Linux how to forum

How to Install phpBB forum on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 Server

phpBB is a fully scalable and customizable open-source forum. The software has a user-friendly interface and straightforward management options. It is based on PHP and MySQL.

Well, phpBB is a group of international people who enjoy working on open-source software. This software was created in June 2000. There have been some changes in the licenses as well as in the management team of phpBB. The goals of the phpBB creators are still the same. They want to provide free forum software for the Internet.

Some features of the phpBB forum software

• Any database server
• Interfaces for different languages
• Forums for private or public use
• Send private messages in the system
• The integrated search function in the software
• The layout can be changed with templates
• The software can be optimized with mods

Steps to install phpBB forum software in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 LTS

1. phpBB Requirements

To perform this tutorial we require a Debian based Linux such as Ubuntu, with PHP 7.1.3+, database server (MySQL, MariaDB, MS SQL Server 2000 or above (via ODBC or the native adapter), Oracle, PostgreSQL 8.3+ or SQLite 3.6.15+), Web server, and access to a non-root user with sudo rights.

2. Run Ubuntu system update

All the core software packages we required to install the phpBB forum are available through the default Ubuntu 22.04 & 20.04 base repository. Hence, first, make sure your system is up to date.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

3. Install Apache, MySQL, and PHP

We need the LAMP server stack to install the phpBB forum on Ubuntu, therefore in this step execute the single command given below. This will install Apache web server, MariaDB, PHP, and its required extensions.

sudo apt install apache2 mariadb-server libapache2-mod-php php-gd php-curl openssl php-imagick php-intl php-json php-ldap php-common php-mbstring php-mysql php-imap php-sqlite3 php-net-ftp php-zip unzip php-pgsql php-ssh2 php-xml wget unzip

4. Start and Enable Services

After completing the previous step let’s enable and start the services of Apache and MariaDB to run automatically with system boot.

sudo systemctl enable --now apache2 mariadb

Restart the service once

sudo systemctl restart apache2 mariadb

Now check the status:

sudo systemctl status apache2

sudo systemctl status mariadb

5. Create a Database for phpBB on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

Before creating a database and user for phpBB, let’s run a MySQL command to secure our database server instance:

Go through the text-based wizard and remove the demo database table, set root user password, limit remote access…

After that login to your MariaDB server to create a database and user.

Note: Change yourdb with the Database name you want to use, whereas youruser and yourpassword with username and password, respectively, with whatever you want to assign.

CREATE DATABASE yourdb;

GRANT ALL ON yourdb.* to 'youruser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';

6. Download phpBB forum files

Unlike other common open-source software, the phpBB forum is not available to download or install using the Ubuntu package repositories. Hence, we have to download its files manually from its official website.

You can click on the download button to get it on your system. However, if you are using a command-line server or accessing your server via SSH then right-click on the”Download button” and select the “Copy Link Address” option.

After that come to your Terminal and download the phpBB setup file using wget command i.e:

For example:

wget https://download.phpbb.com/pub/release/3.3/3.3.7/phpBB-3.3.7.zip

Extract the file

After downloading the file, extract it:

Now, move it to your web directory:

sudo mv phpBB3 /var/www/html/phpbb

Give Apache users the ownership of the file and set read-write permission for it as well.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/phpbb

sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/phpbb

7. Configure Virtual Host for phpBB

To host multiple websites or web platforms on an Apache web server, the best way is to use Virtual host configuration files, where we tell the Apache what is the location files, how and when it has to serve the users. Most of the time, we configure forums either in subdomain or subdirectory. Here we are doing the same.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/phpbb.conf

Copy-Paste the following lines:

Note: Although we can access the forum using the server-IP-address, however, if you want to use FQDN (Domain) then replace phpbb.example.com with the domain you want to use for accessing the phpBB forum in the below-given configuration lines.

 ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot /var/www/html/phpbb ServerName phpbb.example.com Options FollowSymlinks AllowOverride All Require all granted ErrorLog $/phpbb_error.log CustomLog $/phpbb_access.log combined 

Save the file by using Ctrl+O, press Y and Ctrl+X to exit.

Enable created virtual host configuration for phpBB and also the Apache’s rewrite module:

Restart the Apache Service to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

8. Install phpBB forum on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

After completing all the above-given steps, open your system browser that can access the domain or server-ip-address of Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 where you have installed the phpBB forum web software. And point it to that.

For example:

Note: Replace server-ip-address with the actual address whereas your-domain.com with the domain you have configured.

http://server-ip-address/phpbb or http://your-domain.com/phpbb

As you get the Graphical user interface of phpBB to install this forum software, select the “Install” tab and then click on the “Install” button.

Create Admin user:

Add the username, email address, and password that you want to use to access and login to the backend of the phpBB.

Database Configuration:

As we have used the MariaDB database server, therefore let’s add the details of that. Use localhost or 127.0.0.1 for the Database server hostname, leave the port blank. After that add the details of the Database such as name, username, and password.

Server Configuration:

Well, in this step you will get some settings to configure Cookie, URL, HTTP or HTTPS protocol, and others. Do the needful, otherwise, leave them because we can configure them later.

Email Configuration:

To confirm the registration of new users we need to have an Email service enabled on our forum. Therefore, if you want it, then configure the SMTP server.

Give Title to your Bulletin board Configuration.

The installation is finally completed.

Now, delete the “Install” folder to access the create, delete the posts and access the features of the phpBB forum software.

Go to your server terminal and run this command:

sudo rm -r /var/www/html/phpbb/install

Refresh your phpBB web interface and this time you will have the “Welcome post“.

9. Access phpBB Administration Control Panel

To access the Admin control panel, click on the link given for the same at the footer of phpBB. For reference see the screenshot.

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11 Open-Source Forum Software That You Can Deploy on Your Linux Servers

Just like our It’s FOSS Community forum, it is important to always build a platform where like-minded people can discuss, interact, and seek support.

A forum gives users (or customers) a space to reach out for something that they cannot easily find on the Internet for the most part.

If you are an enterprise, you may hire a team of developers and build your own forum the way you want but that adds a lot of cost to your budget.

Fortunately, there are several impressive open source forum software that you can deploy on your server and you’re good to go! You will save a lot of money in the process and still get what you need.

Here, I have compiled a list of the best open source forum software that you can install on your Linux server.

Best open source forum software to build a community portal

If you haven’t built a website yet, you might want to look at some open-source website creation tools before you deploy a forum.

Note: The list is in no particular order of ranking.

1. Discourse (modern and popular)

Discourse is the most popular modern forum software that people deploy to set up their discussion platforms. In fact, our It’s FOSS community forum utilizes the Discourse platform.

It offers most of the essential features that I’m aware of which include email notifications, moderation tools, style customization options, third-part integrations like Slack/WordPress, and more.

It is completely free to self-host and you can find the project on GitHub as well. If you do not need the hassle of deploying it on a self-managed server, you can always choose to opt for managed services offered by Discourse itself (which will be certainly expensive).

2. Talkyard (inspired by Discourse and StackOverflow)

Talkyard is completely free to use and an open-source project. It looks close to Discourse but there are distinctions if you inspect it.

You get most of the key features from StackOverflow here, along with all essential features that you would expect on a forum platform. It may not be a popular forum solution, but if you want something similar to Discourse along with some interesting features, this is worth trying out.

You can explore more about it on their GitHub page.

3. Forem (Unique approach for a community platform)

You may not have heard about it before, but it is what powers dev.to (which is an increasingly popular developer community website).

It appears to be out of beta, but we haven’t had any experience with it, you might want to experiment with it before deploying it to production. The self-hosting option can be challenging if you are new to the tech stack. In that case, they also offer managed hosting option.

You will have to fill out a form with your requirements, and they’ll reach out to you about that.

Even though there’s no official feature list to highlight everything, you do get many essential features and functionalities like community listing, shop, post formatting, etc, if we take dev.to as an example.

You can read more about what it offers in its announcement post and latest changelogs. Or you can also explore the project on GitHub.

4. NodeBB (Modern and full of features)

NodeBB is an open-source forum software based on Node.js. It aims to be simple, elegant, and fast as well. Primarily, it is geared towards organizations and enterprises with managed hosting plans available. But, you can choose to host it yourself as well.

You get a real-time native analytics feature along with chat and notification support as well. It also offers an API, if you want to integrate it with any of your existing products. It also supports moderation tools and tools to fight spam.

You get some 3rd party integration support out of the box like WordPress, Mailchimp, etc.

Explore more about it on their GitHub page or the official website.

5. Vanilla Forums (enterprise focused)

Vanilla Forums is primarily an enterprise-focused forum software with essential features to brand your platform, offer a Q/A for customers, and also give the ability to vote on posts.

The user experience is geared with a modern look and is being used by the likes of EA, Adobe, and some other big-shot companies.

Of course, if you want to try the cloud-based Vanilla Forums (managed by a team of professionals) along with access to some premium features, feel free to request a Demo. In either case, you can opt for the community edition, which is free to use with most of the latest features, with the responsibility of hosting it yourself and managing it.

You can explore more about it on their official website and GitHub page.

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