How to Install Known on NixOS Latest

In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to install Known, a social publishing platform, on NixOS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

• A server running NixOS Latest
• A user with sudo privileges
• A domain name or subdomain for your Known instance

Step 1: Update NixOS

Let's make sure that your NixOS is up to date by running the following command:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Step 2: Install Known Dependencies

Before we can install Known, we need to install its dependencies. Run the following command to install the required packages:

sudo nix-env -i nginx php74 php74-fpm php74-intl php74-apcu php74-memcached sqlite git

Step 3: Clone the Known Repository

Next, we need to clone the Known repository. Run the following command to clone it:

git clone https://github.com/idno/known.git /opt/known

Step 4: Configure Nginx

Now, we need to configure Nginx to serve Known. Create a new configuration file called known in the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/known

Paste the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    # Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    root /opt/known;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certificates/your-domain.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certificates/your-domain.com.key;

    # Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS
    if ($scheme != "https") {
        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
    }

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
    }
}

Replace your-domain.com with your domain or subdomain, and save the file. Now, enable the site by creating a symbolic link to the sites-enabled folder:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/known /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Finally, restart Nginx to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 5: Configure Known

Now, we need to configure Known to use our domain name and database. First, rename the Ini.sample file to Ini:

cd /opt/known
mv Ini.sample Ini

Next, open the Ini file and set the following values:

known.followermail.enabled = false
known.site = https://your-domain.com/
known.pretty_urls = true

db.defaults.engine = mysql
db.host = localhost
db.user = known
db.pass = your-password
db.name = known

Replace your-domain.com with your domain or subdomain, and set a secure password for db.pass. We use mysql here, but you can also use sqlite.

Step 6: Install Known

We have configured everything we need, so let's install Known by running the following command:

php74 composer.phar install

This will install all the required dependencies, and may take several minutes to complete.

Step 7: Start Known

Finally, let's start Known by running the following command:

sudo systemctl start php74-fpm

That's it! You should now be able to access your Known instance by navigating to https://your-domain.com/ in your web browser. If you run into any issues, make sure to check the logs and troubleshoot accordingly.