How to Install Remark42 on POP! OS Latest

In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Remark42 on the latest version of POP! OS. Remark42 is an open-source commenting system that can be self-hosted on your own server. It is easy to install and has minimal requirements.

Prerequisites

Before starting with the installation process, you should have the following:

• A server running the latest version of POP! OS
• Root or sudo access to the server
• A domain name or IP address for your website
• Nginx webserver installed

Step 1: Install Go Programming Language

Remark42 is written in Go language, so you need to install Go on your POP! OS system. To install Go, open the terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install golang-go

After installing, you can check the Go version by running the following command:

go version

Step 2: Install MySQL Database Server

Remark42 requires a MySQL database server to store user data, comments, and settings. To install MySQL, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

Once installed, you can access the MySQL shell by running the following command:

mysql -u root -p

When prompted for the password, enter the root password you set during installation.

Step 3: Configure the MySQL Database

After installing the MySQL server, create a new database for Remark42 to use. Run the following command to access the MySQL shell:

mysql -u root -p

When prompted, enter your root password.

Create a new database named remark42:

CREATE DATABASE remark42;

Create a new user remark42user and set a password for it:

CREATE USER 'remark42user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Grant all privileges to the user on the remark42 database:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON remark42.* TO 'remark42user'@'localhost';

Flush the privileges and exit from the MySQL shell:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4: Install and Configure Remark42

To download and install Remark42, run the following command:

go get -u github.com/umputun/remark42/cmd/remark42

This will install Remark42 and its dependencies in your $GOPATH.

Next, create the configuration file for Remark42. Navigate to the config directory located at $GOPATH/src/github.com/umputun/remark42/config/ and make a copy of the remark42.yml.sample file:

cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/umputun/remark42/config/
cp remark42.yml.sample remark42.yml

Edit the configuration file and replace the domain and database details with your own. It should look something like this:

server:
    domain: example.com # insert your own domain name
    port: ":8080"
db:
    host: "localhost"
    user: "remark42user"
    name: "remark42"
    password: "password" # insert your own password
    poolsize: 5
redis:
    server: "localhost:6379"
    password: ""
    db: 0
email:
    user: "[email protected]"

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Starting the Server

To start the Remark42 server, navigate to the cmd directory located at $GOPATH/src/github.com/umputun/remark42/cmd/remark42 and run the following command:

go run main.go -config ../config/remark42.yml

This will start the server on port 8080. You can access the web interface by opening your browser and navigating to http://localhost:8080.

Setting up Nginx Proxy

You can use Nginx to proxy requests to the Remark42 server. To do this, first, install Nginx on POP! OS by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install nginx

Next, create a new Nginx configuration file by navigating to the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory and creating a file named remark42.conf:

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available/
sudo nano remark42.conf

Paste the following configuration in the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com; # insert your own domain name
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    }
}

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Next, create a symbolic link to the configuration file in the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/remark42.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test the Nginx configuration and restart Nginx:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Remark42 on POP! OS and configured it with Nginx. You can now have an open-source commenting system on your website.