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  * **Castopod Setup**
  * **oemb1905**
  * **gnulinux.news**
  * **webmaster@haacksnetworking.org**

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//castopod//

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This tutorial is for Debian users wanting to set up a production-ready Castopod instance. Make sure you have a [[https://wiki.haacksnetworking.org/doku.php?id=computing:apachesurvival|sufficiently hardened]] VPS and LAMP stack first, then proceed:

<code>
sudo apt install php-intl php8.4-mysql php-gd php-curl php-mbstring php-xml php-zip mailutils postfix
sudo a2enmod rewrite proxy_fcgi ssl headers
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/gnulinux.news/
cd /var/www/gnulinux.news/
sudo wget https://code.castopod.org/-/project/2/uploads/419c795a5ab306a27082b7d86aa43df6/castopod-1.15.5.zip
sudo unzip castopod-1.15.5.zip
sudo rm castopod-1.15.5.zip
sudo mv castopod public_html
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/writable
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/writable
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl restart apache2 php8.4-fpm
</code>

Make sure you set the ''/etc/postfix/main.cf'' interface to ''loopback-only''. Now, set up the database by running ''sudo mysql -u root -p'' and entering something like:

<code>
CREATE DATABASE castop CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Strong-Password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON castop.* TO 'user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
</code>

You http vhost should look like:

<code>
<VirtualHost *:80>

        ServerName gnulinux.news
        ServerAdmin webmaster@haacksnetworking.org
        DocumentRoot /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/public

        #LogLevel info ssl:warn

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

        #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
        <FilesMatch ".+\.ph(ar|p|tml)$">
                SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost"
        </FilesMatch>

        RewriteEngine on
        RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =gnulinux.news
        RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]

</VirtualHost>
</code>


Your https vhost should look like:

<code>
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName gnulinux.news
    DocumentRoot /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/public

    <Directory /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/public>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <FilesMatch ".+\.ph(ar|p|tml)$">
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    </FilesMatch>

    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/gnulinux.news/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/gnulinux.news/privkey.pem
    Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>
</code>

Additionally, make sure you've allowed overrides in the global ''/etc/apache2/apache.conf'' as well. We are now going to create the virtual environment:

<code>
cd /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html
sudo cp .env.example .env
sudo chown www-data:www-data .env
sudo chmod 644 .env
sudo nano .env
</code>

In the ''.env'' config, enter something like the following:

<code>
app.baseURL="https://gnulinux.news/"
media.baseURL="https://gnulinux.news/"
admin.gateway="cp-admin"
auth.gateway="cp-auth"
analytics.salt="64-character-salt"
database.default.hostname="localhost"
database.default.database="castopod"
database.default.username="cpuser"
database.default.password="Strong-Password"
database.default.DBPrefix="cp_"
email.fromEmail="noreply@gnulinux.news"
email.fromName="GNU/Linux News"
email.protocol="mail"
</code>

Regular cron maintenance is as follows:

<code>
#castopod spark
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/spark tasks:run >> /dev/null 2>&1
#casto cleanup
0 3 * * * find /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/writable/temp -type f -mtime +7 -delete >/dev/null 2>&1
0 3 * * * find /var/www/gnulinux.news/public_html/writable/session -type f -mtime +2 -delete >/dev/null 2>&1
</code>

Once you have configured everything, visit ''https://gnulinux.news/cp-install'' and choose your super admin credentials. Alright folks, enjoy!

 --- //[[alerts@haacksnetworking.org|oemb1905]] 2026/05/29 23:21//