Setting up a Matrix Server & Element (Riot.im) Client

Matrix Server

Install dependencies (for compiling for source… not needed)

  yum install libtiff-devel libjpeg-devel libzip-devel freetype-devel \
              lcms2-devel libwebp-devel tcl-devel tk-devel redhat-rpm-config \
              python3-virtualenv libffi-devel openssl-devel

Database (using postgres as setup by mastodon)

  su - postgres
  createuser synapse

  /usr/pgsql-11/bin/psql
      ALTER USER synapse WITH ENCRYPTED password 'STRONG_PASSWORD';
      CREATE DATABASE synapse ENCODING 'UTF8' LC_COLLATE='C' LC_CTYPE='C' template=template0 OWNER synapse;
      \q
  exit

Python env

  virtualenv-3 /opt/synapse
  source /opt/synapse/bin/activate

  pip install --upgrade pip
  pip install --upgrade setuptools

  pip install https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/tarball/master

  export PATH="$PATH:/usr/pgsql-11/bin/" # for pg_config command for following install
  pip install psycopg2

Setup synapse

  cd /opt/synapse
  source bin/activate
  python -m synapse.app.homeserver --server-name stuts.uk --config-path homeserver.yaml --generate-config --report-stats=yes

  # Install lxml for URL preview support
  pip install lxml

  vim homeserver.yaml
      # Uncomment line 'limit_profile_requests_to_users_who_share_rooms:' # UNDID THIS 2020-08-27
      # Comment out database lines for sqlite
      # Uncomment psycops database lines and configure for postgres
      # Uncomment 'enable_registration', set it as false and add 'registration_shared_secret' with a random generated value
      # Set web_client_location to https://chat.stuts.uk/
      # Uncomment max_upload_size and increase to something a bit more friendly towards video, like 200MB

  # Start the server
  synctl start

Allow stuts.uk to be used as a server_name (as we’re actually hosting it at matrix.stuts.uk)

  mkdir -p /var/www/stuts.uk/.well-known/matrix/
  cat << EOF > /var/www/stuts.uk/.well-known/matrix/server
  {"m.server": "matrix.stuts.uk:443"}
  EOF

Systemd stuff

  cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/matrix-synapse.service
  [Unit]
  Description=Matrix Synapse service
  After=network.target

  [Service]
  Type=forking
  WorkingDirectory=/opt/synapse/
  ExecStart=/opt/synapse/bin/synctl start
  ExecStop=/opt/synapse/bin/synctl stop
  ExecReload=/opt/synapse/bin/synctl restart
  Restart=always
  StandardOutput=syslog
  StandardError=syslog
  SyslogIdentifier=synapse

  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target
  EOF

  synctl stop
  systemctl start matrix-synapse
  systemctl enable matrix-synapse

User reg

  register_new_matrix_user -c homeserver.yaml http://localhost:8008
      stu
      PASSWORD

Refs:

https://www.vultr.com/docs/create-a-chat-server-using-matrix-synapse-and-riot-on-centos-7#Install_Synapse
https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/INSTALL.md#prebuilt-packages
https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/g7q7jo/self_hosting_your_own_riotim_and_matrix_server/
https://federationtester.matrix.org

For fixing federation issues:

https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/reverse_proxy.md
https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/federate.md
https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/delegate.md

VoIP Setup

It seems like a Jitsi server is not needed in order to do voice & video calls, it seems like this can be achieved with a turn server.

yum install coturn

vim /etc/coturn/turnserver.conf
    # Uncomment use-auth-secret
    # Generate and set a secret key for static-auth-secret
    # Set the server-name to turn.stuts.uk
    # Uncomment no-tcp-relay
    # Set user-quota to 16 (allowing 4 simultaneous relayed calls per user)
    # Set total-quota to 1600
    # Set cert and pkey to point to some lovely LetsEncrypt certificates (alternatively, copy keys to the default location)

systemctl enable coturn
systemctl start coturn

I got caught up trying to run this behind Nginx but that’d only be needed if wanting to use port 443 for the turn server. As this is a background/hidden service it’s okay to just have the DNS name and specify the port in the synapse config.

Synapse Changes

cd /opt/synapse
source bin/activate

vim homeserver.yaml
    # Set turn_uris: [ "turn:turn.stuts.uk:3478?transport=udp", "turn:turn.stuts.uk:3478?transport=tcp" ]
    # Set turn_shared_secret to the one entered earlier in the turn server conf
    # Set turn_user_lifetime to 86400000 (1 day)
    # Set turn_allow_guests to false

systemctl restart matrix-synapse

Element Web Chat

Install chat webserver

  cd /tmp
  wget https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/releases/download/v1.7.2/riot-v1.7.2.tar.gz

  mkdir /var/www/chat.stuts.uk
  cd /var/www/chat.stuts.uk

  tar xf /tmp/riot-v1.7.2.tar.gz --strip 1

Configure

  cp config.sample.json config.json

  vim config.json
      # Replace 'matrix-client.matrix.org' with 'matrix.stuts.uk'
      # Replace 'vector.im' with 'matrix.org'
      # Set "disable_guests" to true
      # Set "showLabsSetting" to true
      # Set "default_federate" to false
      # Set "disable_custom_urls" to true
      # Uncomment "url_preview_enabled" and the "url_preview_ip_range_blacklist" section

Refs:

https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/blob/develop/docs/config.md

VPS Setup