Matrix
The IRC of the future! Here is how to install it for a domain, assuming Debian or Ubuntu.
DNS
Create a 'matrix' subdomain A record for the domain, e.g. matrix.example.com. There are SRV records you can set up for clients to figure out federation, but it's easier to use well-known URLs instead (see below).
Install Synapse
Synapse is the Matrix server, which is a Python 3 daemon using the Twisted libraries. Add the upstream apt repositories:
apt install -y apt-transport-https wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg \ https://packages.matrix.org/debian/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg echo "deb https://packages.matrix.org/debian/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" \ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/matrix-org.list apt update apt install matrix-synapse-py3
Web configuration
There are two steps to this.
Well-known URLs
This step is not required if DNS SRV records are used instead. Add two .well-known URLs to the root domain's web, which need to return JSON content. In the .well-known/matrix directory, create a file called "server" with:
{"m.server": "matrix.example.com:443"}
and a file called "client" with:
{"m.homeserver": {"base_url": "https://matrix.example.com"}}
Then amend the web config to add these headers:
<VirtualHost *:443> ServerName example.com SSLEngine on # ... <Directory "/path/to/www/.wellknown/matrix"> Header set Content-Type "application/json" Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*" </Directory> </VirtualHost>
Reverse Proxy
Second, Point Apache or nginx at it as a reverse proxy to localhost:8008 and configure for SSL on port 443.
<VirtualHost *:443> ServerName matrix.example.com SSLEngine on # ... AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode ProxyPass /_matrix http://localhost:8008/_matrix nocanon ProxyPassReverse /_matrix http://localhost:8008/_matrix ProxyPass /_synapse/client http://localhost:8008/_synapse/client nocanon ProxyPassReverse /_synapse/client http://localhost:8008/_synapse/client </VirtualHost>
Database
Synapse can use SQLite, but it's best to use PostgreSQL in production. Create a user and empty database on PostgreSQL. For some (possibly dumb) reason, Synapse requires old C style collation, which means we have to use template0:
createuser -SDRP <dbuser> createdb -T template0 --lc-ctype=C --lc-collate=C -E UTF-8 -O <dbuser> <dbname>
Configuration
Edit /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml to configure URL, database and SMTP server details:
# Protect the configuration directory: chmod 700 /etc/matrix-synapse public_baseurl: https://matrix.example.com/ database: name: psycopg2 args: user: <dbuser> password: <password> database: <dbname> host: <dbhost> cp_min: 5 cp_max: 10 # Generate secret strings with something like: pwgen -s 34 1 registration_shared_secret: <a long random string> macaroon_secret_key: <a different long random string> suppress_key_server_warning: true email: smtp_host: mail.example.com smtp_port: 25 smtp_user: <user> smtp_pass: <password> require_transport_security: true notif_from: "Matrix Server at example.com <noreply-matrix@example.com>"
Registering new users
The Debian package disables online user registration by default; use the register_new_matrix_user command from the cli, or enable it in the configuration. Set the registration_shared_secret to something long, and use:
register_new_matrix_user -u <username> -c /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml https://matrix.example.com
References
- Matrix.org documentation, "Installing Synapse"