How to install Vanilla Forums on Manjaro

Vanilla Forums is a popular and free open-source community forum software. In this tutorial, we will explain how to install Vanilla Forums on a Manjaro Linux operating system.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation process, ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

• A user account with administrative privileges on the Manjaro system.
• A web server software, such as Apache or Nginx, is already installed and configured.
• A database management system, such as MySQL or MariaDB, is installed and configured.

Step 1: Install PHP

Vanilla Forums is written in PHP, so you need to install PHP on your Manjaro system. To install PHP and other essential PHP modules, execute the following command in the terminal:

sudo pacman -S php php-fpm php-gd php-intl php-mbstring php-pdo php-xml

Step 2: Download and extract Vanilla Forums

Go to the Vanilla Forums website https://vanillaforums.org/ to download the latest stable version of Vanilla Forums. Once the download is complete, extract the downloaded archive file using the following command:

sudo mkdir /var/www/vanillaforums
cd /var/www/vanillaforums
sudo wget https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/releases/download/Vanilla_3.3/Vanilla-3.3.zip
sudo unzip Vanilla-3.3.zip
sudo mv Vanilla-3.3/* .
sudo rm -rf Vanilla-3.3 Vanilla-3.3.zip

Step 3: Configure the Database

Create a new MySQL/MariaDB database for the Vanilla Forums installation. To create a new database, run the following command:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter your MySQL/MariaDB root password and execute the following commands:

CREATE DATABASE vanilla;
CREATE USER 'vanillauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON vanilla.* TO 'vanillauser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Replace 'password' with a strong password.

Step 4: Create a Virtual Host

Create a new virtual host file in the Apache/Nginx web server configuration directory. To create a new virtual host for Apache, execute the following command:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/extra/vanillaforums.conf

Add the following content to the vanillaforums.conf file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName yourdomain.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/vanillaforums
  <Directory /var/www/vanillaforums>
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace 'yourdomain.com' with your own domain name.

Save and close the file.

Step 5: Restart the Web Server

After configuring the virtual host, restart the Apache/Nginx web server to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 6: Install Vanilla Forums

Open your web browser and type the following URL in the address bar:

http://yourdomain.com/

You should see the Vanilla Forums installation page. Follow the on-screen instructions to configure the Vanilla Forums installation. Enter the MySQL/MariaDB database details that you created earlier in Step 3.

After completing the installation process, Vanilla Forums will be ready to use. You can access the Vanilla Forums admin panel by visiting the following URL:

http://yourdomain.com/dashboard

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have explained how to install Vanilla Forums on a Manjaro Linux Operating system. If you have followed the above steps correctly, you should have successfully installed Vanilla Forums. You can now start creating your own online community by using Vanilla Forums.