Installing PixelFed onto Ubuntu 22.04

oday I have been installing PixelFed onto a VM running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and for this, I used a couple of resources and some grey matter to get it working, so I better write this down before I forget.

This is designed more to be used by a technical resource to spin an instance up rather than an “end user”, and my thinking behind this is that it is still a beta. Initial ActivityPub looks to have been added in October, making it compatible the other Fediverse products like Mastodon.

Update the Ubuntu OS

Once you have deployed the VM using the provider of your choice, I use Binary Lane for my VMs, you will need to upgrade them

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt upgrade -y
 reboot now

Install the Pre-Requistists

Redis

 apt -y install redis-server
 systemctl enable redis-server

MariaDB

If you have pre-existing MariaDB or MySQL Instance you can use this and change the below to suite

 apt -y install mariadb-server
 systemctl enable mariadb
 mysql_secure_installation
 mysql -u root -p

Create the SQL Database

 create database pixelfed;
 grant all privileges on pixelfed.* to 'pixelfed'@'localhost' identified by <yourpassword>';
 flush privileges;
 exit;

Install PHP

 apt -y install php-fpm php-cli php-bcmath php-curl php-gd php-intl php-mbstring php-redis php-xml php-zip php-mysql
 vi /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

Setup PHP-fpm

Set the following:

• upload_max_filesize to 100MB
• upload_max_filesize to 20-30 (how many files to a post
• max_execution_time to 600+ so upload tasks are not interrupted

Install php-composer

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o /tmp/composer-setup.php
 php /tmp/composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Install Nginx and Certbot

 apt -y install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx
 systemctl enable nginx
 certbot --nginx -d pixel.neurodiversity-in.au

Install random prerequisites

 apt -y install ffmpeg jpegoptim optipng pngquant gifsicle unzip zip postfix

Install PixelFed

 mkdir -p /opt/pixelfed
 cd /opt/pixelfed
 git clone -b dev https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed.git pixelfed
 composer install --no-ansi --no-interaction --optimize-autoloader
 cp .env.example .env

Configure the environment file

vi /opt/pixelfed/.env

Add / Edit the following lines to the .env config file

 ENABLE_CONFIG_CACHE="true"
 APP_NAME="Pixel | Neurodiversity"
 INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION="Supporting Neurodiversity all the Way"
 INSTANCE_DISCOVER_PUBLIC="true"
 INSTANCE_CONTACT_EMAIL="<your email>
 INSTANCE_PUBLIC_LOCAL_TIMELINE="true"
 INSTANCE_PUBLIC_HASHTAGS="true"
 APP_ENV="production"
 ​
 # Database Configuration
 DB_CONNECTION="mysql"
 DB_HOST="db"
 DB_PORT="3306"
 DB_DATABASE="pixelfeed"
 DB_USERNAME="pixelfeed"
 DB_PASSWORD="<yourpassword>"
 ​
 BACKUP_ARCHIVE_PASSWORD="<backup password>"
 BACKUP_ARCHIVE_ADDRESS="<your email>"
 ​
 OPEN_REGISTRATION="true"
 MAX_ALBUM_LENGTH="30"
 ​
 # ActivityPub Configuration
 ACTIVITY_PUB="true"
 AP_REMOTE_FOLLOW="true"
 AP_INBOX="true"
 AP_OUTBOX="true"
 AP_SHAREDINBOX="true"
 REMOTE_AVATARS="true"
 NODE_INFO="true"
 WEBFINGER="true"
 ​
 AP_LOGGER_ENABLED="yes"
 # Experimental Configuration# ActivityPub Configuration
 ACTIVITY_PUB="true"
 AP_REMOTE_FOLLOW="true"
 AP_INBOX="true"
 AP_OUTBOX="true"
 AP_SHAREDINBOX="true"
 REMOTE_AVATARS="true"
 NODE_INFO="true"
 WEBFINGER="true"
 AP_LOGGER_ENABLED="yes"
 ​
 ## Mail Configuration (Post-Installer)
 MAIL_DRIVER=sendmail
 MAIL_HOST=127.0.0.1
 MAIL_PORT=25
 MAIL_USERNAME=null
 MAIL_PASSWORD=null
 MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
 MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="pixelfed@<yourdomain>"
 MAIL_FROM_NAME="Pixelfed Mailbot"
 ​
 ## S3 Configuration (Post-Installer)
 PF_ENABLE_CLOUD="true"
 FILESYSTEM_DRIVER="s3"
 FILESYSTEM_CLOUD="s3"
 AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="<key>"
 AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="<secret>"
 AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="<region>"
 AWS_BUCKET="pixelfed"
 AWS_URL="https://filecache.neurodiversity-in.au/pixelfed/"
 AWS_ENDPOINT="https://filecache.neurodiversity-in.au"
 AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT="true"
 ​
 CUSTOM_EMOJI="true"
 IMAGE_DRIVER="imagick"
 INSTANCE_CONTACT_FORM="true"
 INSTANCE_DISCOVER_PUBLIC="true"
 INSTANCE_PUBLIC_LOCAL_TIMELINE="true"
 ​
 STORIES_ENABLED="true"
 LOG_CHANNEL="syslog"
 LOG_LEVEL="DEBUG"

Change Ownership on /opt/pixelfed

 chown www-data:www-data /opt/pixelfed

Run PHP Artisan Tasks

 #One time only, you need to generate the secret APP_KEY:
 php artisan key:generate
 ​
 #One time only, the storage/ directory must be linked to the application:
 php artisan storage:link
 ​
 #Database migrations must be run:
 php artisan migrate --force
 ​
 #If you want to enable support for location data:
 php artisan import:cities
 ​
 #If you enabled ActivityPub federation:
 php artisan instance:actor
 ​
 #If you enabled OAuth:
 php artisan passport:keys
 ​
 #Routes should be cached whenever the source code changes or whenever you change routes:
 php artisan route:cache
 php artisan view:cache
 ​
 #Every time you edit your .env file, you must run this command to have the changes take effect:
 php artisan config:cache
 ​
 ### Laravel Horizon - Job queueing
 php artisan horizon:install
 php artisan horizon:publish

Create the system file

 tee /etc/systemd/system/pixelfedhorizon.service <<EOF
 [Unit]
 Description=Pixelfed task queueing via Laravel Horizon
 After=network.target
 Requires=mariadb
 Requires=php7.4-fpm
 Requires=redis
 Requires=nginx
 ​
 [Service]
 Type=simple
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/php artisan horizon --environment=production
 ExecStop=/usr/bin/php artisan horizon:terminate --wait
 User=pixelfed
 WorkingDirectory=/opt/pixelfed
 Restart=on-failure
 ​
 KillSignal=SIGCONT
 TimeoutStopSec=3600
 ​
 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target
 ​
 EOF
 ​
 systemctl daemon-reload
 systemctl enable pixelfedhorizon
 systemctl status pixelfedhorizon

Crontab for schedule

 crontab -e

add this

 * * * * * /usr/bin/php /home/pixelfed/pixelfed/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Configure Nginx

cp /home/pixelfed/pixelfed/contrib/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/pixelfed.conf
 ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pixelfed.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
 nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/pixelfed.conf 

change:

• server_name pixel. (this appears twice)
• root /opt/pixelfed/public;
• ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/pixel./fullchain.pem;
• ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/pixel./privkey.pem;