How to Install Owncast on Manjaro

Owncast is a self-hosted live video and web chat server for streaming. In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to install Owncast on Manjaro.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure that you have the following:

  • A VPS or dedicated server running Manjaro
  • A non-root user with sudo privileges
  • A domain name or IP address pointing to your server

Step 1: Update Your System

First, update your Manjaro system.

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

Next, we need to install the required dependencies for Owncast. 

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg git

Step 3: Install Go Language

Owncast is written in the Go programming language. To install Go, follow these steps:

  1. Download the Go binary from the official website: https://golang.org/dl/
  2. Extract the Go binary to /usr/local/
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.16.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz
  1. Add the Go binary path to your system's PATH variable.
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Step 4: Clone Owncast Repository

Clone the Owncast repository from GitHub.

git clone https://github.com/owncast/owncast.git

Step 5: Build and Install Owncast

Now, we need to build and install Owncast.

cd owncast
go build

Once the build process is complete, you can run Owncast by executing the following command:

./owncast

Step 6: Configure Owncast

By default, Owncast uses port 8080 for web traffic and port 1935 for RTMP streaming. You can change these settings by editing the config.yaml file located in the Owncast directory.

nano config.yaml

Update the webserver.port and services.rtmp.port settings, then save the changes.

Step 7: Run Owncast as a Service

To run Owncast as a service, create a systemd service file named owncast.service.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/owncast.service

Paste the following contents into the file and save:

[Unit]
Description=Owncast Live Video Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your-username
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/owncast
ExecStart=/path/to/owncast/owncast

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Replace your-username and path/to/owncast with your own values.

Reload the systemd daemon and start the Owncast service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start owncast

Check that Owncast is running.

sudo systemctl status owncast

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have now installed Owncast on Manjaro. Owncast is a powerful tool for self-hosting your live video and web chat server. With the ability to customize your configuration and run as a service, Owncast is a great addition to your self-hosted suite of applications.