How to Install Elgg on NetBSD

Elgg is a powerful open-source social networking platform that is written in PHP. It is free to download and easy to install on various operating systems including NetBSD. In this tutorial, we will show you step-by-step how to install Elgg on NetBSD.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following:

  • A server running NetBSD
  • A non-root user account with sudo privileges
  • A web server installed (we will be using Apache)
  • PHP installed (we will be using PHP 7.4)
  • MariaDB or MySQL database server installed
  • Git installed

Step 1: Install required packages

Begin installing the required packages by updating the package repository and installing PHP, MariaDB or MySQL, and Apache with the following command:

sudo pkgin update
sudo pkgin install apache php php-mysqli php-gd php-mbstring php-curl php-xml mariadb-server mariadb-client

Step 2: Create a database

Once you have installed the required packages, you need to create a database for Elgg to use. First, log in to MariaDB or MySQL server as root with the following command:

sudo mysql -u root

Next, create a new database with the following command:

CREATE DATABASE elgg;

Create a new user and grant privileges to the user on the elgg database as follows:

CREATE USER 'elgg'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password_here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON elgg.* TO 'elgg'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit MariaDB:

exit

Step 3: Download and install Elgg

Clone the Elgg repository from Github with the following command:

sudo git clone https://github.com/Elgg/Elgg.git /var/www/html/elgg

Copy the htaccess_dist file in the Elgg directory to .htaccess with the following command:

sudo cp /var/www/html/elgg/.htaccess_dist /var/www/html/elgg/.htaccess

Change ownership of the elgg directory to the webserver user www with the following command:

sudo chown -R www:www /var/www/html/elgg

Step 4: Configure Elgg

Navigate to /var/www/html/elgg/ directory and copy the htaccess_dist file to .htaccess:

sudo cp .htaccess_dist .htaccess

Open .htaccess in a text editor:

sudo nano .htaccess

Find the line RewriteBase /elgg/ and replace it with RewriteBase / or RewriteBase /path/to/elgg/ if you have installed Elgg in a subdirectory.

Save and exit the file.

Next, create a new configuration file for Elgg by copying the engine/settings.example.php file to engine/settings.php:

sudo cp engine/settings.example.php engine/settings.php

Open the settings.php file in your text editor:

sudo nano engine/settings.php

Edit the database settings section to match the details of the database you created earlier:

$CONFIG->dbuser = 'elgg';
$CONFIG->dbpass = 'your_password_here';
$CONFIG->dbname = 'elgg';
$CONFIG->dbhost = 'localhost';
$CONFIG->dbprefix = 'elgg_';

In the site registration section, set $CONFIG->allow_registration to true to enable user registration:

$CONFIG->allow_registration = true;

Save and exit the file.

Step 5: Complete the installation

Navigate to http://your_server_IP/elgg/install.php or http://your_hostname/elgg/install.php if you have a hostname set up. Follow the prompts to complete the installation of Elgg.

Step 6: Finalize the installation

Once you have completed the installation, you should remove the install folder to prevent unauthorized access with the following command:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/elgg/install/

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Elgg on NetBSD. You can now create a new user account and start creating your social network.