Simple Machine Forum (SMF) is a lightweight and simple forum platform based on PHP that allows anyone to create and own their online forum community.
It is designed for ease of use to allow webmasters to create forum communities with all the features needed from a bulletin board with fewer resources.
You’ll find SMF helpful if you’re looking for a simple forum platform that’s free and easy to customize.
This brief tutorial will show students and new users how to install SMF on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP support.
This post covers installing the latest version of SMF, which at the time of writing is 2.0.15
To get started with installing SMF, follow the steps below:
Install Apache2
SMF requires a webserver to function; the most popular web server in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt install apache2
After installing Apache2, run the commands below to disable the directory listing.
sudo sed -i "s/Options Indexes FollowSymLinks/Options FollowSymLinks/" /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
Install MariaDB
SMF also requires a database server to function. And MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it, run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service always to start up when the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service
Install PHP and Related Modules
SMF is based on PHP. So you’ll need to install it. To install PHP and related modules, run the commands below.
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php libapache2-mod-php php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl unzip
After installing PHP, run the commands below to open the Apache2 PHP default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.10 sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.04
Then change to the following lines below in the file and save.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 64M max_execution_time = 240 max_input_vars = 1500
Create SMF Database
Now that you’ve installed all the required packages continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create an SMF database.
Run the commands below to log on to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called smf
CREATE DATABASE smf;
Create a database user called fuser with a new password
CREATE USER 'smfuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON smf.* TO 'smfuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download SMF Latest Release
Next, visit the SMF site and download the latest version.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file into the Apache2 root directory.
cd /tmp && wget https://download.simplemachines.org/index.php/smf_2-0-15_install.zip sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/smf sudo unzip smf_2-0-15_install.zip -d /var/www/html/smf
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for SMFto function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/smf/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/smf/
Configure Apache2
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for SMF. This file will control how users access SMF content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called smf.conf.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/smf.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@mysmf.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/smf
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/smf/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Enable the SMF and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo a2ensite smf.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Restart Apache2 by running the commands below to load all the settings above.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. Next, you should see SMF setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
http://example.com
Then follow the on-screen instructions until you’ve successfully installed SMF.
Type the database connection settings. You’ll need the database and username, and password
Next, enter the forum community name and URL to access it and continue
Create an admin account for the forum and continue
Finally, complete the installation
Enjoy!
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