How to Install Remark42 on Void Linux

Remark42 is a self-hosted comment engine that can be integrated into your website or web application. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of Remark42 on Void Linux.

Prerequisites

Before you can start installing Remark42 on Void Linux, you need to have the following:

• A server or computer running Void Linux
• A terminal or command-line interface to enter commands in
• A web server installed, such as Nginx or Apache
• A domain name or IP address for your website or web application

Step 1: Install Dependencies

To get started, you need to install the required dependencies for Remark42. Open a terminal or command-line interface and run the following commands:

sudo xbps-install -S nginx
sudo xbps-install -S gcc
sudo xbps-install -S make
sudo xbps-install -S tzdata
sudo xbps-install -S cmake
sudo xbps-install -S mariadb
sudo xbps-install -S mariadb-devel
sudo xbps-install -S mariadb-static
sudo xbps-install -S mariadb-client
sudo xbps-install -S mariadb-c++-connector

The above commands will install Nginx, GCC, Make, TZData, CMake, and MariaDB along with its various dependencies.

Step 2: Download and Extract Remark42

Next, you need to download and extract the latest version of Remark42 from the official website. Run the following commands to do so:

wget https://remark42.com/static/remark42-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -zxvf remark42-linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd remark42

Step 3: Configure MariaDB

Remark42 requires a database to store comments and other information. In this tutorial, we will use MariaDB as the database management system.

Start the MariaDB Service

Run the following command to start the MariaDB service:

sudo sv start mariadb

Create a Database and User

To create a new database and a user, run the following command:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter your MySQL root password when prompted. At the MySQL prompt, run the following commands:

CREATE DATABASE remark42;
CREATE USER 'remark42'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON remark42.* TO 'remark42'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Replace password with a secure password for the database user.

Step 4: Configure Remark42

Next, you need to configure Remark42 to use the database you just created. Open the config.yaml file in your favorite text editor:

nano config.yaml

Change the following parameters to reflect your database settings:

database: "mysql"       # The database type
dsn: "remark42:password@tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/remark42?charset=utf8mb4&parseTime=true"       # The database connection string

Replace password with the password you set for the remark42 database user earlier.

Step 5: Configure Nginx

Finally, you need to configure Nginx to serve your Remark42 installation. Create a new server block in your Nginx configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/remark42.conf

Add the following configuration to the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com; # replace with your domain name or IP address
    root /path/to/remark42;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }

    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Replace example.com with your domain name or IP address and /path/to/remark42 with the absolute path to your Remark42 installation.

Step 6: Start the Remark42 Service

To start the Remark42 service, run the following command:

./remark42 serve

Conclusion

Congratulations, you have successfully installed and configured Remark42 on Void Linux. You can now integrate it into your website or web application and start collecting comments from your users.