How to Install Etherpad Lite on Debian Wheezy

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Etherpad Lite on Debian Wheezy. Etherpad Lite is an Open Source web-based editor providing collaborative editing in real-time, including built-in chat box. This all takes place on one of our Linux VPS hosting plans but it should work just as well on any other Linux installation.

The following command will install all necessary packages

apt-get install gzip git-core curl python libssl-dev pkg-config \
                build-essential python g++ make checkinstall \
                nginx-full mysql-server

Next we need to compile and install nodejs

cd /usr/src/
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-latest.tar.gz
tar xzvf node-latest.tar.gz && cd node-v*
./configure && checkinstall

When the dialog window opens, enter ‘3’ and remove the “v” in front of the version number.
Install nodejs with the following command

dpkg -i node_*

Create a MySQL or a MariaDB database

CREATE DATABASE etherpad CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON etherpad.* TO etherpad@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '__yourPasswd__';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
\q

Install and configure Etherpad Lite

Go to the directory where you want to install Etherpad Lite and clone the git repository

cd /var/www/
git clone git://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite.git

Edit the configuration file

cd etherpad-lite/
cp settings.json.template settings.json
vim settings.json

and change the following settings:

// change the IP Address
"ip": "127.0.0.1",

// set a session key
"sessionKey" : "rAnD0m5tRIng",

//configure the connection settings
 "dbType" : "mysql",
 "dbSettings" : {
   "user"    : "etherpad",
   "host"    : "localhost",
   "password": "__yourPassword__",
   "database": "etherpad"
 },

// add admin user
"users": {
 "admin": {
 "password": "__yourAdminPassword__",
 "is_admin": true
 }
},

Create a system user

adduser --system --home=/var/www/etherpad-lite/ --group etherpad
chown -R etherpad: /var/www/etherpad-lite/

Start Etherpad Lite for the first time:

su -c "/var/www/etherpad-lite/bin/run.sh" -s /bin/bash etherpad

If everything is OK, kill all processes belonging to the etherpad user

pkill -u etherpad

Create an init script using your favorite editor

#!/bin/sh

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          etherpad-lite
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts etherpad lite
# Description:       starts etherpad lite using start-stop-daemon
### END INIT INFO

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/opt/node/bin"
LOGFILE="/var/www/etherpad-lite/etherpad-lite.log"
EPLITE_DIR="/var/www/etherpad-lite"
EPLITE_BIN="bin/safeRun.sh"
USER="etherpad"
GROUP="etherpad"
DESC="Etherpad Lite"
NAME="etherpad-lite"

set -e

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

start() {
  echo "Starting $DESC... "

    start-stop-daemon --start --chuid "$USER:$GROUP" --background --make-pidfile --pidfile /var/run/$NAME.pid --exec $EPLITE_DIR/$EPLITE_BIN -- $LOGFILE || true
  echo "done"
}

#We need this function to ensure the whole process tree will be killed
killtree() {
    local _pid=$1
    local _sig=${2-TERM}
    for _child in $(ps -o pid --no-headers --ppid ${_pid}); do
        killtree ${_child} ${_sig}
    done
    kill -${_sig} ${_pid}
}

stop() {
  echo "Stopping $DESC... "
   while test -d /proc/$(cat /var/run/$NAME.pid); do
    killtree $(cat /var/run/$NAME.pid) 15
    sleep 0.5
  done
  rm /var/run/$NAME.pid
  echo "done"
}

status() {
  status_of_proc -p /var/run/$NAME.pid "" "etherpad-lite" && exit 0 || exit $?
}

case "$1" in
  start)
      start
      ;;
  stop)
    stop
      ;;
  restart)
      stop
      start
      ;;
  status)
      status
      ;;
  *)
      echo "Usage: $NAME {start|stop|restart|status}" >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
esac

exit 0

chmod +x /etc/init.d/etherpad-lite
update-rc.d etherpad-lite defaults
/etc/init.d/etherpad-lite start

Create a new virtual host (server block)

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/domain.tld.conf

server {
 listen       80;
 server_name  domain.tld;
   location / {
     proxy_pass        http://localhost:9001/;
     proxy_set_header  Host $host;
     proxy_buffering   off;
   }
 }

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/domain.tld /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/domain.tld
/etc/init.d/nginx restart

In case you are using Apache, you can use the following virtual host directive

vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.tld

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName domain.tld
    ServerSignature Off
    <IfModule mod_proxy.c>
        ProxyVia On
        ProxyRequests Off
        ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9001/
        ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9001/
        ProxyPreserveHost on
        <Proxy *>
            Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Proxy>
    </IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.tld /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/domain.tld
a2enmod proxy proxy_http
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

That’s it! You can now access Etherpad Lite from your browser.

Etherpad project homepage on GitHub

If you are looking for other options, you may want to read our guide on How to Install Etherpad on Debian 9.