Self-Hosting Matrix Synapse on Alpine Linux

Synpase

If you're reading this, you likely know that Synapse is a popular Matrix home server software that allows users to run their own Matrix home server.

This post is a short guide describing how I was able to get Synapse working in a minimally-usable state on Alpine Linux.

Installation Process

Dependencies

First, since there is no Alpine-specific package for Synapse, we need to ensure that Alpine has the required dependencies for the Python-based installation method.

doas apk -U update
doas apk add python3 py3-virtualenv

Next, we need to set up a Python virtual environment for Synapse:

mkdir -p ~/synapse && cd ~/synapse
virtualenv -p python3 ~/synapse/env
source ~/synapse/env/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install --upgrade setuptools
pip install matrix-synapse

Running Synapse

Once installed, running Synapse is easy. Simply execute the following command, replacing example.com with the domain name that will be used with this home server. This will generate the configuration files needed to run the server.

python -m synapse.app.homeserver \
    --server-name example.com \
    --config-path homeserver.yaml \
    --generate-config \
    --report-stats=no

Once the configuration is generated, we can start up the Synapse server:

synctl start

Configuring Synapse

To make any change to Synapse, we need to edit the YAML configuration file:

nano ~/synapse/homeserver.yaml

For now, we just need to ensure the server_name is accurate. However, there are a lot of other configuration options found in the Configuring Synapse documentation that can be enabled/disabled at any point.

server_name: "example.com"

Make sure to restart Synapse when you make changes to the configuration:

synctl restart

Nginx Reverse-Proxy

To ensure that Synapse is reachable from the public, we need to connect our domain to the Synapse server. In my case, I use a Nginx reverse-proxy for this purpose.

To use Nginx, we need to create a reverse-proxy configuration file:

doas nano /etc/nginx/http.d/example.com.conf

If you already have TLS certificates for this domain (example.com), you can simply use the SSL configuration and point toward your TLS certificates.

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    # For the federation port
    listen 8448 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:8448 ssl http2;

    server_name example.com;

    location ~ ^(/_matrix|/_synapse/client) {
        # note: do not add a path (even a single /) after the port in `proxy_pass`,
        # otherwise nginx will canonicalise the URI and cause signature verification
        # errors.
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8008;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;

        # Nginx by default only allows file uploads up to 1M in size
        # Increase client_max_body_size to match max_upload_size defined in homeserver.yaml
        client_max_body_size 50M;
    }

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/matrix.access.log;
}

server {
	if ($host = example.com) {
		return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
	}

  server_name example.com;
  listen 80;
	return 404;
}

If you need to generate TLS certificates (I recommend Certbot), you'll need a more minimal Nginx conf file before you can use the TLS-enabled example above. Instead, use this configuration file during the Certbot certificate generation process:

server {
  server_name example.com;
  location / {
      try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
  }
  listen 80;
}

Once you're done editing the Nginx conf file, restart Nginx:

doas rc-service nginx restart

If you still need to generate TLS certificates, run certbot now and obtain the certificates. Certbot will ask if you want to use a webroot or spin up a temporary web server. I highly recommend using the temporary web server due to the many issues with using a webroot.

You will need to stop Nginx in order to user the temporary web server option with Certbot:

# Stop Nginx so certbot can spin up a temp webserver for cert generation
doas rc-service nginx stop
doas certbot certonly -v
doas rc-service nginx start

Open Firewall & Router Ports

If you use a firewall on the server, open the 8448 port for discovery and federation, as well as the normal web server ports if you're using a reverse proxy. If you want additional services, such as voice calls, you will need to read the Synapse documentation to see which ports need to be opened for those features.

Here's an example of the Universal Firewall (UFW) software:

# Matrix port
doas ufw allow 8448
# Standard web server ports
doas ufw allow "Nginx Full"

Remember to forward any Synapse ports, such as 8448, 80, and 443, in your Router from the internet to your server's IP address.

Adding Matrix Users

Finally, if you didn't enable public registration in the homeserver.yaml file, you can manually create users via the command-line:

cd ~/synapse
register_new_matrix_user -c homeserver.yaml

Remember that the format for federated Matrix usernames is @username:example.com when logging in to client applications.

Once Synapse is running, and you have a username, you are ready to log in to a Matrix client and start sending messages, joining rooms, and utilizing your very own Matrix server.