Fedora 33+

This was tested on Fedora 33. It will likely work on slightly older or newer verisons, with zero changes.

Fedora does not natively support MongoDB because of the license. Therefore, this guide will use PostgreSQL.

First you need to make sure that Fedora is up to date, you can do so using this command:

dnf upgrade -y --refresh

Now, you install the base software stack:

dnf install -y git nodejs postgresql-server policycoreutils-python-utils

Initialize the PostgreSQL database

/usr/bin/postgresql-setup initdb

Enable and start the database

systemctl enable --now postgresql

Update the firewall to allow the needed connections

firewall-cmd --add-port=4567/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Tell SELinux to allow the webserver to connect to the local network

setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

Create user and database to be used by NodeBB * This spews an error about changing directories, but still creates.

sudo -u postgres psql -c "create user nbbuser with encrypted password 'SomeLongPasswordForTheUser'"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "create database nodebbdb"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "grant all privileges on database nodebbdb to nbbuser"

Set a password for the admin user (postgres)

sudo -u postgres psql -c "alter user postgres with password 'SomeLongPasswordForTheRootUser'"

Update PostgreSQL to use database user login information.

sed -i 's/ident$/md5/g' /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

Restart PostgreSQL

systemctl restart postgresql

Create application directory.

mkdir -p /opt/nodebb

Next, clone the NodeBB repository: * As of the creation of this guide, the current branch is v2.x * Update accordingly

git clone -b v2.x https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB /opt/nodebb

Note

To clone the master branch you can use the same command with out the "-b v2.x" option.

It is bad practice to run NodeBB as a privileged user, so create a user

adduser nodebb --system --create-home

Set ownership of the NodeBB folder to the user that will be running the application

chown -R nodebb:nodebb /opt/nodebb

Change directory and then initiate the setup script by running the app as the nodebb user with the setup flag:

cd /opt/nodebb
sudo -u nodebb ./nodebb setup

The wizards will ask what database to use, make sure you specify postgres and then use the same information as used above when the database was created.

Lastly, we run the forum, again as the nodebb user.

sudo -u nodebb ./nodebb start

NodeBB can also be started with helper programs, such as forever. Take a look at the options here.