gemini - kennedy.gemi.dev

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Setting up a Gemini Server

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As I’ve mentioned before, my brother, The Quiet Learner, has set up his own

gemlog and gemini server. I’ve been tinkering with the idea of creating a

script or program that reads my WordPress blog and automatically builds a

gemlog from that. That way what little technology knowledge I posses is freely

available to view by others, even those who dislike the world wide web.

I started out by installing and setting up a gemini server. A quick search

online lead me to a write_up_about_it_on_Techrights.org, but there were a few

hiccups along the way, so I’ll post my setup and thoughts.

It started out plain enough, after opening port 1965 in the firewall, I created

a new user, called gemini.

root@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:/home/alaskalinuxuser# adduser

gemini\nAdding user `gemini' ...\nAdding new group `gemini' (1002) ...\nAdding

new user `gemini' (1002) with group `gemini' ...\nCreating home directory `/

home/gemini' ...\nCopying files from `/etc/skel' ...\nNew password: \nRetype

new password: \npasswd: password updated successfully\nChanging the user

information for gemini\nEnter the new value, or press ENTER for the

default\n\tFull Name []: \n\tRoom Number []: \n\tWork Phone []: \n\tHome Phone

[]: \n\tOther []: \nIs the information correct? [Y/n] y

Then, after switching to the gemini user, I created some folders, and a bare-

bones gemini page:

gemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~$ mkdir bin\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-

PowerEdge-R520:~$ mkdir gemini\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~$ mkdir

certs\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~$ cd

gemini\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~/gemini$

ls\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~/gemini$ touch

index.gmi\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~/gemini$ echo "Gemini server

setup in progress..." >> index.gmi \ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~/

gemini$ cat index.gmi \nGemini server setup in progress...

I changed directories to my newly created bin folder and downloaded agate for

an x86_64 system. Then I gunzipped it and made it executable:

gemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~$ cd bin\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-

PowerEdge-R520:~/bin$ wget https://github.com/mbrubeck/agate/releases/download/

v3.1.0/agate.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.gz\n--2021-07-20 07:24:44-- https://

github.com/mbrubeck/agate/releases/download/v3.1.0/agate.x86_64-unknown-linux-

gnu.gz\nResolving github.com (github.com)... 192.30.255.112\nConnecting to

github.com (github.com)|192.30.255.112|:443... connected.\nHTTP request sent,

awaiting response... 302 Found\nLocation: https://github-

releases.githubusercontent.com/264589205/6644d980-c827-11eb-92c4-

4b17b81de038?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-

Credential=AKIAIWNJYAX4CSVEH53A%2F20210720%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-

Amz-Date=20210720T152424Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-

Signature=3f950f7ff5ce3abe4ffabaeefa74e5b50080dcd54f7936be3cb634238a92bf9f&X-

Amz-SignedHeaders=host&actor_id=0&key_id=0&repo_id=264589205&response-content-

disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3Dagate.x86_64-unknown-linux-

gnu.gz&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream [following]\n--2021-07-

20 07:24:44-- https://github-releases.githubusercontent.com/264589205/

6644d980-c827-11eb-92c4-4b17b81de038?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-

Credential=AKIAIWNJYAX4CSVEH53A%2F20210720%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-

Amz-Date=20210720T152424Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-

Signature=3f950f7ff5ce3abe4ffabaeefa74e5b50080dcd54f7936be3cb634238a92bf9f&X-

Amz-SignedHeaders=host&actor_id=0&key_id=0&repo_id=264589205&response-content-

disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3Dagate.x86_64-unknown-linux-

gnu.gz&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream\nResolving github-

releases.githubusercontent.com (github-releases.githubusercontent.com)...

185.199.111.154, 185.199.110.154, 185.199.109.154, ...\nConnecting to github-

releases.githubusercontent.com (github-

releases.githubusercontent.com)|185.199.111.154|:443... connected.\nHTTP

request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK\nLength: 1036251 (1012K)

[application/octet-stream]\nSaving to: âagate.x86_64-unknown-linux-

gnu.gzâ\n\nagate.x86_64-unknow 100%[===================>] 1012K 2.86MB/

s in 0.3s \n\n2021-07-20 07:24:45 (2.86 MB/s) - âagate.x86_64-unknown-

linux-gnu.gzâ saved [1036251/1036251]\n\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-

R520:~/bin$ ls\nagate.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.gz\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-

PowerEdge-R520:~/bin$ gunzip ./agate.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.gz

\ngemini@alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520:~/bin$ chmod a+x ./agate.x86_64-

unknown-linux-gnu

As the root user I edited /etc/systemd/system/agate.service with nano:

[Unit]\nDescription=agate\nAfter=network.target\n\n

[Service]\nUser=gemini\nType=simple\nExecStart=/home/gemini/bin/agate.x86_64-

unknown-linux-gnu -s --content /home/gemini/gemini/ --key /home/gemini/certs/

key.pem --cert /home/gemini/certs/cert.pem --hostname alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net

--lang en-GB\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=default.target

But it didn’t work very well. Actually it didn’t work at all when I started the

service:

â agate.service - agate\n Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/

agate.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)\n Active: failed (Result:

exit-code) since Tue 2021-07-20 07:42:57 AKDT; 11min ago\n Process: 34151

ExecStart=/home/gemini/bin/agate.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu -s --content /home/

gemini/gemini/ --key /h>\n Main PID: 34151 (code=exited, status=1/

FAILURE)\n\nJul 20 07:42:57 alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520 systemd[1]: Started

agate.\nJul 20 07:42:57 alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520 agate.x86_64-unknown-

linux-gnu[34151]: Unrecognized option: 's'\nJul 20 07:42:57 alaskalinuxuser-

PowerEdge-R520 systemd[1]: agate.service: Main process exited, code=exited,

status=1/FA>\nJul 20 07:42:57 alaskalinuxuser-PowerEdge-R520 systemd[1]:

agate.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Turns out I needed to edit the ExecStart command a little, I finally came up

with this after reading the agate help:

ExecStart=/home/gemini/bin/agate.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --content /home/

gemini/gemini/ --certs /home/gemini/certs/ --hostname alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net

--lang en-GB

And from the logs, I could see it was working. By the way, it makes it’s own

certificates, and didn’t use the ones I had previously made. I recommend doing

it this way unless you need to use your own pre-made certs.

[2021-07-20T16:25:27Z INFO agate] No certificate or key found for

"alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net", generating them.\n[2021-07-20T16:25:27Z INFO

agate] Listening on [[::]:1965, 0.0.0.0:1965]...\n[2021-07-20T16:25:33Z INFO

agate] [::ffff:192.168.5.251]:1965 - "gemini://alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net" 20

"text/gemini;lang=en-GB"

And that was it. Now I have a functioning gemini server with a short gemlog.

You can check it out if you’d like, but you’ll need a gemini browser, like

Castor.

gemini://alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net

So far it doesn’t say much, though!

Linux – keep it simple.