-------------------------------------------
  * **chatmail** 
  * **Jonathan Haack**
  * **Haack's Networking**
  * **webmaster@haacksnetworking.org**

-------------------------------------------

//chatmail// 

-------------------------------------------

This tutorial contains my setup notes for creating my chatmail instance.

  * Official docs: [[https://chatmail.at/doc/relay/getting_started.html|Chatmail]] 
  * Ticket for Trixie: [[https://github.com/chatmail/relay/issues/476 |Trixie Status]]
  * Chatmail Relay: [[https://mail.haacknet.org|Haacknet Chatmail Server]]

Set up Debian 12 machine and a dedicated non-root user that will ssh into the root user and deploy the instance. Exchange keys etc., and make sure to use a ed25519 key. Once that's done, setup all DNS before starting and make sure all required packages are installed: 

  sudo apt install git rsync python3-venv python3-dev gcc libcrypt-dev

Make sure the following DNS records are established to begin with:

  * A
  * AAAA
  * MX

Then, as worker 
  
  ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "worker@$(hostname)" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  chmod 700 ~/.ssh
  chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  
Let's now create a config file for ssh so we don't go out and back in but instead ssh directly into localhost:
  
  su - worker
  nano ~/.ssh/config

Inside that, put the following:

<code>
Host mail.haacknet.org
HostName 127.0.0.1
User root
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
IdentitiesOnly yes
</code>

When exchanging keys, you will need to use the ''-f'' flag. Okay, now let's set perms and start configuring the instance.

  chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config
  git clone https://github.com/chatmail/chatmail.git
  cd ~/relay
  scripts/initenv.sh
  scripts/cmdeploy status
  mkdir -p ~/Repositories
  cd ~/Repositories
  git clone https://github.com/chatmail/relay
  cd relay
  scripts/initenv.sh
  scripts/cmdeploy init mail.haacknet.org

This creates ''chatmail.ini'' for you so that when you run cmdeploy it knows where to ssh and which instance to control, etc. Now, we setup the instance:

  scripts/cmdeploy run

I had to run this twice. The second time it created the LE records. After that, run its DNS checker and then create all the records it requests
  
  su - worker
  cd ~/Repositories/relay
  scripts/cmdeploy dns

After setup, run the status and test commands to check everything:

  su - worker
  cd ~/Repositories/relay
  scripts/cmdeploy status
  scripts/cmdeploy test

To upgrade (in progress), probably:

  cd ~/Repositories/relay
  git pull origin main --rebase --autostash
  scripts/initenv.sh
  scripts/cmdeploy run

You can see new accounts here:

  find /home/vmail/mail/mail.haacknet.org -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d
  
If a flood of new accounts comes in and/or you suspect bots, then disable public reg:

  touch /etc/chatmail-nocreate
  
The primary page I used for setup was here:

 --- //[[alerts@haacksnetworking.org|oemb1905]] 2026/09/08 02:12//