How to Install Synapse on POP! OS Latest

Introduction

Synapse is a popular, flexible, and scalable Matrix homeserver that can be used for a wide range of applications. It is written in Python and can be used to host one or multiple Matrix domains. In this tutorial, we will install Synapse on POP! OS. Follow these steps to install Synapse on your system.

Prerequisites

Before you can start the installation process, you will need to have the following prerequisites already installed:

  • A server or a Virtual Private Server (VPS) with at least 2 GB of RAM
  • POP! OS Latest installed and running on your system
  • Python 3.5+
  • pip

Installation

Follow these steps to install Synapse on POP! OS Latest:

Step 1: Install the Required Dependencies

To install the required dependencies, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install -y python3.9 python3-pip python3-setuptools python3-virtualenv build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev libsasl2-dev libldap2-dev libxi6 libxrender1 libxtst6 libxext6 python3-wheel python3-cffi

Step 2: Install and Configure PostgreSQL

To install PostgreSQL, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Once PostgreSQL is installed, log into the PostgreSQL shell using the following command:

sudo -u postgres psql

Then, create a new user with the following command:

CREATE USER synapse WITH PASSWORD 'password';

After creating a new user, create a new database with the following command:

CREATE DATABASE synapse OWNER synapse ENCODING 'UTF8';

Finally, grant privileges to the newly created user with the following command:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE synapse TO synapse;

Step 3: Install Synapse

To install Synapse, run the following command:

sudo pip3 install matrix-synapse

Step 4: Configure Synapse

To configure Synapse, copy the default configuration file with the following command:

cp /usr/local/lib/python3.x/dist-packages/synapse/python_dependencies.py ./synapse.yml

Replace 'x' with the current Python version installed on your system. Use the following command to edit the Synapse configuration file:

nano synapse.yml

Add the following lines to the end of the configuration file:

database:
  name: psycopg2
  args:
    user: synapse
    password: password
    database: synapse
    host: localhost
    cp_min: 5
    cp_max: 10
    pool_size: 10

Replace the 'password' with the one you set during Step 2.

Step 5: Start Synapse

To start Synapse, run the following command:

synctl start

Step 6: Verify Synapse

To verify Synapse, go to your browser and type in your system's IP address followed by :8008, e.g:

http://your-server-ip:8008

You should see the Synapse web interface.

Conclusion

You have now installed Synapse on POP! OS Latest. You can now use Synapse to host one or multiple Matrix domains.