How to Install Etherpad on Debian Jessie

Kai Wagner

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This tutorial will show you how to install Etherpad on Debian Jessie.

The following command will install all necessary packages:

apt-get install gzip git-core curl python libssl-dev pkg-config \
        build-essential python g++ make checkinstall \
        nginx-full mysql-server

Next we need to compile and install nodejs:

cd /usr/src/
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-latest.tar.gz
tar xzvf node-latest.tar.gz && cd node-v*
./configure && checkinstall

When the dialog window opens, enter ‘3’ and remove the “v” in front of the version number. Install nodejs with the following commandi:

dpkg -i node_*

Create a MySQL or a MariaDB database

CREATE DATABASE etherpad CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON etherpad.* TO etherpad@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '__yourPasswd__';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
\q

Install and configure Etherpad Lite

Go to the directory where you want to install Etherpad Lite and clone the git repository:

cd /var/www/
git clone git://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite.git

Edit the configuration file:

cd etherpad-lite/
cp settings.json.template settings.json
vim settings.json

and change the following settings:

// change the IP Address
"ip": "127.0.0.1",

//configure the connection settings
 "dbType" : "mysql",
 "dbSettings" : {
   "user"    : "etherpad",
   "host"    : "localhost",
   "password": "__yourPassword__",
   "database": "etherpad"
 },

// add admin user
"users": {
 "admin": {
 "password": "__yourAdminPassword__",
 "is_admin": true
 }
},

Create a system user

adduser --system --home=/var/www/etherpad-lite/ --group etherpad
chown -R etherpad: /var/www/etherpad-lite/

Start Etherpad Lite for the first time:

su -c "/var/www/etherpad-lite/bin/run.sh" -s /bin/bash etherpad

If everything is OK, kill all processes belonging to the etherpad user:

pkill -u etherpad

Create an init script using your favorite editor:

#!/bin/sh

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          etherpad-lite
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts etherpad lite
# Description:       starts etherpad lite using start-stop-daemon
### END INIT INFO

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/opt/node/bin"
LOGFILE="/var/www/etherpad-lite/etherpad-lite.log"
EPLITE_DIR="/var/www/etherpad-lite"
EPLITE_BIN="bin/safeRun.sh"
USER="etherpad"
GROUP="etherpad"
DESC="Etherpad Lite"
NAME="etherpad-lite"

set -e

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

start() {
  echo "Starting $DESC... "

    start-stop-daemon --start --chuid "$USER:$GROUP" --background --make-pidfile --pidfile /var/run/$NAME.pid --exec $EPLITE_DIR/$EPLITE_BIN -- $LOGFILE || true
  echo "done"
}

#We need this function to ensure the whole process tree will be killed
killtree() {
    local _pid=$1
    local _sig=${2-TERM}
    for _child in $(ps -o pid --no-headers --ppid ${_pid}); do
        killtree ${_child} ${_sig}
    done
    kill -${_sig} ${_pid}
}

stop() {
  echo "Stopping $DESC... "
   while test -d /proc/$(cat /var/run/$NAME.pid); do
    killtree $(cat /var/run/$NAME.pid) 15
    sleep 0.5
  done
  rm /var/run/$NAME.pid
  echo "done"
}

status() {
  status_of_proc -p /var/run/$NAME.pid "" "etherpad-lite" && exit 0 || exit $?
}

case "$1" in
  start)
      start
      ;;
  stop)
    stop
      ;;
  restart)
      stop
      start
      ;;
  status)
      status
      ;;
  *)
      echo "Usage: $NAME {start|stop|restart|status}" >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
esac

exit 0

Start the script automatically on system boot:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/etherpad-lite
update-rc.d etherpad-lite defaults
/etc/init.d/etherpad-lite start

Create a new virtual host (server block):

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/domain.tld.conf

server {
 listen       80;
 server_name  domain.tld;
   location / {
     proxy_pass        http://localhost:9001/;
     proxy_set_header  Host $host;
     proxy_buffering   off;
   }
 }

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/domain.tld /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/domain.tld
/etc/init.d/nginx restart

In case you are using Apache, you can use the following virtual host directive:

vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.tld

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName domain.tld
    ServerSignature Off
    <IfModule mod_proxy.c>
        ProxyVia On
        ProxyRequests Off
        ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9001/
        ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9001/
        ProxyPreserveHost on
        <Proxy *>
            Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Proxy>
    </IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.tld /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/domain.tld
a2enmod proxy proxy_http
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

That’s it! You can now access Etherpad Lite from your browser.

Thanks to rosehosting.com for the Wheezy tutorial.

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