How to Install Flarum on NixOS Latest

Flarum is a forum software that is easy to use, customizable and lightweight. In this tutorial, we will be installing Flarum on NixOS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before you start installing Flarum, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

NixOS Latest installed on your system
Sudo access to the system
A domain name or a public IP address to access the Flarum installation
Basic knowledge of Linux commands

Step 1: Install Flarum using Nix

Open your terminal and run the following command to install Flarum using Nix:

sudo nix-env -iA nixos.flarum

This command will download and install Flarum on your system.

Step 2: Create a Systemd Service for Flarum

Create a new file /etc/systemd/system/flarum.service and add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Flarum Forum
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/var/flarum
ExecStart=/run/current-system/sw/bin/php flarum flarum:start
User=flarum
Group=www

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file and close it.

Step 3: Create a User and Directory for Flarum

Create a new user and group for Flarum using the following command:

sudo useradd -m -U -r -d /var/flarum -s /bin/false flarum

The above command creates a new user named flarum with home directory /var/flarum and sets the shell to /bin/false.

Change the ownership of /var/flarum directory to flarum and www group:

sudo chown -R flarum:www /var/flarum

Step 4: Configure Nginx for Flarum

Install Nginx using the following command:

sudo nix-env -iA nixos.nginx

Create a new Nginx configuration file for Flarum by running the following command:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/flarum.conf

Add the following content to the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name forum.example.com; # Replace with your own domain or IP
    root /var/flarum/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location /api {
       try_files $uri $uri/ /api.php?$query_string;
    }
}

Save the file and close it.

Create a symbolic link from sites-available/flarum.conf to sites-enabled/flarum.conf by running the following command:

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

Reload Nginx to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 5: Install Flarum Dependencies

Install the required PHP extension for Flarum using the following command:

sudo nix-env -iA nixos.php74Extensions.php74-pdo_sqlite

Step 6: Setup Flarum

php flarum install

This command will start the installation wizard for Flarum. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Step 7: Start Flarum Service

Start the Flarum service using the following command:

sudo systemctl start flarum

Enable the Flarum service to start at boot:

sudo systemctl enable flarum

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Flarum on NixOS Latest. You can now access your Flarum installation by visiting your domain name or IP address in your web browser.