Howto: Install a jabber server

[johannes]

Jabber is a neat instant messaging protocol. With your own server, you have full control over who is allowed to join etc. Very handy for small businesses that wan't to chat with each other without exposing on other networks (msn, icq).

ejabberd is a good implementation of this, suitable for a low-end system like Bubba. Do like this:

- ejabberd is available in the sarge-backports repo. Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

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deb http://www.backports.org/debian/ sarge-backports main

Edit: Also uncomment the original debian sources.

and do:

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apt-get update

and then:

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apt-get install ejabberd

Press 'Y' when it asks you if you want to install. Then just follow the instructions. Typ in the domain you wan't to use (note: this has to be the name or IP where you can reach this server. For instance simply 'bubba' if you only wan't to reach it internally, or 'mydomain.com' if externally. Note that this choice can't be changed later, without all attached people having to reattach. Just follow the other instructions and you're all done with the installation.

Open port 5222 and 5223 in your firewall/router if you wan't it accessible from outside.

Then just download any PC client (list here). I have tried wippien and pidgin, both worked ok for me.

Connect to your server name, and choose "add this user on the server" the first time. The web administation interface (for statistics etc.) is available at

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bubba:5280/admin

Log in with your created admin user (don't forget to add @yourservername) and it's password.

That's it! Just let me know if I left anything out.

[Eek]

This is really cool

I am on Etch and did not get the prompts to enter domain or admin user.
so had to manually enter these after the installation.

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vi /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg

Change the hostname

%% Hostname
{hosts, ["bubba"]}.

Restart ejabber

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/etc/init.d/ejabberd restart

Add admin user; using: ejabberdctl register user server password

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ejabberdctl register eek bubba eek

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vi /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg

Add the admin user

%% Admin user
{acl, admin, {user, "eek", "bubba"}}.

Restart ejabber

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/etc/init.d/ejabberd restart

Cheers
Eek

[GaryL]

I get the following error when I try in install, am I doing something wrong?

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bubba:/home/gary# apt-get install ejabberd
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  ejabberd: Depends: erlang-base (>= 1:11.b.2-4~bpo1) but it is not going to be installed or
                     erlang-base-hipe (>= 1:11.b.2-4~bpo1) but it is not going to be installed
            Depends: erlang-nox (>= 1:11.b.2-4~bpo1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
bubba:/home/gary#

[johannes]

Did you also uncomment the debian sources, before doing an apt-get update?

[GaryL]

Your right, stupid me can't read .

all working now, thanks.

[johannes]

Yes, I could have been more clear on that. But ok, great.