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. If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward forum platform that’s free to use and easy to customize, you’ll find SMF to be useful. This brief tutorial is going to 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 and the most popular web server in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below: After installing Apache2, run the commands below to disable the directory listing. Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

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. After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots. After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server. 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

SMF is based on PHP. so you’ll need to install it. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below After installing PHP, run the commands below to open the Apache2 PHP default file. Then make the change to the following lines below in the file and save.

Create SMF Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required, 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. Then create a database called smf Create a database user called smfuser with new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and 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. Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for SMFto function.

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 Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location. Save the file and exit.

Enable the SMF and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below. Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see SMF setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully. 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 and admin account for the forum and continue Finally, complete the installation Enjoy! You may also like the post below: