How to Install Noosfero on Elementary OS Latest

Noosfero is a web platform for social and solidarity economy networks, and it is available on its official website https://gitlab.com/noosfero/noosfero.

In this tutorial, we'll learn how to install Noosfero on Elementary OS Latest. This tutorial will require administrative rights, so make sure that your user account has administrative privileges.

Prerequisites

A fresh installation of Elementary OS Latest
Basic knowledge of using the command line interface

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Noosfero has several dependencies that need to be installed before we can install Noosfero. Open a terminal and type the following command to install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git ruby bundler libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libmagickcore-dev libmagickwand-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libpq-dev libsqlite3-dev libmysqlclient-dev libpq5 libsqlite3-0 libmysqlclient18

Step 2: Clone the Noosfero Source Code

Next, we'll clone the Noosfero source code from the GitLab repository. In the terminal, navigate to the directory where you want to install Noosfero and type the following command:

git clone https://gitlab.com/noosfero/noosfero.git

Step 3: Install and Update Bundler

Bundler is a package manager for Ruby that manages your application's dependencies. We'll now install and update Bundler to the latest version by running the following commands:

sudo gem install bundler
cd noosfero
bundle update bundler

Step 4: Install Noosfero

We're now ready to install Noosfero. Run the following command from the noosfero directory:

bundle install --without postgresql mysql sqlite

This command installs Noosfero with the SQLite database backend. If you want to use PostgreSQL or MySQL instead, replace the --without option accordingly.

Step 5: Configure Noosfero

Next, we'll configure Noosfero by copying the default configuration file and editing it:

cp config/default/production.rb config/env/
nano config/env/production.rb

In the production section of the file, replace localhost with the hostname of your server. You can also customize other settings, such as the language and the email settings.

Note: If you're using Nano text editor for the first time, launch nano from the terminal and use the arrow keys to move the cursor. To save the file and exit nano, press Ctrl+x, type y, and then press Enter.

Step 6: Create the Database

Noosfero requires a database to store its data. We'll create the SQLite database by running the following command:

bundle exec rake db:create

Step 7: Initialize the Database

With the database created, we'll now initialize it by running the following command:

bundle exec rake db:schema:load RAILS_ENV=production

Step 8: Start Noosfero

We're finally ready to start Noosfero! In the noosfero directory, type the following command:

bundle exec noosfero start -e production

You should now be able to access Noosfero at http://localhost:3000/.

Congratulations, you've successfully installed Noosfero on Elementary OS Latest!