Friendica optimisations and Red installation

beaglebone.txt

@@ -1175,6 +1175,9 @@ If all has gone well then there should be no warnings or errors after you run th
 
 *** Friendica
 **** Installation
+
+See [[Setting up a web site]] for details of how to update the Apache configuration for your Friendica site.
+
 #+BEGIN_SRC: bash
 apt-get install mysql-server php5-common php5-cli php5-curl php5-gd php5-mysql php5-mcrypt
 #+END_SRC
@@ -1244,6 +1247,23 @@ Save and exit, then restart cron.
 service cron restart
 #+END_SRC
 
+You can improve the speed of Friendica database searches by adding the following indexes:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+mysql -u root -p
+use friendica;
+CREATE INDEX `uri_received` ON item(`uri`, `received`);
+CREATE INDEX `received_uri` ON item(`received`, `uri`);
+CREATE INDEX `contact-id_created` ON item(`contact-id`, created);
+CREATE INDEX `uid_network_received` ON item(`uid`, `network`, `received`);
+CREATE INDEX `uid_parent` ON item(`uid`, `parent`);
+CREATE INDEX `uid_received` ON item(`uid`, `received`);
+CREATE INDEX `uid_network_commented` ON item(`uid`, `network`, `commented`);
+CREATE INDEX `uid_title` ON item(uid, `title`);
+CREATE INDEX `created_contact-id` ON item(`created`, `contact-id`);
+quit
+#+END_SRC
+
 **** Backups
 
 Make sure that the database gets backed up.  By using cron if anything goes wrong then you should be able to recover the database either from the previous day or the previous week.
@@ -1300,7 +1320,7 @@ chmod +x /etc/cron.weekly/friendicabackup
 #+END_SRC
 
 **** Recommended configuration
-**** Admin
+***** Admin
 To get to the admin settings you will need to be logged in with the admin email address which you specified at the beginning of the installation procedure.  Depending upon the theme which you're using "/admin/" will be available either as an icon or on a drop down menu.
 
 Under the *plugins* section the main one which you may wish to enable is the NSFW plugin.  With that enabled if a post contans the #NSFW tag then it will appear minimised by default and you will need to click a button to open it.
@@ -1311,7 +1331,7 @@ Under the *site* section give your Friendica node a name other than "/my friend
 
 It's probably a good idea to enable "/private posts by default for new users/" and also "/don't include post content in email notifications/".  Since traditional email isn't a secure system and is easily vulnerable to attack by systems such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKeyscore][Xkeyscore]].
 
-**** Settings
+***** Settings
 Each user has their own customisable settings, typically available either via an icon or by an entry on a drop down menu.
 
 Under *additional features* enable "/richtext editor/", "/post preview/", "/group filter/", "/network filter/", "/edit sent posts/" and "/dislike posts/".
@@ -1320,14 +1340,183 @@ Under *display settings* select your desktop and mobile themes.
 
 Once you have connected to enough friends it's also a good idea to use the "/export personal data/" option from here.  This will save a file to your local system, which you can import into another friendica node if necessary.
 **** To access from an Android device
-**** App
+***** App
 Open a browser on your device and go to https://f-droid.org/ then download and install the F-Droid apk.  If you then open F-Droid you can search for and install the Friendica app.
 
 If you are using a self-signed certificate then at the login screen scroll down to the bottom, select the SSL settings then scroll down and disable SSL certificate checks.  You will then be able to log in using https, which at least gives you some protection via the encryption.
 
 More information about the Friendica app can be found on http://friendica-for-android.wiki-lab.net/
-**** Mobile Theme
+***** Mobile Theme
 Another way to access Friendica from a mobile device is to just use the web browser.  If you have selected a mobile theme within your settings then when viewing from an Android system the mobile theme will be displayed.
+*** Red Matrix
+**** Introduction
+Red Matrix is the current version of the Friendica social networking system.  It's more general than Friendica in that it's designed as a generic communication system based around a protocol called "zot".  At the time of writing in early 2014 Red Matrix remains at an alpha stage of development and so it's not advised that you install it unless you're willing to put up with bugs and frustrations.  In the large majority of cases it's better to stick with Friendica for now.
+
+**** Prerequisites
+The main problem with Red Matrix is that in order to install it you will need to have purchased a domain name (i.e. not a FreeDNS subdomain) and a SSL certificate for it.
+
+You could join some other Red Matrix server, but this suffers from "/The Levison Problem/" in which some goons show up with a gagging order demanding coppies of the SSL private key.  In that scenario unless the owner of the server is exceptionally brave users may never be informed that the site has been compromised or that there is interception hardware attached to the server.  Joining another server defeats the object of being digitally self-sufficient and raises legal question marks about the ownership of data which you might upload to a server which doesn't belong to you.
+
+**** Installation
+
+See [[Setting up a web site]] for details of how to update the Apache configuration for your Red Matrix site.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+apt-get install mysql-server php5-common php5-cli php5-curl php5-gd php5-mysql php5-mcrypt
+#+END_SRC
+
+Enter an admin password for MySQL.
+
+Create a mysql database.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+mysql -u root -p
+create database redmatrix;
+CREATE USER 'redmatrixadmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
+GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON redmatrix.* TO 'redmatrixadmin'@'localhost';
+quit
+#+END_SRC
+
+You may need to fix Git SSL problems.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+git config --global http.sslVerify true
+apt-get install ca-certificates
+cd ~/
+emacs .gitconfig
+#+END_SRC
+
+The .gitconfig file should look something like this:
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+[http]
+        sslVerify = true
+        sslCAinfo = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
+[user]
+        email = myusername@mydomainname.com
+        name = yourname
+#+END_SRC
+
+Get the source code.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+export HOSTNAME=mydomainname.com
+cd /var/www/$HOSTNAME
+mv htdocs htdocs_old
+git clone https://github.com/friendica/red.git htdocs
+chmod -R 755 htdocs
+chown -R www-data:www-data htdocs
+mkdir htdocs/view/tpl/smarty3
+chmod 777 htdocs/view/tpl
+chmod 777 htdocs/view/tpl/smarty3
+git clone https://github.com/friendica/red-addons.git htdocs/addon
+#+END_SRC
+
+Now visit the URL of your site and you should be taken through the rest of the installation procedure.  Note that this may take a few minutes so don't be concerned if it looks as if it has crashed - just leave it running.  If you have trouble with "allow override" ensure that "AllowOverride" is set to "all" in your Apache settings for the site (within /etc/apache2/sites-available) and then restart the apache2 service.
+
+Install the poller.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC
+emacs /etc/crontab
+#+END_SRC
+
+and append the following, changing mydomainname.com to whatever your domain is.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC
+*/10 *  * * *	root	cd /var/www/mydomainname.com/htdocs; /usr/bin/php include/poller.php
+#+END_SRC
+
+Save and exit, then restart cron.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+service cron restart
+#+END_SRC
+
+**** Backups
+
+Make sure that the database gets backed up.  By using cron if anything goes wrong then you should be able to recover the database either from the previous day or the previous week.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+emacs /etc/cron.daily/redmatrixbackup
+#+END_SRC
+
+Enter the following
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+#!/bin/sh
+
+MYSQL_PASSWORD=<mysql root password>
+
+umask 0077
+
+# Backup the database
+mysqldump --password=$MYSQL_PASSWORD friendica > /var/backups/redmatrix_daily.sql
+
+# Make the backup readable only by root
+chmod 600 /var/backups/redmatrix_daily.sql
+#+END_SRC
+
+Save and exit.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+chmod 600 /etc/cron.daily/redmatrixbackup
+chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/redmatrixbackup
+emacs /etc/cron.weekly/redmatrixbackup
+#+END_SRC
+
+Enter the following
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+#!/bin/sh
+
+MYSQL_PASSWORD=<mysql root password>
+
+umask 0077
+
+# Backup the database
+mysqldump --password=$MYSQL_PASSWORD friendica > /var/backups/redmatrix_weekly.sql
+
+# Make the backup readable only by root
+chmod 600 /var/backups/redmatrix_weekly.sql
+#+END_SRC
+
+Save and exit.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC: bash
+chmod 600 /etc/cron.weekly/redmatrixbackup
+chmod +x /etc/cron.weekly/redmatrixbackup
+#+END_SRC
+
+**** Recommended configuration
+***** Admin
+To get to the admin settings you will need to be logged in with the admin email address which you specified at the beginning of the installation procedure.  Depending upon the theme which you're using "/admin/" will be available either as an icon or on a drop down menu.
+
+Under the *plugins* section the main one which you may wish to enable is the NSFW plugin.  With that enabled if a post contans the #NSFW tag then it will appear minimised by default and you will need to click a button to open it.
+
+Under the *themes* section select a few themes, including mobile themes which are suitable for phones or tablets.
+
+Under the *site* section give your Friendica node a name other than "/my friend network/", you can change the icon and banner text and set the default mobile theme typically to /frost-mobile/.  If you don't want your node to host a lot of accounts for people you don't know then you may want to set the register policy to "/requires approval/".  For security it's probably a good idea only to host accounts for people who you actually know, rather than random strangers.  Also be aware that the Beaglebone does not have a great deal of computational power or bandwidth and will not function well if there are hundreds of users using your node.  If you're not federating with Diaspora or other sites then you may wish to select "/only allow Friendica contacts/".  That improves the security of the system, since communication between Friendica nodes is always encrypted separately and in addition to the usual SSL encryption layer - which makes life interesting for the Surveillance State and at least keeps those cryptanalysts employed.
+
+It's probably a good idea to enable "/private posts by default for new users/" and also "/don't include post content in email notifications/".  Since traditional email isn't a secure system and is easily vulnerable to attack by systems such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKeyscore][Xkeyscore]].
+
+***** Settings
+Each user has their own customisable settings, typically available either via an icon or by an entry on a drop down menu.
+
+Under *additional features* enable "/richtext editor/", "/post preview/", "/group filter/", "/network filter/", "/edit sent posts/" and "/dislike posts/".
+
+Under *display settings* select your desktop and mobile themes.
+
+Once you have connected to enough friends it's also a good idea to use the "/export personal data/" option from here.  This will save a file to your local system, which you can import into another friendica node if necessary.
+**** To access from an Android device
+***** App
+Open a browser on your device and go to https://f-droid.org/ then download and install the F-Droid apk.  If you then open F-Droid you can search for and install the Friendica app.
+
+If you are using a self-signed certificate then at the login screen scroll down to the bottom, select the SSL settings then scroll down and disable SSL certificate checks.  You will then be able to log in using https, which at least gives you some protection via the encryption.
+
+More information about the Friendica app can be found on http://friendica-for-android.wiki-lab.net/
+***** Mobile Theme
+Another way to access Friendica from a mobile device is to just use the web browser.  If you have selected a mobile theme within your settings then when viewing from an Android system the mobile theme will be displayed.
+
 ** Install a Blog
 
 Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform, but in practice I found it to be high maintenance with frequent security updates and breakages.  More practical for a home server is Flatpress.  Flatpress doesn't use a MySql database, just text files, and so is easy to relocate or reinstall.