Explanation: The image has currently been tested by @Keith Fernie (who made it and wrote the installation script) and me. It seems to work flawlessly. But we need a broader range of test beds.

Two points: The idea of downloading the file probably only appeals to people with flat rates - that's okay. And yes, new Dyndns accounts now cost money (not much). But you get a free trial month.

One more appeal: If you are able to test this image and especially if you already have a Dyndns account, please do so. As far as I can see, it has only been tested by two people to date. I don't know of any glitches. But it would be great if a few more people could send feedback before we go live with this.

I'll test it this week. I'm currently working on my diploma thesis, so I was hoping that someone else would raise his/her hand.
Should I keep the machine running for further tests after the installation?

Thanks Vincent.

Can you test the existing version?

You may as well leave the Dyndns updater running and the virtual machine in place. Then - if you would be so kind - you could also test the final version when it appears (by replacing the disc).

Sry, I still get "Der Zugriff zu diesem Profil wurde eingeschränkt." when trying to access http://friendika.farrent.net/display/mgf/80011.

I'll put the VBox into my DMZ and fake a classic DynDNS setup. This way I can leave it running with less worrying about security.

@Vincent Metalhead

You should be able to access the profile, now.

But here is a rundown of installation, just to be on the safe side:

.........

You can download the image here: http://downloads.friendica.eu/Friendica.zip

The script is not yet on it, but is installed as shown in the following brief instructions:

0) Have a Dyndns updater running on the host (or an updater for a similar service).

1) With Virtual Box, set up a new virtual machine for Debian, using the downloaded disk.

2) The machine's network mode should be set to bridged. Now start it.

3) Root password is friendica. Do ifconfig to discover the virtual machine's internal IP and configure your router to pass http traffic to that IP.

4) wget http://downloads.friendica.eu/setup-friendica.sh

5) bash setup-friendica.sh all

6) You are prompted to change the keyboard settings (or not).

7) You are prompted to enter your (normal) email address, your domain (which should be the dyndns one) and a legit SMTP account to relay mail from. The latter can be taken from the SMTP settings in any standard mail client you use - use the port given there. Your user name for this account is usually your mail address and your pw is your standard mail password.

8) Press crtl-x and then y to save these settings.

9) The process continues and asks you to select locales (or all) and whether you want to change the root password.

10) You are also asked for the admin mail address your Friendica site will use.

11) When installation is complete, point a browser at your dyndns address and register an account on the new Friendica site using the admin email address.

12) Wait for the registration mail, log on, change the password and activate the cron plugins (or configure cron on the command line).

Is there a place where I can document my expierences? A wiki or something like that?
Does it make sense to write a HowTo for n00bs now, or should this be done later?

(And I can't still access your profile. But I got the Friendica.zip, so I'm good.)

I'm writing a how-to already... but I can do with any input you have to offer. Just document it in this thread.

My first questions:
1+2) Wouldn't it be better to use an OVA with predefined settings?
12) Why isn't the cron job already built into the VBox?

I'm cool with both ideas. But @Keith Fernie is the guy to decide.

No idea about an OVA, it would be new to me.
A cron job is built in but it isn't working from it's current location.
The one I've set up includes daily git pulls as well, should they be kept in?

Then we'll stick with the zip image, okay?

Personally, I'd also include the git updates. If something goes wrong in git and we have a really non-tech user who can't repair things manually (doesn't even feel happy issuing a git pull by hand), we can at least say that he/she only needs to wait a day for the server to repair itself.

Are you okay with the text snippet I sent you @Keith Fernie ?

I have the conditions (dyndns, virtualbox, etc) to try it. But have no time this week. Perhaps at the weekend. I think it's a pretty important step to have a ready image of Friendica.

Thanks @Abinoam Jr - the more, the better.

@Keith Fernie @Martin Farrent
*thumbs up* for the daily git pulls
OVA: File -> export appliance -> select VBox, next -> select "write manifest" -> next -> export; During import the settings (RAM, Network, etc.) are restored.
I think it's simpler for beginners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Virtualization_Format
Afaik using OVAs would enable VMware users to import the VM.
---

If it's not important for you, I'd like to skip the DnyDNS part. My setup has a static IP address and working DNS. I just don't want to maintain a DnyDNS account.

Dyndns works fine anyway, @Vincent Metalhead You don't need to test that aspect.

@Keith Fernie, @Martin Farrent The script works like a charm.

I hope you'll find my suggestions useful:

3) Maybe it's a good idea to tell the users how to change the keyboard layout first.
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
reboot


3) Please pre-install at least vim and emacs. (I know, nano is easier to handle for beginners, but do the geeks a favor.)

3) /etc/resolv.conf leaks internal information
domain ****.***
search ****.***
nameserver 192.168.**.***


System Hardening:


# netstat -tupln
Aktive Internetverbindungen (Nur Server)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 643/portmap
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1124/exim4
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:55013 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 655/rpc.statd
tcp6 0 0 ::1:25 :::* LISTEN 1124/exim4
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:831 0.0.0.0:* 655/rpc.statd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:68 0.0.0.0:* 1255/dhclient
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* 643/portmap
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:58753 0.0.0.0:* 655/rpc.statd


Please remove anything that's not necessary. (Minimize the attack surface.)
aptitude purge portmap nfs-common
xinetd, telnet, mutt and bsd-mailx and laptop-detect should be removed too.
These packages could be added to remove_unneeded().

7) May the password contain blanks, quotes, etc. without breaking anything? (I didn't test that.)

Is there a cronjob which performs system upgrades? like:
aptitude update -q3 >/dev/null && aptitude -y safe-upgrade

9) Changing the root password should be mandatory.

after 10)
Is it necessary for Postfix to listen on all interfaces?

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4239/master


Please provide SSL with self-signed certificates which are generated by the script. (Yes, I noticed the ready-to-use options in friendica-test.sz9i.net.conf.) It's just more secure (for the Friendica network as a whole) to provide (at least self-signed) SSL by default than to hope the admin is security-aware enough to configure SSL on his/her own.

12) Please add the cron job by default.

*/10 * * * * www-data cd /var/www && /usr/bin/php include/poller.php


The node works out of the box. You did a great job there!

http://friendica-test.sz9i.net/

@Vincent Metalhead Thanks for all that. Just briefly (cos it's late): self-signed certs are a bit of a problem. Friendica has a policy to accomodate them (an admin setting), but it's officially unrecommended. Not sure what's best in this particular case.

System upgrades may be a bad idea - not sure here, either. Some might conceivably break Friendica (temporarily, at least for non-geeks).

Cron jobs for poller and Friendica updates would be nice, I think.

We could add the advice on keyboard layout in the documentation - telling the user to either do it, or wait for the script to do it. We could even add a link to a UK keyboard pic.

Incidentally @Vincent Metalhead the script is entirely Keith's work. My meagre contributions were the idea to make the image this way (with his script, which already existed in a VPS version) and to use Postfix/relay. The clever stuff is all by @Keith Fernie

@Martin Farrent If certain parts are not automated or not already built-in, we need to provide at least proper documentation. Otherwise beginners won't be able to accomplish these tasks.
Maybe foolproof how-tos are the way to go.

@Vincent Metalhead Yes, I actually like the idea of providing a pic of an English keyboard. Sure, using a visual keyboard guide strikes anyone with experience as a very clumsy way of doing things (they'll just reconfigure before they start). But it's much less frightening than manual reconfiguration to a Linux newbie - and that's the kind of person we're talking about here. The how-to will also contain advice like making a copy of the image in case you screw things up the first time - unlikely as that may seem to an experienced user.

To my son (16 1/2), for instance, setting up Virtual Box itself would constitute a challenge he would feel reasonably able to meet. Running the script would be an adventure - easy as it is. It would be a manageable adventure, but still an adventure. When he then got everything finished (which he would), he would be really proude of himself and consider it a successful lesson in geekdom.

We sometimes underestimate the distance between the average computer user and something like a script. And incidentlly, we overestimate the young. In actual fact, few people under 30 have ever seen the command line of any OS at all.

The script is good. They can manage and will get a nice, functional server. But they won't consider the job as easy as we do.

@Martin Farrent I never thougth of a picture of the keyboard layout. That's a great idea!

Being a newbie a.k.a. not understanding whats going on is independent of the operating system.
Most users should be able to succeed if they're shown where to click and what to type.

Yes... you're right. It doesn't depend on the OS. But until fairly recently, you couldn't really run desktop Linux if you weren't prepared to visit the command line occasionally. By contrast, Windows people stopped using it in 1995 and Mac users (who strangely enough have a good one) never ever started. So the command line is what I'm really talking about - it scares the vast majority nowadays. We're asking people to use it with this image, and though we're making it foolproof for them, we need to hold their hands. That's what must be done well in the documentation.

@Vincent Metalhead

Has anyone else tested the script in the meantime?

@Keith Fernie Shall we wrap it up and go live?