Install MyBB on Arch Linux using Docker

To install MyBB using the docker method, you have to download docker first.

On Arch Linux, you can use the following command for this:

sudo pacman -Syu docker-desktop

Hint: use the docker for a headless server. docker-desktop is for systems with a GUI.

Now build the following folder structure where you want to install MyBB to: (get the files from https://github.com/mybb/docker)

/opt/mybb/
    stack.yml
    mybb/
    postgres/
        data/
    nginx/
        default.conf

You might want to increase the maximum request length in the nginx/default.conf file now:

Add client_max_body_size 1000M; (for 1GB) into the server directive.

Change the owner of the created folder and all subdirectories / files to the current user: sudo chown <user>:<user> /opt/mybb --recursive

If you are on Docker Desktop (the GUI), allow sharing from the /opt/mybb folder by going to:

Settings -> Resources -> File sharing -> Virtual file shares and add the directory /opt/mybb. Click on Apply & Restart afterwards.

Change the POSTGRES_PASSWORD inside the /opt/mybb/stack.yml to something secure. This will be your database password.

Prepare Docker swarm:

docker swarm init

Note: Our host will be added automatically to the Swarm.

Change to the folder /opt/mybb:

cd /opt/mybb

Deploy the software bundle:

docker stack deploy --compose-file stack.yml mybb

You should now see the following output:

Creating network mybb_default
Creating service mybb_postgresql
Creating service mybb_mybb
Creating service mybb_nginx

You can check if the services are created correctly by using this command as well:

docker service ls

The REPLICAS should be 1/1. If it is 0/1, an error occured and the container died or never spawned. These errors usually occur because the file shares are not possible. Either the folders do not exist or Docker is not permitted to share them to the container.

Get the logs of each service by using these commands:

• docker service logs -f mybb_mybb
• docker service logs -f mybb_nginx
• docker service logs -f mybb_postgresql

If you want to stop and delete all services from docker:

docker service rm mybb_mybb mybb_nginx mybb_postgresql

Note: Even though when removing the services, the data still persists inside /opt/mybb.

If everything worked, we can proceed to the setup now!

Go to localhost:8080

Continue until the Database Configuration screen. There, enter the info from the /opt/mybb/stack.yml.

Here are the values you have to fill in:

• Database Engine: PostgreSQL
• Database Server Hostname: mybb_postgresql
• Database Username: mybb
• Database Password: <your_password>
• Database Name: mybb

Continue until the Board Configuration.

Here, configure everything to your liking, and you will be ready to go.