

sudo mkdir /etc/jackal

Copy the sample configuration file to the configuration directory:

sudo cp ../jackal.yml /etc/jackal/

Open the configuration file in your preferred text editor:

sudo nano /etc/jackal/jackal.yml

Replace the following lines with the appropriate values:

host: mydomain.com
http_host: mydomain.com
http_port: 5280
auth:
  password:
    scheme: plain
listen: 127.0.0.1:5222
logger:
  level: info
  outputs:
    - type: console

Save and close the file.

Step 5: Create a MySQL Database

Jackal stores users and messages in a MySQL database. Follow the below steps to create a Jackal database:

  1. Log in to MySQL as a root user:
sudo mariadb -u root
  1. Create a new database:
CREATE DATABASE jackal_db;
  1. Create a new MySQL user and grant privileges for the Jackal database:
CREATE USER 'jackaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON jackal_db.* TO 'jackaluser'@'localhost';
  1. Flush the privileges and exit MySQL:
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Step 6: Start Jackal

Finally, start the Jackal server using the following command:

sudo jackal

If you want to start Jackal as a background process, use the following command:

sudo jackal -D

That's it. Jackal is now installed on your Arch Linux system. You can now use any XMPP client to connect to the server and start messaging!

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learnt how to install Jackal on Arch Linux. We also configured Jackal to use a MySQL database and started the Jackal server. If you face any issues during the installation, please refer to the official Jackal documentation.