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Could anyone provide a step-by-step guide on setting up selfhosted Mollysocket server (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by TheGreatestLemmyUser@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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(I apologize if this is not the right community for the question described in the post title.)

My problem with setting up Mollysocket is that my knowledge and competence with such things is very limited (I have MSc in natural sciences) so the instructions on their Github repo are not clear enough for me to resolve the issues I've faced. I have a strong passion for these though, and there are still lots of things I do understand.

However, none of the three alternative methods to install Mollysocket worked. First I tried using crates.io, but hit the wall when trying to perform "cargo install mollysocket" because it ended up giving a feature error which I couldn't pass regardless the given instructions of using nightly version and enabling such unstable feature (+ I've no idea where to find Cargo.toml file).

So next I tried the precompiled version, but then the issue was that I couldn't start mollysocket via systemctl. Troubleshooting by myself was impossible because I couldn't find anything from the search engines related to this.

And the Docker option, well, I think I understood everything until the step where I should generate VAPID key. I copy-pasted the given command from their Github, but this results in a error that such command does not exist.

The instructions given on their Github are, in my opinion, not so beginner friendly, thus I would be very grateful to those who could help with this.

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[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Commands and errors?

[–] TheGreatestLemmyUser@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Using Crates.io:

cargo install mollysocket

ends up with

error[E0658]: c".." literals are experimental ... error: could not compile rusqlite (lib) due to previous error.

Now rustc --explain E0658 states that this is due to unstable feature "repr128". I'm using a nightly version.

Using precompiled release:

After systemctl enable --now mollysocket

performing systemctl status mollysocket gives

... Active: failed (Result: exit-code) ... Process: ... (code=exited, status=203/EXEC) ...

Docker:

sudo -u mollysocket mollysocket vapid gen | systemd-creds encrypt --name=ms_vapid -p - -

or basically any command starting mollysocket ends up with

mollysocket:command not found error.

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

mollysocket command is inside the docker container(s), so outside you get not found.

github.com/mollyim/mollysocket/blob/main/README.md

VAPID key

VAPID key is used to authorize mollysocket server to send requests to your push server, if it supports it.

To generate a new key, you can run this command mollysocket vapid gen. Or using docker, docker compose run mollysocket vapid gen.

This value can be passed to mollysocket via a file, location given with vapid_key_file parameter, or directly in the vapid_privkey parameter. The key file takes the precedence.

docker compose run mollysocket vapid gen

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Check their issue tracker for build issues.

github.com/mollyim/mollysocket/issues

[–] TheGreatestLemmyUser@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I guess I managed to break too many things while testing several settings...so I did a fresh Linux Mint installation and decided to try Crates option again almost succeeding...

Now I managed to perform cargo install mollysocket as well as create vapid key (though only as a plaintext..) and add that to corresponding file. I set up Mollysocket to be used in air-gapped mode (webserver = false), then performing systemctl restart mollysocket, and now based on systemctl status mollysocket the process is now active. I also got the QR code via journalctl -u mollysocket, but now the status on the Molly app says it's "Unable to create the linked device".

That's where I'm stuck now. Seems to be so close to work..

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

github.com/mollyim/mollysocket/issues/19

Update your app?

[–] TheGreatestLemmyUser@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, someone just made a post about that recently. This solved the issue, and now I've my Mollysocket server running! Many thanks to you for assisting.

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

sudo journalctl -xe -u mollysocket # to see full log

[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

What OS/distro are you using?

[–] TheGreatestLemmyUser@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I'm currently running Linux Mint (though I'm okay and/or planning to change the distro once I succeed with this setup for the first time).