Tools

Calibre Web with Docker and NGINX

Seting up your own Calibre Web server
How to Build a website With Hugo

Guide for setting up a static website with Hugo
How to Process Bookfusion Highlights with Vim

Removing extra stuff from Bookfusion exported highlights
How to Set Up Hugo Relearn Theme

Hugo Relearn setup guide
Nextcloud on RHEL Based Systems

Nextcloud setup guide on a RHEL based server
Self hosting a Nextcloud Server

Self hosting a Nextcloud server
Using Vagrant on Linux

How to use Vagrant from a Linux computer.
Vim Guide

Guide to using Vim
You Need to Learn Man Pages

Guide to using Man Pages

Calibre Web with Docker and NGINX

I couldn’t find a guide on how to set up Calibre web step-by-step as a Docker container. Especially not one that used Nginx as a reverse proxy.

The good news is that it is really fast and simple. You’ll need a few tools to get this done:

A server with a public IP address
A DNS Provider (I use CloudFlare)
Docker
Nginx
A Calibre Library
Certbot
Rsync

First, sync your local Calibre library to a folder on your server:

rsync -avuP your-library-dir root@example.org:/opt/calibre/

Install Docker

sudo apt update  
sudo apt install docker.io

Create a Docker network

sudo docker network create calibre_network

Create a Docker volume to store Calibre Web data

sudo docker volume create calibre_data

Pull the Calibre Web Docker image

sudo docker pull linuxserver/calibre-web

Start the Calibre Web Docker container

sudo docker run -d \   
--name=calibre-web \   
--restart=unless-stopped \   
-p 8083:8083 \   
-e PUID=$(id -u) \   
-e PGID=$(id -g) \   
-v calibre_data:/config \   
-v /opt/calibre/Calibre:/books \   
--network calibre_network \   
linuxserver/calibre-web

Configure Nginx to act as a reverse proxy for Calibre Web

Create the site file

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/calibre-web

Add the following to the file

server { listen 80;   
server_name example.com; # Replace with your domain or server IP location /   
{   
proxy_pass http://localhost:8083;   
proxy_set_header Host $host;   
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;   
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;   
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;   
} }

Enable the site

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/calibre-web /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Restart Nginx

sudo service nginx restart

DNS CNAME Record

Make sure to set up a cname record for your site with your DNS provider such as: calibre.example.com

SSL Certificate

Install ssl cert using certbot

certbot --nginx

Site Setup

Head to the site at https://calibre.example.com and log in with default credentials:

username: admin password: admin123

Select /books as the library directory. Go into admin settings and change your password.

Adding new books

Whenever you add new books to your server via the rsync command from earlier, you will need to restart the Calibre Web Docker container. Then restart Nginx.

sudo docker restart calibre-web  
systemctl restart nginx

That’s all there is to it. Feel free to reach out if you have issues.

How to Build a website With Hugo

Word Press is great, but it is probably a lot more bloated then you need for a personal website. Enter Hugo, it has less server capacity and storage needs than Word Press. Hugo is a static site generator than takes markdown files and converts them to html.

Hosting your own website is also a lot cheaper than having a provider like Bluehost do it for you. Instead of $15 per month, I am currently paying $10 per year.

This guide will walk through building a website step-by-step.

Setting up a Virtual Private Server (VPS)
Registering a domain name
Pointing the domain to your server
Setting up hugo on your local PC
Syncing your Hugo generate site with your server
Using nginx to serve your site
Enable http over SSL

Setting up a Virtual Private Server (VPS)

I use Vultr as my VPS. When I signed up they had a $250 credit towards a new account. If you select the cheapest server (you shouldn’t need anything else for a basic site) that comes out to about $6 a month. Of course the $250 credit goes towards that which equates to around 41 months free.

Head to vultr.com. Create and account and Select the Cloud Compute option.

Under CPU & Storage Technology, select “Regular Performance”. Then under “Server Location, select the server closest to you. Or closest to where you think your main audience will be.

Under Server image, select the OS you are most comfortable with. This guide uses Debian.

Under Server Size, slect the 10GB SSD. Do not select the “IPv6 ONLY” option. Leave the other options as default and enter your server hostname.

On the products page, click your new server. You can find your server credentials and IPv4 address here. You will need these to log in to your server.

Log into your sever via ssh to test. From a Linux terminal run:

ssh username@serveripaddress

Then, enter your password when prompted.

Registering a Domain Name

I got my domain perfectdarkmode.com from Cloudflare.com for about $10 per year. You can check to see available domains there. You can also check https://www.namecheckr.com/ to see iof that name is available on various social media sites.

In CloudFlare, just click “add a site” and pick a domain that works for you. Next, you will need your server address from earlier.

Under domain Registration, click “Manage Domains”, click “manage” on your domain. One the sidebar to the right, there is a qucik actions menu. Click “update DNS configuration”.

Click “Add record”. Type is an “A” record. Enter the name and the ip address that you used earlier for your server. Uncheck “Proxy Status” and save.

You can check to see if your DNS has updated on various DNS severs at https://dnschecker.org/. Once those are up to date (after a couple minutes) you should be able to ping your new domain.

$ ping perfectdarkmode.com
PING perfectdarkmode.com (104.238.140.131) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 104.238.140.131.vultrusercontent.com (104.238.140.131): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=33.2 ms
64 bytes from 104.238.140.131.vultrusercontent.com (104.238.140.131): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=28.2 ms
64 bytes from 104.238.140.131.vultrusercontent.com (104.238.140.131): icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=31.0 ms

Now, you can use the same ssh command to ssh into your vultr serverusing your domain name.

ssh username@domain.com

Setting up hugo on your local PC

Hugo is a popular open-source static site generator. It allows you to take markdown files, and builds them into and html website. To start go to https://gohugo.io/installation/ and download Hugo on your local computer. (I will show you how to upload the site to your server later.)

Pick a theme The theme I use is here https://themes.gohugo.io/themes/hugo-theme-hello-friend-ng/

You can browse your own themes as well. Just make sure to follow the installation instructions. Let’s create a new Hugo site. Change into the directory where you want your site to be located in. Mine rests in ~/Documents/.

cd ~/Documents/

Create your new Hugo site.

hugo new site site-name

This will make a new folder with your site name in the ~/Documents directory. This folder will have a few directories and a config file in it.

archetypes  config.toml  content  data  layouts  public  resources  static  themes

For this tutorial, we will be working with the config.toml file and the content, public, static, and themes. Next, load the theme into your site directory. For the Hello Friend NG theme:

git clone https://github.com/rhazdon/hugo-theme-hello-friend-ng.git themes/hello-friend-ng

Now we will load the example site into our working site. Say yes to overwrite.

cp -a themes/hello-friend-ng/exampleSite/* .

The top of your new config.toml site now contains:

baseURL = "https://example.com"
title   = "Hello Friend NG"
languageCode = "en-us"
theme = "hello-friend-ng"

Replace your baseURL with your site name and give your site a title. Set the enableGlobalLanguageMenu option to false if you want to remove the language swithcer option at the top. I also set enableThemeToggle to true so users could set the theme to dark or light.

You can also fill in the links to your social handles. Comment out any lines you don’t want with a “#” like so:

[params.social](params.social)
    name = "twitter"
    url  = "https://twitter.com/"

  [params.social](params.social)
    name = "email"
    url  = "mailto:nobody@example.com"

  [params.social](params.social)
    name = "github"
    url  = "https://github.com/"

  [params.social](params.social)
    name = "linkedin"
    url  = "https://www.linkedin.com/"

 # [params.social](params.social)
   # name = "stackoverflow"
   # url  = "https://www.stackoverflow.com/"

You may also want to edit the footer text to your liking. I commented out the second line that comes with the example site:

[params.footer]
    trademark = true
    rss = true
    copyright = true
    author = true

    topText = []
    bottomText = [
     # "Powered by <a href=\"http://gohugo.io\">Hugo</a>",
     #  "Made with &#10084; by <a href=\"https://github.com/rhazdon\">Djordje Atlialp</a>"
    ]

Now, move the contents of the example contents folder over to your site’s contents folder (giggidy):

cp -r ~/Documents/hugo/themes/hello-friend-ng/exampleSite/content/* ~/Documents/hugo/content/

Let’s clean up a little bit. Cd into ~/Documents/hugo/content/posts. Rename the file to the name of your first post. Also, delete all of the other files here:

cd ~/Documents/hugo/contents/posts
mv goisforlovers.md newpostnamehere.md
find . ! -name 'newpostnamehere.md' -type f -exec rm -f {} +

Open the new post file and delete everything after this:

+++
title = "Building a Minimalist Website with Hugo"
description = ""
type = ["posts","post"]
tags = [
    "hugo",
    "nginx",
    "ssl",
    "http",
    "vultr",
]
date = "2023-03-26"
categories = [
    "tools",
    "linux",
]
series = ["tools"]
[ author ]
  name = "David Thomas"
+++

You will need to fill out this header information for each new post you make. This will allow you to give your site a title, tags, date, categories, etc. This is what is called a TOML header. TOML stands for Tom’s Obvious Minimal Language. Which is a minimal language used for parsing data. Hugo uses TOML to fill out your site.

Save your doc and exit. Next, there should be an about.md page now in your ~/Documents/hugo/Contents folder. Edit this to edit your about page for your site. You can use this Markdown Guide if you need help learning markdown language. https://www.markdownguide.org/

Serve your website locally

Let’s test the website by serving it locally and accessing it at localhost:1313 in your web browser. Enter the command:

hugo serve

Hugo will now be generating your website. You can view it by entering localhost:1313 in your webbrowser.

You can use this to test new changes before uploading them to your server. When you svae a post or page file such as your about page, hugo will automatically update the changes to this local page if the local server is running.

Press “Ctrl + c” to stop this local server. This is only for testing and does not need to be running to make your site work.

Build out your public directory

Okay, your website is working locally, how do we get it to your server to host it online? We are almost there. First, we will use the hugo command to build your website in the public folder. Then, we will make a copy of our public folder on our server using rsync. I will also show you how to create an alias so you do not have to remember the rsync command every time.

From your hugo site folder run:

hugo

Next, we will put your public hugo folder into /var/www/ on your server. Here is how to do that with an alias. Open ~/.bashrc.

vim ~/.bashrc

Add the following line to the end of the file, making sure to replace the username and server name:

# My custom aliases
alias rsyncp='rsync -rtvzP ~/Documents/hugo/public/ username@myserver.com:/var/www/public'

Save and exit the file. Then tell bash to update it’s source config file.

source ~/.bashrc

Now your can run the command by just using the new alias any time. Your will need to do this every time you update your site locally.

rsyncp

Set up nginx on your server

Install nginx

apt update
apt upgrade
apt install nginx

create an nginx config file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/public

You will need to add the following to the file, update the options, then save and exit:

server {
        listen 80 ;
        listen [::]:80 ;
        server_name example.org ;
        root /var/www/mysite ;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html ;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404 ;
        }
}

Enter your domain in “server_name” line in place of “example.org”. Also, point “root” to your new site file from earlier. (/var/www/public). Then save and exit.

Link this site-available config file to sites-enabled to enable it. Then restart nginx:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/public /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
systemctl reload nginx

Access Permissions

We will need to make sure nginx has permissions to your site folder so that it can access them to serve your site. Run:

chmod 777 /var/www/public

Firewall Permissions

You will need to make sure your firewall allows port 80 and 443. Vultr installs the ufw program by default. But your can install it if you used a different provider. Beware, enabling a firewalll could block you from accessing your vm, so do your research before tinkering outside of these instructions.

ufw allow 80
ufw allow 443

Nginx Security

We will want to hide your nginx version number on error pages. This will make your site a bit harder for hackers to find exploits. Open your Nginx config file at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and remove the “#” before “server_tokens off;”

Enter your domain into your browser. Congrats! You now have a running website!

Use Certbot to enable HTTPS

Right now, our site uses the unencrypted http. We want it to use the encrypted version HTTPS (HTTP over SSL). This will increase user privacy, hide usernames and passwords used on your site, and you get the lock symbol by your URL name instead of “!not secure”.

Install Certbot and It’s Nginx Module

apt install python3-certbot-nginx

Run certbot

certbot --nginx

Fill out the information, certbot asks for your emaill so it can send you a reminder when the certs need to be renewed every 3 months. You do not need to consent to giving your email to the EFF. Press 1 to select your domain. And 2 too redirect all connections to HTTPS.

Certbot will build out some information in your site’s config file. Refresh your site. You should see your new fancy lock icon.

Set Up a Cronjob to automatically Renew certbot certs

crontab -e

Select a text editor and add this line to the end of the file. Then save and exit the file:

0 0 1 * * certbot --nginx renew

You now have a running website. Just make new posts locally, the run “hugo” to rebuild the site. And use the rsync alias to update the folder on your server. I will soon be making tutorials on making an email address for your domain, such as david@perfectdarkmode.com on my site. I will also be adding a comments section, RSS feed, email subscription, sidebar, and more.

Feel free to reach out with any questions if you get stuck. This is meant to be an all encompassing guide. So I want it to work.

Extras

Optimizing images

Create assets folder in main directory.

Create images folder in /assets

Access image using hugo pipes

{{ $image := resources.Get "images/test-image.jpg" }}
<img src="{{ ( $image.Resize "500x" ).RelPermalink }}" />

https://gohugo.io/content-management/image-processing/

How to Process Bookfusion Highlights with Vim

Here are my highlights pulled up in Vim:

As you can see, Bookfusion gives you a lot of extra information when you export highlights. First, let’s get rid of the lines that begin with ##

Enter command mode in Vim by pressing esc. Then type :g/^##/d and press enter.

Much better.

Now let’s get rid of the color references:`

:g/^Color/d

To get rid of the timestamps, we must find a different commonality between the lines. In this case, each line ends with “UTC”. Let’s match that:

:g/UTC$/d

Where $ matches the end of the line.

Now, I want to get rid of the > on each line: %s/> //g

Almost there, you’ll notice there are 6 empty lines in between each highlight. Let’s shrink those down into one:

:%s/\(\n\)\{3,}/\r\r/g

The command above matches newline character n 3 or more times and replaces them with two newline characters /r/r.

As we scroll down, I see a few weird artifacts from the book conversion to markdown.

Now, I want to get rid of any carrot brackets in the file. Let’s use the substitute command again here:

%s/<//g

Depending on your book and formatting. You may have some other stuff to edit.

How to Set Up Hugo Relearn Theme

Hugo Setup

Adding a module as a theme

Make sure Go is installed

go version

Create a new site

hugo new site sitename
cd sitename

Initialize your site as a module

hugo mod init sitename

Confirm

cat go.mod

Add the module as a dependency using it’s git link

hugo mod get github.com/McShelby/hugo-theme-relearn

Confirm

cat go.mod

add the theme to config.toml

# add this line to config.toml and save
theme = ["github.com/McShelby/hugo-theme-relearn"]

Confirm by viewing site

hugo serve
# visit browser at http://localhost:1313/ to view site

Adding a new “chapter” page

hugo new --kind chapter Chapter/_index.md

Add a home page

hugo new --kind home _index.md

Add a default page

hugo new <chapter>/<name>/_index.md

hugo new <chapter>/<name>.md

You will need to change some options in _index.md

+++
# is this a "chaper"?
chapter=true
archetype = "chapter"
# page title name
title = "Linux"
# The "chapter" number
weight = 1
+++

Adding a “content page” under a category

hugo new basics/first-content.md

Create a sub directory:

hugo new basics/second-content/_index.md

change draft = true to draft = false in the content page to make a page render.

Global site parameters

Add these to your config.toml file and edit as you please

[params]
  # This controls whether submenus will be expanded (true), or collapsed (false) in the
  # menu; if no setting is given, the first menu level is set to false, all others to true;
  # this can be overridden in the pages frontmatter
  alwaysopen = true
  # Prefix URL to edit current page. Will display an "Edit" button on top right hand corner of every page.
  # Useful to give opportunity to people to create merge request for your doc.
  # See the config.toml file from this documentation site to have an example.
  editURL = ""
  # Author of the site, will be used in meta information
  author = ""
  # Description of the site, will be used in meta information
  description = ""
  # Shows a checkmark for visited pages on the menu
  showVisitedLinks = false
  # Disable search function. It will hide search bar
  disableSearch = false
  # Disable search in hidden pages, otherwise they will be shown in search box
  disableSearchHiddenPages = false
  # Disables hidden pages from showing up in the sitemap and on Google (et all), otherwise they may be indexed by search engines
  disableSeoHiddenPages = false
  # Disables hidden pages from showing up on the tags page although the tag term will be displayed even if all pages are hidden
  disableTagHiddenPages = false
  # Javascript and CSS cache are automatically busted when new version of site is generated.
  # Set this to true to disable this behavior (some proxies don't handle well this optimization)
  disableAssetsBusting = false
  # Set this to true if you want to disable generation for generator version meta tags of hugo and the theme;
  # don't forget to also set Hugo's disableHugoGeneratorInject=true, otherwise it will generate a meta tag into your home page
  disableGeneratorVersion = false
  # Set this to true to disable copy-to-clipboard button for inline code.
  disableInlineCopyToClipBoard = false
  # A title for shortcuts in menu is set by default. Set this to true to disable it.
  disableShortcutsTitle = false
  # If set to false, a Home button will appear below the search bar on the menu.
  # It is redirecting to the landing page of the current language if specified. (Default is "/")
  disableLandingPageButton = true
  # When using mulitlingual website, disable the switch language button.
  disableLanguageSwitchingButton = false
  # Hide breadcrumbs in the header and only show the current page title
  disableBreadcrumb = true
  # If set to true, hide table of contents menu in the header of all pages
  disableToc = false
  # If set to false, load the MathJax module on every page regardless if a MathJax shortcode is present
  disableMathJax = false
  # Specifies the remote location of the MathJax js
  customMathJaxURL = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js"
  # Initialization parameter for MathJax, see MathJax documentation
  mathJaxInitialize = "{}"
  # If set to false, load the Mermaid module on every page regardless if a Mermaid shortcode or Mermaid codefence is present
  disableMermaid = false
  # Specifies the remote location of the Mermaid js
  customMermaidURL = "https://unpkg.com/mermaid/dist/mermaid.min.js"
  # Initialization parameter for Mermaid, see Mermaid documentation
  mermaidInitialize = "{ \"theme\": \"default\" }"
  # If set to false, load the Swagger module on every page regardless if a Swagger shortcode is present
  disableSwagger = false
  # Specifies the remote location of the RapiDoc js
  customSwaggerURL = "https://unpkg.com/rapidoc/dist/rapidoc-min.js"
  # Initialization parameter for Swagger, see RapiDoc documentation
  swaggerInitialize = "{ \"theme\": \"light\" }"
  # Hide Next and Previous page buttons normally displayed full height beside content
  disableNextPrev = true
  # Order sections in menu by "weight" or "title". Default to "weight";
  # this can be overridden in the pages frontmatter
  ordersectionsby = "weight"
  # Change default color scheme with a variant one. Eg. can be "auto", "red", "blue", "green" or an array like [ "blue", "green" ].
  themeVariant = "auto"
  # Change the title separator. Default to "::".
  titleSeparator = "-"
  # If set to true, the menu in the sidebar will be displayed in a collapsible tree view. Although the functionality works with old browsers (IE11), the display of the expander icons is limited to modern browsers
  collapsibleMenu = false
  # If a single page can contain content in multiple languages, add those here
  additionalContentLanguage = [ "en" ]
  # If set to true, no index.html will be appended to prettyURLs; this will cause pages not
  # to be servable from the file system
  disableExplicitIndexURLs = false
  # For external links you can define how they are opened in your browser; this setting will only be applied to the content area but not the shortcut menu
  externalLinkTarget = "_blank"

Syntax highlighting

Supports a variety of [Code Syntaxes] To select the syntax, wrap the code in backticks and place the syntax by the first set of backticks.

```bash
echo hello
\```

Adding tags

Tags are displayed in order at the top of the page. They will also display using the menu shortcut made further down.

Add tags to a page:

+++
tags = ["tutorial", "theme"]
title = "Theme tutorial"
weight = 15
+++

Choose a default color theme

Add to config.toml with the chosen theme for the “style” option:

[markup]
  [markup.highlight]
    # if `guessSyntax = true`, there will be no unstyled code even if no language
    # was given BUT Mermaid and Math codefences will not work anymore! So this is a
    # mandatory setting for your site if you want to use Mermaid or Math codefences
    guessSyntax = false

    # choose a color theme or create your own
    style = "base16-snazzy"

Add Print option and search output page.

add the following to config.toml

[outputs]
  home = ["HTML", "RSS", "PRINT", "SEARCH"]
  section = ["HTML", "RSS", "PRINT"]
  page = ["HTML", "RSS", "PRINT"]

Customization

This theme has a bunch of editable customizations called partials. You can overwrite the default partials by putting new ones in /layouts/partials/.

to customize “partials”, create a “partials” directory under site/layouts/

cd layouts
mkdir partials
cd partials

You can find all of the partials available for this theme here

Change the site logo using the logo.html partial

Create logo.html in /layouts/partials

vim logo.html

Add the content you want in html. This can be an img html tag referencing an image in the static folder. Or even basic text. Here is the basic syntax of an html page, adding “Perfect Dark Mode” as the text to display:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h3>Perfect Dark Mode</h3>

</body>
</html>

Add a favicon to your site

This is pasted from the relearn site. Add Favicon and edit * If your favicon is a SVG, PNG or ICO, just drop off your image in your local static/images/ folder and name it favicon.svg, favicon.png or favicon.ico respectively.

If no favicon file is found, the theme will lookup the alternative filename logo in the same location and will repeat the search for the list of supported file types.

If you need to change this default behavior, create a new file in layouts/partials/ named favicon.html. Then write something like this:

<link rel="icon" href="/images/favicon.bmp" type="image/bmp">

Changing theme colors

In your config.toml file edit the themeVariant option under [params]

  themeVariant = "relearn-dark"

There are some options to choose from or you can custom make your theme colors by using this stylesheet generator

Menu Shortcuts Add a [[menu.shortcuts]] entry for each link

[[menu.shortcuts]]
name = "<i class='fab fa-fw fa-github'></i> GitHub repo"
identifier = "ds"
url = "https://github.com/McShelby/hugo-theme-relearn"
weight = 10

[[menu.shortcuts]]
name = "<i class='fas fa-fw fa-camera'></i> Showcases"
url = "more/showcase/"
weight = 11

[[menu.shortcuts]]
name = "<i class='fas fa-fw fa-bookmark'></i> Hugo Documentation"
identifier = "hugodoc"
url = "https://gohugo.io/"
weight = 20

[[menu.shortcuts]]
name = "<i class='fas fa-fw fa-bullhorn'></i> Credits"
url = "more/credits/"
weight = 30

[[menu.shortcuts]]
name = "<i class='fas fa-fw fa-tags'></i> Tags"
url = "tags/"
weight = 40

Extras

Menu button arrows. (Add to page frontmatter)

menuPre = "<i class='fa-fw fas fa-caret-right'></i> "

Nextcloud on RHEL Based Systems

I’m going to show you how to set up your own, self-hosted Nextcloud server using Alma Linux 9 and Apache.

What is Nextcloud?

Nextcloud is so many things. It offers so many features and options, it deserves a bulleted list:

Free and open source
Cloud storage and syncing
Email client
Custom browser dashboard with widgets
Office suite
RSS newsfeed
Project organization (deck)
Notebook
Calender
Task manager
Connect to decentralized social media (like Mastodon)
Replacement for all of google’s services
Create web forms or surveys

It is also free and open source. This mean the source code is available to all. And hosting yourself means you can guarantee that your data isn’t being shared.

As you can see. Nextcloud is feature packed and offers an all in one solution for many needs. The set up is fairly simple.

You will need:

Domain hosted through CloudFlare or other hosting.
Server with Alma Linux 9 with a dedicated public ip address.

Nextcloud dependencies:

PHP 8.3
Apache
sql database (This tutorial uses MariaDB)

Official docs: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/installation/source_installation.html

Server Specs

Hard drives: 120g main 500g data 250g backup

OS: Alma 9 CPU: 4 sockets 8 cores RAM: 32768

ip 10.0.10.56/24 root: { password } davidt: { password }

Storage setup

mkdir /var/www/nextcloud/ -p
mkdir /home/databkup
parted /dev/sdb mklabel gpt
parted /dev/sdb mkpart primary 0% 100%
parted /dev/sdc mklabel gpt
parted /dev/sdc mkpart primary 0% 100%
mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1
mkfs.xfs /dev/sdc1
lsblk
blkid /dev/sdb1 >> /etc/fstab
blkid /dev/sdc1 >> /etc/fstab
vim /etc/fstab
mount -a

[root@dt-lab2 ~]# lsblk
NAME               MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda                  8:0    0  120G  0 disk 
├─sda1               8:1    0    1G  0 part /boot
└─sda2               8:2    0  119G  0 part 
  ├─almalinux-root 253:0    0   70G  0 lvm  /
  ├─almalinux-swap 253:1    0   12G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
  └─almalinux-home 253:2    0   37G  0 lvm  /home
sdb                  8:16   0  500G  0 disk 
└─sdb1               8:17   0  500G  0 part /var/www/nextcloud
sdc                  8:32   0  250G  0 disk 
└─sdc1               8:33   0  250G  0 part /home/databkup

Setting up dependencies

Install latest supported PHP

I used this guide to help get a supported php version. As php 2 installed from dnf repos by default: https://orcacore.com/php83-installation-almalinux9-rockylinux9/

Make sure dnf is up to date:

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf upgrade -y

Set up the epel repository:

sudo dnf install epel-release -y

Set up remi to manage php modules:

sudo dnf install -y dnf-utils http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm
sudo dnf update -y

Remove old versions of php:

sudo dnf remove php* -y

List available php streams:

sudo dnf module list reset php -y

Last metadata expiration check: 1:03:46 ago on Sun 29 Dec 2024 03:34:52 AM MST.
AlmaLinux 9 - AppStream
Name                Stream                      Profiles                                  Summary                             
php                 8.1                         common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              
php                 8.2                         common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              

Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 9 - x86_64
Name                Stream                      Profiles                                  Summary                             
php                 remi-7.4                    common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              
php                 remi-8.0                    common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              
php                 remi-8.1                    common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              
php                 remi-8.2                    common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              
php                 remi-8.3 [e]                common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language              
php                 remi-8.4                    common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language

Enable the correct stream:

sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.3

Now the default to install is version 8.3, install it like this:

sudo dnf install php -y
php -v

Let’s install git, as it’s also needed in this setup: sudo dnf -y install git

Install Composer for managing php modules:

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

Install needed PHP modules: sudo dnf -y install php-process php-zip php-gd php-mysqlnd php-ldap php-imagick php-bcmath php-gmp php-intl

Upgrade php memory limit: sudo vim /etc/php.ini

memory_limit = 512M

Apache setup

Add Apache config for vhost: sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/nextcloud.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot /var/www/nextcloud/
  ServerName  cloud.{ site-name }.com

  <Directory /var/www/nextcloud/>
    Require all granted
    AllowOverride All
    Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews

    <IfModule mod_dav.c>
      Dav off
    </IfModule>
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Set up the mysql database

Install: sudo dnf install mariadb-server -y

Enable the service: sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

Nextcloud needs some tables setup in order to store information in a database. First set up a secure sql database:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Say “Yes” to the prompts and enter root password:

Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n]: Y
Change the root password? [Y/n]: Y	# enter password.
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

mysql -u root -p

Create the database:

While signed in with the mysql command, enter the commands below one at a time. Make sure to replace the username and password. But leave localhost as is:

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud;
GRANT ALL ON nextcloud.* TO 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '{ password }';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Nextcloud Install

Download nextcloud onto the server. Extract the contents to /var/www/nextcloud tar -xjf nextcloud-31.0.4.tar.bz2 -C /var/www/ --strip-components=1

Change the nextcloud folder ownership to apache and add permissions: sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/nextcloud sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/nextcloud

Selinux:

sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/var/www/nextcloud(/.*)?" && \
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/nextcloud/(config|data|apps)(/.*)?" && \
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/nextcloud/data(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/nextcloud/

Now we can actually install Nextcloud. cd to the /var/www/nextcloud directory and run occ with these settings to install:

sudo -u apache php occ  maintenance:install \
--database='mysql' --database-name='nextcloud' \
--database-user='root' --database-pass='{ password }' \
--admin-user='admin' --admin-pass='{ password }'

Create a CNAME record for DNS.

Before you go any further, you will need to have a domain name set up for your server. I use Cloudflare to manage my DNS records. You will want to make a CNAME record for your nextcloud subdomain.

Just add “nextcloud” as the name and “yourwebsite.com” as the content. This will make it so “nextcloud.yourwebsite.com” is the site for your nextcloud dashboard. Also, make sure to select “DNS Only” under proxy status.

Here’s what my CloudFlare domain setup looks with this blog as the main site, and cloud.perfectdarkmode.com as the nextcloud site:

Then you need to update trusted domains in /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php:

'trusted_domains' =>
   [
    'cloud.{ site-name }.com',
    'localhost'
  ],

Install Apache

Install: sudo dnf -y install httpd

Enable: systemctl enable --now httpd

Restart httpd systemctl restart httpd

Firewall rules:

sudo firewall-cmd --add-service https --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-service http --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Install SSL with Certbot

Install certbot: sudo dnf install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y

Obtain an SSL certificate. (See my Obsidian site setup post for information about Certbot and Apache setup.)

sudo certbot -d {subdomain}.{domain}.com

Now log into nextcloud with your admin account using the DNS name you set earlier:

I recommend setting up a normal user account instead of doing everything as “admin”. Just hit the “A” icon at the top right and go to “Accounts”. Then just select “New Account” and create a user account with whatever privileges you want.

I may make a post about which Nextcloud apps I recommend and customize the setup a bit. Let me know if that’s something you’d like to see. That’s all for now.

Make log dir:

mkdir /var/log/nextcloud
touch /var/log/nextcloud.log
chown apache:apache -R /var/log/nextcloud

Change apps to read only

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/var/www/nextcloud/apps(/.*)?"
restorecon -R /var/www/nextcloud/apps

Allow outbound network:

sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1
sudo setsebool -P httpd_graceful_shutdown 1
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_relay 1
sudo ausearch -c 'php-fpm' --raw | audit2allow -M my-phpfpm
sudo semodule -X 300 -i my-phpfpm.pp

Backup

mkdir /home/databkup chown -R apache:apache /home/databkup

vim /root/cleanbackups.sh

#!/bin/bash

find /home/backup -type f -mtime +5 -exec rm {} \;

chmod +x /root/cleanbackups.sh

crontab -e

# Clean up old backups every day at midnight
0 0 * * * /root/cleanbackups.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

# Backup MySQL database every 12 hours
0 */12 * * * bash -c '/usr/bin/mysqldump --single-transaction -u root -p{password} nextcloud > /home/backup/nextclouddb-backup_$(date +"\%Y\%m\%d\%H\%M\%S").bak'

# Rsync Nextcloud data directory every day at midnight
15 0 * * * /usr/bin/rsync -Aavx /var/www/nextcloud/ /home/databkup/ --delete-before

mkdir /home/backup

Update Mariadb:

systemctl stop mariadb.service
dnf module switch-to mariadb:10.11
systemctl start mariadb.service
mariadb-upgrade --user=root --password='{ password }'

mariadb --version

Mimetype migration error: sudo -u apache /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:repair --include-expensive

Indices error: sudo -u apache /var/www/nextcloud/occ db:add-missing-indices

Redis install for memcache

This setup uses Redis for File locking and APCu for memcache

dnf -y install redis php-pecl-redis php-pecl-apcu

systemctl enable --now redis

Add to config.php:

'memcache.locking' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
  'memcache.local' => '\OC\Memcache\APCu',
  'redis' => [
   'host'     => '/run/redis/redis-server.sock',
   'port'     => 0,
],

Update /etc/redis/redis.conf vim /etc/redis/redis.conf change port to port 0/

uncomment the socket options under “Unix Socket” and change to:

unixsocket /run/redis/redis-server.sock
unixsocketperm 770

Update permissions for redis usermod -a -G redis apache

Uncomment the line in /etc/php.d/40-apcu.ini and change from 32M to 256M vim /etc/php.d/40-apcu.ini apc.shm_size=256M

Restart apache and redis:

systemctl restart redis
systemctl restart httpd

Added logging and phone region to config.php: mkdir /var/log/nextcloud/

  'log_type' => 'file',
  'logfile' => '/var/log/nextcloud/nextcloud.log',
  'logfilemode' => 416,
  'default_phone_region' => 'US',
  'logtimezone' => 'America/Phoenix',
  'loglevel' => '1',
  'logdateformat' => 'F d, Y H:i:s',

OP-Cache error

Change opcache.interned_strings_buffer to 16 and uncomment:

vim /etc/php.d/10-opcache.ini

opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16

systemctl restart php-fpm httpd

Last job execution ran 2 months ago. Something seems wrong.

Set up cron job for the Apache user: crontab -u apache -e

Add to file that shows up:

*/5  *  *  *  * php -f /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php

Other Errors

The “files_reminders” app needs the notification app to work properly. You should either enable notifications or disable files_reminder.

Disabled files_reminder app

Server has no maintenance window start time configured. This means resource intensive daily background jobs will also be executed during your main usage time. We recommend to set it to a time of low usage, so users are less impacted by the load caused from these heavy tasks. For more details see the documentation ↗.

Added 'maintenance_window_start' => 1, to config.php

Some headers are not set correctly on your instance - The Strict-Transport-Security HTTP header is not set (should be at least 15552000 seconds). For enhanced security, it is recommended to enable HSTS. For more details see the documentation ↗.

Added after closing directory line in SSL config:

vim nextcloud-le-ssl.conf

Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15552000; includeSubDomains; preload"

And add to the bottom of /var/www/nextcloud/.htaccess: "Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15552000; includeSubDomains"

Change this line in config.php from localhost to server name:

 'overwrite.cli.url' => 'http://cloud.{ site-name }.com',

Integrity checker has been disabled. Integrity cannot be verified.

Ignore this

Your webserver does not serve .mjs files using the JavaScript MIME type. This will break some apps by preventing browsers from executing the JavaScript files. You should configure your webserver to serve .mjs files with either the text/javascript or application/javascript MIME type.

sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/nextcloud.conf
ad AddType text/javascript .mjs inside the virtual host block. Restart apache.

Your web server is not properly set up to resolve “/ocm-provider/”. This is most likely related to a web server configuration that was not updated to deliver this folder directly. Please compare your configuration against the shipped rewrite rules in “.htaccess” for Apache add to vim /var/www/nextcloud/.htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteRule ^ocm-provider/(.*)$ /index.php/apps/ocm/$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

Your web server is not properly set up to resolve .well-known URLs, failed on: /.well-known/caldav

added to vim /var/www/nextcloud/.htaccess

# .well-known URLs for CalDAV/CardDAV and other services
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/caldav$ /remote.php/dav/ [R=301,L]
  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/carddav$ /remote.php/dav/ [R=301,L]
  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/webfinger$ /index.php/.well-known/webfinger [R=301,L]
  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/nodeinfo$ /index.php/.well-known/nodeinfo [R=301,L]
  RewriteRule ^\.well-known/acme-challenge/.*$ - [L]
</IfModule>

PHP configuration option “output_buffering” must be disabled vim /etc/php.ini

output_buffering = Off

[root@oort31 nextcloud]# echo "output_buffering=off" > .user.ini
[root@oort31 nextcloud]# chown apache:apache .user.ini
chmod 644 .user.ini
[root@oort31 nextcloud]# systemctl restart httpd

Installed tmux dnf -y install tmux

Apps

Disabled File Reminders app

Add fail2ban

sudo dnf -y install fail2ban

vim /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

[DEFAULT]
bantime = 24h
ignoreip = 10.0.0.0/8
usedns = no

[sshd]
enabled = true
maxretry = 3
findtime = 43200
bantime = 86400

systemctl enable –now fail2ban fail2ban-client status sshd

Self hosting a Nextcloud Server

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up Nextcloud on a Debian server. You will need a server hosted by a VPS like Vultr. And a Domain hosted by a DNS provider such as Cloudflare

What is Nextcloud?

Nextcloud is so many things. It offers so many features and options, it deserves a bulleted list:

Free and open source
Cloud storage and syncing
Email client
Custom browser dashboard with widgets
Office suite
RSS newsfeed
Project organization (deck)
Notebook
Calender
Task manager
Connect to decentralized social media (like Mastodon)
Replacement for all of google’s services
Create web forms or surveys

It is also free and open source. This mean the source code is available to all. And hosting yourself means you can guarantee that your data isn’t being shared.

As you can see. Nextcloud is feature packed and offers an all in one solution for many needs. The set up is fairly simple!

Install Dependencies

sudo apt update

Sury Dependencies

sudo apt install software-properties-common ca-certificates lsb-release apt-transport-https

Enable Sury Repository

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list'

Import the GPG key for the repository

wget -qO - https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Install PHP 8.2

https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-php-8-2-on-debian/?expand_article=1 (This is also part of the other dependencies install command below)

sudo apt install php8.2

Install other dependencies:

apt install -y nginx python3-certbot-nginx mariadb-server php8.2 php8.2-{fpm,bcmath,bz2,intl,gd,mbstring,mysql,zip,xml,curl}

Improving Nextcloud server performance

Adding more child processes for PHP to use:

vim /etc/php/8.2/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

# update the following parameters in the file
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 120
pm.start_servers = 12
pm.min_spare_servers = 6
pm.max_spare_servers = 18

Start your MariaDB server:

systemctl enable mariadb --now

Set up a SQL Database

Nextcloud needs some tables setup in order to store information in a database. First set up a secure sql database:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Say “Yes” to the prompts and enter root password:

Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n]: Y
Change the root password? [Y/n]: Y	# enter password.
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

mysql -u root -p

Creating a database for NextCloud

While signed in with the mysql command, enter the commands below one at a time. Make sure to replace the username and password. But leave localhost as is:

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud;
GRANT ALL ON nextcloud.* TO 'david'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '@Rfanext12!';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Install SSL with Certbot

Obtain an SSL certificate. See my website setup post for information about Certbot and nginx setup.

certbot certonly --nginx -d nextcloud.example.com

Create a CNAME record for DNS.

You will need to have a domain name set up for your server. I use Cloudflare to manage my DNS records. You will want to make a CNAME record for your nextcloud subdomain.

Just add “nextcloud” as the name and “yourwebsite.com” as the content. This will make it so “nextcloud.yourwebsite.com”. Make sure to select “DNS Only” under proxy status.

Nginx Setup

Edit your sites-available config at /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud. See comments in the following text box:

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud

# Add this to the file:
# replace example.org with your domain name
# use the following vim command to make this easier
# :%s/example.org/perfectdarkmode.com/g
# ^ this will replace all instances of example.org with perfectdarkmode.com. Replace with yur domain

upstream php-handler {
    server unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
    server 127.0.0.1:9000;
}
map $arg_v $asset_immutable {
    "" "";
    default "immutable";
}
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name nextcloud.example.org ;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}
server {
    listen 443      ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name nextcloud.example.org ;
    root /var/www/nextcloud;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/nextcloud.example.org/fullchain.pem ;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/nextcloud.example.org/privkey.pem ;
    client_max_body_size 512M;
    client_body_timeout 300s;
    fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_comp_level 4;
    gzip_min_length 256;
    gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private no_last_modified no_etag auth;
    gzip_types application/atom+xml application/javascript application/json application/ld+json application/manifest+json application/rss+xml application/vnd.geo+json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/wasm application/x-font-ttf application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/xhtml+xml application/xml font/opentype image/bmp image/svg+xml image/x-icon text/cache-manifest text/css text/plain text/vcard text/vnd.rim.location.xloc text/vtt text/x-component text/x-cross-domain-policy;
    client_body_buffer_size 512k;
    add_header Referrer-Policy                      "no-referrer"   always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options               "nosniff"       always;
    add_header X-Download-Options                   "noopen"        always;
    add_header X-Frame-Options                      "SAMEORIGIN"    always;
    add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies    "none"          always;
    add_header X-Robots-Tag                         "none"          always;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection                     "1; mode=block" always;
    fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;
    index index.php index.html /index.php$request_uri;
    location = / {
        if ( $http_user_agent ~ ^DavClnt ) {
            return 302 /remote.php/webdav/$is_args$args;
        }
    }
    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }
    location ^~ /.well-known {
        location = /.well-known/carddav { return 301 /remote.php/dav/; }
        location = /.well-known/caldav  { return 301 /remote.php/dav/; }
        location /.well-known/acme-challenge    { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; }
        location /.well-known/pki-validation    { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; }
        return 301 /index.php$request_uri;
    }
    location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)(?:$|/)  { return 404; }
    location ~ ^/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console)                { return 404; }
    location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {
        # Required for legacy support
        rewrite ^/(?!index|remote|public|cron|core\/ajax\/update|status|ocs\/v[12]|updater\/.+|oc[ms]-provider\/.+|.+\/richdocumentscode\/proxy) /index.php$request_uri;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
        set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;
        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
        fastcgi_param HTTPS on;
        fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;
        fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;
        fastcgi_pass php-handler;
        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
        fastcgi_request_buffering off;
        fastcgi_max_temp_file_size 0;
    }
    location ~ \.(?:css|js|svg|gif|png|jpg|ico|wasm|tflite|map)$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=15778463, $asset_immutable";
        access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets
        location ~ \.wasm$ {
            default_type application/wasm;
        }
    }
    location ~ \.woff2?$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;
        expires 7d;
        access_log off;
    }
    location /remote {
        return 301 /remote.php$request_uri;
    }
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri;
    }
}

Enable the site

Create a link between the file you just made and /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Install Nextcloud

Download the latest Nextcloud version. Then extract into /var/www/. Also, update the file’s permissions to give nginx access:

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest.tar.bz2
tar -xjf latest.tar.bz2 -C /var/www
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nextcloud
chmod -R 755 /var/www/nextcloud

Start and enable php-fpm on startup

<systemctl enable php8.2fpm --now](><--may not need this.
# Do need this->
sudo systemctl enable php8.2-fpm.service --now

Reload nginx

systemctl reload nginx

Nextcloud occ tool

Here is a built in Nextcloud tool just in case things break. Here is a guide on troubleshooting with occ. The basic command is as follows:

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ

Add this as an alias in ~/.bashrc for ease of use.

You are ready to log in to Nextcloud!

Go to your nextcloud domain in a browser. In my case, I head to nextcloud.perfectdarkmode.com. Fill out the form to create your first Nextcloud user:

Choose an admin username and secure password.
Leave Data folder as the default value.
For Database user, enter the user you set for the SQL database.
For Database password, enter the password you chose for the new user in MariaDB.
For Database name, enter: nextcloud
Leave “localhost” as “localhost”.
Click Finish.

Now that you are signed in. Here are a few things you can do to start you off:

Download the desktop and mobile app and sync all of your data. (covered below)
Look at different apps to consolodate your programs all in one place.
Put the Nextcloud dashboard as your default browser homepage and customize themes.
Set up email integration.

NextCloud desktop synchronization

Install the desktop client (Fedora)

Sudo dnf install nextcloudclient

Install on other distros: https://help.nextcloud.com/t/install-nextcloud-client-for-opensuse-arch-linux-fedora-ubuntu-based-android-ios/13657

Run the nextcloud desktop app and sign in.
Choose folders to sync.
Folder will be ~/Nextcloud.
Move everything into your nextcloud folder.

This may break things with filepaths so beware. Now you are ready to use and explore nextcloud. Here is a video from TechHut to get you started down the NextCloud rabbit hole.

Change max upload size (default is 500mg)

/var/www/nextcloud/.user.ini php_value upload_max_filesize = 16G php_value post_max_size = 16G

Remove file locks

Put Nextcloud in maintenance mode: Edit config/config.php and change this line:
'maintenance' => true,

Empty table oc_file_locks: Use tools such as phpmyadmin or connect directly to your database and run (the default table prefix is oc_, this prefix can be different or even empty):
DELETE FROM oc_file_locks WHERE 1

disable maintenance mode (undo first step).
Make sure your cron-jobs run properly (you admin page tells you when cron ran the last time): https://docs.nextcloud.org/server/13/admin_manual/configuration_server/background_jobs_configuration.html 2.7k

mysql -u root -p
MariaDB [(none)]> use nextcloud;
MariaDB [nextcloud]> DELETE FROM oc_file_locks WHERE 1;

*figure out redis install if this happens regularly* [https://docs.nextcloud.org/server/13/admin_manual/configuration_server/caching_configuration.html#id4 9.1k](https://docs.nextcloud.org/server/13/admin_manual/configuration_server/caching_configuration.html#id4)

Using Vagrant on Linux

Vagrant is software that lets you set up multiple, pre-configured virtual machines in a flash. I am going to show you how to do this using Linux and Virtual Box. But you can do this on MacOS and Windows as well.

Download Vagrant, VirtualBox and Git.

Vagrant link.

Virtualbox link.

You may want to follow another tutorial for setting up VirtualBox.

Git link.

Installing git will install ssh on windows. Which you will use to access your lab. Just make sure you select the option to add git and unit tools to your PATH variable.

Make a Vagrant project folder.

Note: All of these commands are going to be in a Bash command prompt.

mkdir vagranttest

Move in to your new directory.

cd vagranttest

Add and Initialize Your Vagrant Project.

You can find preconfigured virtual machines here.

We are going to use ubuntu/trusty64.

Add the Vagrant box

vagrant box add ubuntu/trusty64

Initialize your new Vagrant box

vagrant init ubuntu/trusty64

Use the dir command to see the contents of this directory.

We are going to edit this Vagrantfile to set up our multiple configurations.

vim Vagrantfile

Here is the new config without all of the commented lines. Add this (minus the top line) under Vagrant.configure(“2”) do |config|.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|  
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"  
  config.vm.define "server1" do |server1|  
    server1.vm.hostname = "server1"  
    server1.vm.network "private_network", ip: "10.1.1.2"  
  end  
  config.vm.define "server2" do |server2|  
    server2.vm.hostname = "server2"  
    server2.vm.network "private_network", ip: "10.1.1.3"  
  end  
end

Now save your Vagrant file in Vim.

Bring up your selected vagrant boxes:

vagrant up

Now if you open virtual box, you should see the new machines running in headless mode. This means that the machines have no user interface..

Ssh into server1

vagrant ssh server1

You are now in serve1’s terminal.

From server1, ssh into server2

ssh 10.1.1.3

Success! You are now in server2 and can access both machines from your network. Just enter “exit” to return to the previous terminal.

Additional Helpful Vagrant Commands.

Without the machine name specified, vagrant commands will work on all virtual machines in your vagrant folder. I’ve thrown in a couple examples using [machine-name] at the end.

Shut down Vagrant machines

vagrant halt

Shut down only one machine

vagrant halt [machine-name]

Suspend and resume a machine

vagrant suspend

vagrant resume

Restart a virtual machine

vagrant reload

Destroy a virtual machine

vagrant detstroy [machine-name]

Show running vms

vagrant status

List Vagrant options

vagrant

Playground for future labs

This type of deployment is going to be the bedrock of many Linux and Red Hat labs. You can easily use pre-configured machines to create a multi-machine environment. This is also a quick way to test your network and server changes without damaging anything.

Now go set up a Vagrant lab yourself and let me know what you plan to do with it!

What is Vagrant?

Easy to configure, reproducible environments
Provisions virtualbox vms
Vagrant box: OS image

Syntax:

vagrant box add user/box

Add centos7 box

vagrant box add jasonc/centos7

Many public boxes to download

Vagrant project = folder with a vagrant file

Install Vagrant here: https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads

Make a vagrant folder:

mkdir vm1
cd vm1

initialize vagrant project:

vagrant init jasonc/centos7

bring up all vms defined in the vagrant file)

vagrant up

vagrant will import the box into virtualbox and start it

the vm is started in headless mode

(there is no user interfaces)

Vagrant up / multi machine

Bring up only one specific vm

vagrant up [vm-name]

SSH Vagrant

vagrant ssh [vm_name] or vagrant ssh if there is only one vm in the vagrant file

Need to download ssh for windows

downloading git will install this:

https://desktop.github.com/

Shut down vagrant machines vagrant halt

Shutdown only one machine vagrant halt [vm]

Saves present state of the machine

just run vagrant up without having to import tha machines again

Suspend the machine vagrant suspend [VM]

Resume vagrant resume [VM]

Destroy VM vagrant destroy [VM]

List options vagrant

Vagrant command works on the vagrant folder that you are in

Vagrant File

Vagrant.configure (2) do | config |

config.vm.box = "jasonc/centos7"

config.vm.hostname = "linuxsvr1"

(default files)

config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "10.2.3.4"

config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do | vbi

vb.gui = true

vb.memory = "1024"

(shell provisioner)

config.vm.provision "shell", path: "setup.sh"

end

end

Configuring a multi machine setup:

Specify common configurations at the top of the file

Vagrant.configure (2) do | config |

config.vm.box = "jasonc/centos7"

config.vm.define = "server1" do | server1 |

server1.vm.hostname = "server1"

server1.vm.network "private_network", ip: "10.2.3.4"

end

config.vm.define = "server2" do | server2 |

server2.vm.hostname = "server2"

server2.vm.network "private_network", ip: "10.2.3.5"

end

end

You can search for vagrant boxes at https://app.vagrantup.com/boxes/search

Course software downloads: http://mirror.linuxtrainingacademy.com/

Install Git: https://git-scm.com/download/win

make sure to check option for git and unit tools to be added to the PATH

vagrant ssh

to connect to the vagrant machine in the folder that you are in
default password in vagrant
tyoe ’exit to return to prompt

vagrant halt

stop the vm and save it’s current state

vagrant reload

restarts the vm

vagrant status

shows running vms in that folder

You can access files in the vagrant directory from both VMs

Example RHEL8 Config

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|

config.vm.box = "generic/rhel8"

config.vm.define "server1" do |server1|

server1.vm.hostname = "server1.example.com"

server1.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.1.110"

config.disksize.size = '10GB'

end

config.vm.define "server2" do |server2|

server2.vm.hostname = "server2.example.com"

server2.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.1.120"

config.disksize.size = '16GB'

end

config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|

vb.memory = "2048"

end

end

Plugin to change the disk size:

vagrant plugin install vagrant-disksize

Vim Guide

Vim (Vi Improved)

Vim stands for vi (Improved) just like its name it stands for an improved version of the vi text editor command.

Lightweight

Start Vim

vim

Vim Search Patterns

Moving the Cursor

h or left arrow - move left one character k or up arrow - move up one line j or down arrow - move down one line l or right arrow - will move you right one character

Different Vim Modes

I - Enter INSERT mode from command mode esc - Go back to command mode v - visual mode

Vim Appending Text

In enter while in command mode and will bring you to insert mode.

I - insert text before the cursor O - insert text on the previous line o - insert text on the next line a - append text after cursor A - append text at the end of the line

Vim editing

x - used to cut the selected text also used for deleting characters dd - used to delete the current line y - yank or copy whatever is selected yy - yank or copy the current line p - paste the copied text before the cursor

Vim Saving and exiting

:w - writes or saves the file :q - quit out of vim :wq - write and then quit :q! - quit out of vim without saving the file ZZ - equivalent of :wq, but one character faster

u - undo your last action Ctrl-r - redo your last action :% sort - Sort lines

Vim Splits

Add to .vimrc for different key mappings for easy navigation between splits to save a keystroke. So instead of ctrl-w then j, it’s just ctrl-j:

nnoremap <C-J> <C-W><C-J> 
nnoremap <C-K> <C-W><C-K> 
nnoremap <C-L> <C-W><C-L> 
nnoremap <C-H> <C-W><C-H>

Open file in new split

:vsp filename

https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree

Find and Replace

https://linuxize.com/post/vim-find-replace/

Find and Replace Text in File(s) with Vim

Find and replace in a single file

Open the file in Vim, this command will replace all occurances of the word “foo” with “bar”.

:%s/foo/bar/g

% - apply to whole file s - substitution g - operate on all results

Find and replace a string in all files in current directory

In vim, select all files with args. Use regex to select the files you want. Select all files with *

:args *

You can also select all recursively:

:args **

Run :args to see which files are selected"

:args

Perform substitution with argdo

This applies the replacement command to all selected args:

:argdo %s/foo/bar/g | update

Nerd Tree Plugin

Add to .vimrc

call plug#begin()
Plug 'preservim/nerdtree'

call plug#end()

nnoremap <leader>n :NERDTreeFocus<CR>
nnoremap <C-n> :NERDTree<CR>
nnoremap <C-t> :NERDTreeToggle<CR>
nnoremap <C-f> :NERDTreeFind<CR>

Vim Calendar

dhttps://blog.mague.com/?p=602

Add to vim.rc

:auto FileType vim/wiki map d :Vim/wikiMakeDiaryNote
function! ToggleCalendar()
  execute ":Calendar"
  if exists("g:calendar_open")
    if g:calendar_open == 1
      execute "q"
      unlet g:calendar_open
    else
      g:calendar_open = 1
    end
  else
    let g:calendar_open = 1
  end
endfunction
:auto FileType vim/wiki map c :call ToggleCalendar()i

Vimwiki

Cheat sheet

http://thedarnedestthing.com/vimwiki%20cheatsheet

Set up

Make sure git is installed? https://github.com/git-guides/install-git

Check git version

git --version Check git version

dnf git install

sudo dnf install git-all

https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug

Download plug.vim and put it in ~/.vim/autoload

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Create ~/.vimrc

touch ~/.vimrc

Add to ~/.vimrc

Installation using Vim-Plug

Install Vim Plug

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Add the following to the plugin-configuration in your vimrc:

set nocompatible  
filetype plugin on  
syntax on

call plug#begin()  
Plug 'vimwiki/vimwiki'

call plug#end()

let mapleader=" "  
let wiki_1 = {}  
let wiki_1.path = '~/Documents/PerfectDarkMode/'  
let wiki_1.syntax = 'markdown'  
let wiki_1.ext = ''  
let wiki_2 = {}  
let wiki_2.path = '~/Documents/vim/wiki_personal/'  
let wiki_2.syntax = 'markdown'  
let wiki_2.ext = ''  
let g:vimwiki_list = [wiki_1, wiki_2]

Then run :PlugInstall.

(leader)ws select which wiki to use

Basic Markup

= Header1 =
== Header2 ==
=== Header3 ===


*bold* -- bold text
_italic_ -- italic text

[wiki link](wiki%20link) -- wiki link
[description](wiki%20link) -- wiki link with description

Lists

* bullet list item 1
    - bullet list item 2
    - bullet list item 3
        * bullet list item 4
        * bullet list item 5
* bullet list item 6
* bullet list item 7
    - bullet list item 8
    - bullet list item 9

1. numbered list item 1
2. numbered list item 2
    a) numbered list item 3
    b) numbered list item 4

For other syntax elements, see :h vimwiki-syntax

Vimwiki Table of Contents

:VimwikiTOC Create or update the Table of Contents for the current wiki file. See |vimwiki-toc|.

Table of Contents vimwiki-toc vimwiki-table-of-contents

You can create a “table of contents” at the top of your wiki file. The command |:VimwikiTOC| creates the magic header > = Contents = in the current file and below it a list of all the headers in this file as links, so you can directly jump to specific parts of the file.

For the indentation of the list, the value of |vimwiki-option-list_margin| is used.

If you don’t want the TOC to sit in the very first line, e.g. because you have a modeline there, put the magic header in the second or third line and run :VimwikiTOC to update the TOC.

If English is not your preferred language, set the option |g:vimwiki_toc_header| to your favorite translation.

If you want to keep the TOC up to date automatically, use the option |vimwiki-option-auto_toc|.

vimwiki-option-auto_toc

Key Default value Values~ auto_toc 0 0, 1

Description~ Set this option to 1 to automatically update the table of contents when the current wiki page is saved: > let g:vimwiki_list = [{‘path’: ‘~/my_site/’, ‘auto_toc’: 1}]

vimwiki-option-list_margin

Key Default value~ list_margin -1 (0 for markdown)

Note: if you use Markdown or MediaWiki syntax, you probably would like to set this option to 0, because every indented line is considered verbatim text.

g:vimwiki_toc_header_level

The header level of the Table of Contents (see |vimwiki-toc|). Valid values are from 1 to 6.

The default is 1.

g:vimwiki_toc_link_format

The format of the links in the Table of Contents (see |vimwiki-toc|).

Value Description~ 0 Extended: The link contains the description and URL. URL references all levels. 1 Brief: The link contains only the URL. URL references only the immediate level.

Default: 0

Key bindings

Normal mode

Note: your terminal may prevent capturing some of the default bindings listed below. See :h vimwiki-local-mappings for suggestions for alternative bindings if you encounter a problem.

Basic key bindings

<Leader>ww – Open default /wiki index file.
<Leader>wt – Open default /wiki index file in a new tab.
<Leader>ws – Select and open /wiki index file.
<Leader>wd – Delete /wiki file you are in.
<Leader>wr – Rename /wiki file you are in.
<Enter> – Follow/Create /wiki link.
<Shift-Enter> – Split and follow/create /wiki link.
<Ctrl-Enter> – Vertical split and follow/create /wiki link.
<Backspace> – Go back to parent(previous) /wiki link.
<Tab> – Find next /wiki link.
<Shift-Tab> – Find previous /wiki link.

Advanced key bindings

Refer to the complete documentation at :h vimwiki-mappings to see many more bindings.

Commands

:Vimwiki2HTML – Convert current wiki link to HTML.
:VimwikiAll2HTML – Convert all your wiki links to HTML.
:help vimwiki-commands – List all commands.
:help vimwiki – General vimwiki help docs.

Diary

alias

alias todo=‘vim -c VimwikiDiaryIndex’

Hotkeys

:VimwikiDiaryGenerateLinks ^w^i Generate links ^w^w open today ^wi Open diary index ctrl + up previous day ctrl + down next day

How to create Weekly, Monthly, and yearly notes
How to do a template for daily
set folder location for diary

Diary Template

https://frostyx.cz/posts/vimwiki-diary-template

Nested folder structure

[dev](dev/ndex)

Say yes to make new directory

wiki

Convert to html live and shows some design stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YgbAp5YRc

https://github.com/Dynalonwiki

Taskwarrior

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuHJloiDErM requires neovim?

taskwiki

vimwiki integration with task warrior https://github.com/tools-life/taskwiki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuHJloiDErM

Ctrl P

Install

Plug ‘ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim’

You Need to Learn Man Pages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzAkjX_9B7E&t=295s

Man (manual) pages are the built in help system for Linux. They contain documentation for most commands.

Run the man command on a command to get to it’s man page. man man

Navigating a man page h

Get help

q

Quit out of the man page

Man uses less

^ mean ctrl

^f Forward one page

^b backward one page

can use # followed by command to repeat that many times

g first line in file

G last line in file

CR means press enter

Searching

/searchword

press enter to jump first occurance of searched word

n to jump to next match

N to go to previous match

?searchword to do a backward search (n and N are reversed when going through results)

Man page conventions

bold text type as shown

italic text replace with arguments

Italic may not render in terminal and may be underlined or colored text instead.

[-abc] optional

-a | -b Options separated by a pipe symbol cannot be used together.

argument … (followed by 3 dots) can be repeated. (Argument is repeatable)

[expression] … entire expression within [ ] is repeatable.

Parts of a man page

Name

name of command

Synopsis

How to use the command

When you see file in a man page, think file and or directory

Description short and long options do the same thing

Current section number is printed at the top left of the man page.

-k to search sections using apropos

[root@server30 ~]# man -k unlink
mq_unlink (2)        - remove a message queue
mq_unlink (3)        - remove a message queue
mq_unlink (3p)       - remove a message queue (REALT...
sem_unlink (3)       - remove a named semaphore
sem_unlink (3p)      - remove a named semaphore
shm_open (3)         - create/open or unlink POSIX s...
shm_unlink (3)       - create/open or unlink POSIX s...
shm_unlink (3p)      - remove a shared memory object...
unlink (1)           - call the unlink function to r...
unlink (1p)          - call theunlink() function
unlink (2)           - delete a name and possibly th...
unlink (3p)          - remove a directory entry
unlinkat (2)         - delete a name and possibly th...]

Shows page number in ()

The sections that end in p are POSIX documentation. Theese are not specific to Linux.

[root@server30 ~]# man -k "man pages"
lexgrog (1)          - parse header information in man pages
man (7)              - macros to format man pages
man-pages (7)        - conventions for writing Linux man pages
man.man-pages (7)    - macros to format man pages
[root@server30 ~]# man man-pages

Use man-pages to learn more about man pages

Sections within a manual page
       The list below shows conventional or suggested sections.  Most manual
       pages should include at least the highlighted  sections.   Arrange  a
       new manual page so that sections are placed in the order shown in the
       list.

              NAME
              LIBRARY          [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
              SYNOPSIS
              CONFIGURATION    [Normally only in Section 4]
              DESCRIPTION
              OPTIONS          [Normally only in Sections 1, 8]
              EXIT STATUS      [Normally only in Sections 1, 8]
              RETURN VALUE     [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
              ERRORS           [Typically only in Sections 2, 3]
              ENVIRONMENT
              FILES
              ATTRIBUTES       [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
              VERSIONS         [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
              STANDARDS
              HISTORY
              NOTES
              CAVEATS
              BUGS
              EXAMPLES
              AUTHORS          [Discouraged]
              REPORTING BUGS   [Not used in man-pages]
              COPYRIGHT        [Not used in man-pages]
              SEE ALSO

Shell builtins do not have man pages. Look at the shell man page for info on them. man bash

Search for the Shell Builtins section: /SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS

You can find help on builtins with the help command:

david@fedora:~$ help hash
hash: hash [-lr] [-p pathname] [-dt] [name ...]
    Remember or display program locations.
    
    Determine and remember the full pathname of each command NAME.  If
    no arguments are given, information about remembered commands is displayed.
    
    Options:
      -d	forget the remembered location of each NAME
      -l	display in a format that may be reused as input
      -p pathname	use PATHNAME as the full pathname of NAME
      -r	forget all remembered locations
      -t	print the remembered location of each NAME, preceding
    		each location with the corresponding NAME if multiple
    		NAMEs are given
    Arguments:
      NAME	Each NAME is searched for in $PATH and added to the list
    		of remembered commands.
    
    Exit Status:
    Returns success unless NAME is not found or an invalid option is given.

help without any arguments displays commands you can get help on.

david@fedora:~/Documents/davidvargas/davidvargasxyz.github.io$ help help
help: help [-dms] [pattern ...]
    Display information about builtin commands.
    
    Displays brief summaries of builtin commands.  If PATTERN is
    specified, gives detailed help on all commands matching PATTERN,
    otherwise the list of help topics is printed.
    
    Options:
      -d	output short description for each topic
      -m	display usage in pseudo-manpage format
      -s	output only a short usage synopsis for each topic matching
    		PATTERN
    
    Arguments:
      PATTERN	Pattern specifying a help topic
    
    Exit Status:
    Returns success unless PATTERN is not found or an invalid option is given.

type command tells you what type of command something is.

Using man on some shell builtins brings you to the bash man page Shell Builtin Section

Many commands support -h or --help options to get quick info on a command.

Tools

Subsections of Tools

Calibre Web with Docker and NGINX

Install Docker

Configure Nginx to act as a reverse proxy for Calibre Web

DNS CNAME Record

SSL Certificate

Site Setup

Adding new books

How to Build a website With Hugo

Setting up a Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Registering a Domain Name

Setting up hugo on your local PC

Serve your website locally

Build out your public directory

Set up nginx on your server

Access Permissions

Firewall Permissions

Nginx Security

Use Certbot to enable HTTPS

Install Certbot and It’s Nginx Module

Run certbot

Set Up a Cronjob to automatically Renew certbot certs

Extras

Optimizing images

How to Process Bookfusion Highlights with Vim

How to Set Up Hugo Relearn Theme

Hugo Setup

Adding a module as a theme

Global site parameters

Syntax highlighting

Adding tags

Choose a default color theme

Add Print option and search output page.

Customization

Change the site logo using the logo.html partial

Add a favicon to your site

Changing theme colors

Nextcloud on RHEL Based Systems

What is Nextcloud?

Server Specs

Storage setup

Setting up dependencies

Install latest supported PHP

Apache setup

Set up the mysql database

Create the database:

Nextcloud Install

Create a CNAME record for DNS.

Install Apache

Install SSL with Certbot

Make log dir:

Change apps to read only

Allow outbound network:

Backup

Update Mariadb:

Redis install for memcache

OP-Cache error

Last job execution ran 2 months ago. Something seems wrong.

Other Errors

Apps

Add fail2ban

Self hosting a Nextcloud Server

What is Nextcloud?

Install Dependencies

Sury Dependencies

Enable Sury Repository

Import the GPG key for the repository

Install PHP 8.2

Install other dependencies:

Improving Nextcloud server performance

Start your MariaDB server:

Set up a SQL Database

Creating a database for NextCloud

Install SSL with Certbot

Create a CNAME record for DNS.

Nginx Setup

Enable the site

Install Nextcloud

Start and enable php-fpm on startup