Flarum is a modern, open-source forum software that is lightweight, fast, and easy to use. If you want to create a community forum on your Ubuntu 24.04 server, installing Flarum is a great option. In this article, we will guide you through the process of installing Flarum on Ubuntu 24.04.

1. Update and Upgrade Ubuntu:

Before you begin, it is important to ensure that your Ubuntu 24.04 server is up to date. You can do this by running the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

This will update the package lists and upgrade any outdated packages on your server.

1. Install Dependencies:

Flarum requires some dependencies to be installed on your server. You can install them by running the following command:

sudo apt install wget unzip zip curl git

1. Install Composer:

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP that is required for installing Flarum. You can install Composer by running the following command:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

1. Create a Directory for Flarum:

You will need to create a directory where Flarum will be installed. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/flarum
cd /var/www/html/flarum

1. Download and Install Flarum:

You can download the latest version of Flarum using Composer. Run the following command to install Flarum:

composer create-project flarum/flarum .

This will install Flarum in the current directory.

1. Set Permissions:

You will need to set the correct permissions for the Flarum directory. Run the following commands to do this:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/flarum
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/flarum

1. Configure Nginx:

To access Flarum from a web browser, you will need to configure Nginx to serve the Flarum installation. You can create an Nginx configuration file for Flarum by running the following command:

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

Add the following configuration to the file:

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

    root /var/www/html/flarum/public;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
    }
}

Save and close the file. Then, create a symbolic link to enable the configuration:

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

Finally, restart Nginx for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

1. Access Flarum:

You can now access your Flarum installation from a web browser by visiting http://your-domain.com. You will be prompted to set up the forum by entering your database details and creating an admin account.

That’s it! You have successfully installed Flarum on your Ubuntu 24.04 server. You can now start creating a community forum and engaging with your users. Enjoy!