StatusNet For Linux

StatusNet (formerly known as Laconica) is a free, open source microblogging platform allows people to communicate through 140-character messages over the Internet. One of the most popular microblogging service, Identi.ca, is based on StatusNet. Users can choose which people to "follow" and receive only their friends' or colleagues' status messages. It provides a similar service to sites like Twitter, Jaiku, and Plurk.

How to install StatusNet:

1. Unpack the tarball you downloaded on your Web server. Usually a    command like this will work:

         tar zxf statusnet-0.x.x.tar.gz

  ...which will make a laconica-0.7.3 subdirectory in your current    directory. (If you don't have shell access on your Web server, you    may have to unpack the tarball on your local computer and FTP the    files to the server.)

2. Move the tarball to a directory of your choosing in your Web root    directory. Usually something like this will work:

          mv statusnet-0.x.x /var/www/mublog

  This will make your StatusNet instance available in the mublog path of    your server, like "http://example.net/mublog". "microblog" or    "laconica" might also be good path names. If you know how to    configure virtual hosts on your web server, you can try setting up    "http://micro.example.net/" or the like.

3. Make your target directory writeable by the Web server.

         chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/

  On some systems, this will probably work:

      chgrp www-data /var/www/mublog/        chmod g+w /var/www/mublog/

  If your Web server runs as another user besides "www-data", try    that user's default group instead. As a last resort, you can create    a new group like "mublog" and add the Web server's user to the group.

4. You should also take this moment to make your avatar subdirectory    writeable by the Web server. An insecure way to do this is:

         chmod a+w /var/www/mublog/avatar

  You can also make the avatar directory writeable by the Web server    group, as noted above.

5. Create a database to hold your microblog data. Something like this    should work:

         mysqladmin -u "username" --password="password" create statusnet

  Note that StatusNet must have its own database; you can't share the    database with another program. You can name it whatever you want,    though.

  (If you don't have shell access to your server, you may need to use    a tool like PHPAdmin to create a database. Check your hosting    service's documentation for how to create a new MySQL database.)

6. Create a new database account that StatusNet will use to access the    database. If you have shell access, this will probably work from the    MySQL shell:

      GRANT ALL on statusnet.*       TO 'lacuser'@'localhost'       IDENTIFIED BY 'lacpassword';

  You should change 'lacuser' and 'lacpassword' to your preferred new    username and password. You may want to test logging in to MySQL as    this new user.

7. In a browser, navigate to the Laconica install script; something like:

          http://yourserver.example.com/mublog/install.php

  Enter the database connection information and your site name. The    install program will configure your site and install the initial,    almost-empty database.

8. You should now be able to navigate to your microblog's main directory    and see the "Public Timeline", which will be empty. If not, magic    has happened! You can now register a new user, post some notices,    edit your profile, etc. However, you may want to wait to do that stuff    if you think you can set up "fancy URLs" (see below), since some    URLs are stored in the database.