Install joplin server on Ubuntu (20.04)

1. as root run joplin-requirements.sh to install the joplin requirements but please take this script with causion since it is not well tested in existing environments. Root privileges are needed packages are installed. You can run sudo bash -x joplin-requirements.sh to see what it's doing. You could also create the requirements by yourself by:

   1. create user joplin with home /home/joplin
   2. install nodejs 16
   3. install packages vim git build-essential python curl dirmngr apt-transport-https lsb-release ca-certificates
   4. checkout your desired version from https://github.com/laurent22/joplin.git to /home/joplin

2. collect expected files and folders and build joplin by running joplin-build.sh. This must run as the joplin user. That is you can run it with sudo -u joplin bash -x joplin-build.sh to see what it's doing.

3. create a new db joplin in postgres (running on the same or on another server) and adapt run.sh with your db credentials. You can use psql to do this, for example:

   sudo -u postgres psql
   CREATE USER joplin WITH PASSWORD 'your-secret-password-here';
   CREATE DATABASE joplin;
   ALTER DATABASE joplin OWNER TO joplin;
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE joplin TO joplin;
   \q

4. create a new file .joplinrc containing the variables you want to overwrite from the run.sh's defaults. e.g.

   POSTGRES_PASSWORD="your-secret-password-here"
   APP_BASE_URL="https://joplin.mydomain.org"
   

5. test run.sh

   • To do that run it as the joplin user: sudo -u joplin run.sh and it should provide you with a URL to test like this: App: Call this for testing: 'curl https://yourdomain/api/ping'

6. if run.sh works as expected the curl reports: {"status":"ok","message":"Joplin Server is running"} then, you can use joplin.service to run joplin as a systemd service as follows:

   1. edit the joplin.service file to make sure in particular that ExecStart points to a copy of run.sh that is executeable and you tested above.
   2. sudo cp joplin.servce /etc/systemd/system
   3. sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   4. sudo systemctl enable joplin
   5. sudo service joplin start
   6. sudo service joplin status
   7. Then to the curl test again

7. in the webserver folder you find an configuration examples how to access the Joplin server from your reverse proxy (if your webserver is not included, and you get it configured please contribute a config example)

8. Once it's running you can surf to the server you tested with curl above in your browser (https://yourdomain), then login with the email admin@localhost and passowrd admin. Change the admin password, create yourself a new user and you're rolling.

Update

cd ~/joplin
git fetch --tags

then checkout the new version from the tag history e.g.

git checkout server-v2.6.9

then stop your joplin server and build latest version

cd ~/
~/joplin-build.sh

s. Joplin Server pre-release is now available