How to Install PixelFed on OpenSUSE Latest

In this tutorial, we will be guiding you through the installation process of PixelFed, the free and decentralized social network, on OpenSUSE Latest operating system.

Prerequisites

Before starting this installation process, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

  • An OpenSUSE Latest operating system running instance.
  • A non-root user with sudo permissions.

Step 1: Installing Required Dependencies

To start with the installation of PixelFed on OpenSUSE Latest, we need to install the required dependencies. Run the following command to update your system package repository

sudo zypper update

Next, we need to install the required dependencies, including PHP, MariaDB, Nginx, and other PHP modules, by running the following command:

sudo zypper install php-fpm php-gd php-json php-mbstring php-pdo php-zip nginx mariadb mariadb-client

Step 2: Setting Up a Database for PixelFed

After installing the required dependencies, we need to set up a database for the PixelFed. To do so, we will log in to our MySQL shell and create a new database and user by running the following commands:

mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE pixelfed;
CREATE USER ‘pixelfed’@‘localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘Your-Strong-Password’;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pixelfed.* to ‘pixelfed’@‘localhost’;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 3: Downloading and Installing PixelFed

After setting up a database for PixelFed, we need to download and install PixelFed. Create a new directory where we will download the PixelFed files and switch to that directory by running the following commands:

mkdir -p ~/public_html/pixelfed
cd ~/public_html/pixelfed

Next, we will download the latest PixelFed release from the official GitHub repository.

 wget https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/releases/download/v0.10.9/pixelfed-v0.10.9.tar.gz

Unzip the downloaded content and rename the extracted directory by running the following commands:

tar -xvzf pixelfed-v0.10.9.tar.gz
mv pixelfed-*/* ./

After that, we need to install composer to install the required PHP packages:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Run the following command to install the PixelFed PHP dependencies:

composer install

Step 4: Configuration of Nginx Web Server

After installing PixelFed PHP dependencies, we need to configure the Nginx web server to serve our PixelFed application.

Create a new Nginx configuration file called pixelfed.conf under the /etc/nginx/conf.d/ directory, and paste the following content into it:

server {
     listen 80;
     server_name example.com;
     root /home/username/public_html/pixelfed/public;
     index index.php;

     # Add headers to serve security related headers
     add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload;";
     add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
     add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
     add_header X-Robots-Tag none;
     add_header X-Download-Options noopen;
     add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies none;

     # Path to favicon.ico
     location = /favicon.ico {
          log_not_found off;
          access_log off;
     }

     # Path to robots.txt
     location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
     }

     # Deny all attempts to access hidden files such as .htaccess, .htpasswd, .DS_Store (Mac).
     location ~ /\. {
          deny all;
     }

     # Serve files from the public directory.
     location / {
          try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
     }

     # PHP FPM configuration.
     location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
        include fastcgi_params;
     }

     # Compression
     gzip on;
     gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
     gzip_comp_level 3;
     gzip_min_length 512;
     gzip_buffers 16 8k;
     gzip_proxied any;
     gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.(?!.*SV1)";
}

Replace example.com with your domain name and replace username with your username.

After adding this configuration file, make sure to reload the Nginx service by running the following command:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 5: Complete Installation through Web Interface

After completing the configuration of the Nginx web server, navigate to the PixelFed installation page and finish the setup by following these steps:

  1. Open your web browser and browse to the following URL: http://example.com.
  2. You will see the PixelFed installation screen.
  3. Enter the MySQL database information that we created earlier, such as Database Name, Username, Password, and Host (localhost).
  4. Follow the rest of the installation instructions.
  5. Once the installation process is complete, you can log in to your PixelFed admin panel by following the provided link.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed PixelFed on your OpenSUSE Latest operating system. You can now use and enjoy this wonderful free and decentralized social network. If you face any issues during the installation process, feel free to leave a comment below.