content/posts/updating-dendrite/index.md

   1 ---
   2 title: "Updating/installing Dendrite"
   3 date: 2023-08-24T16:41:53+02:00
   4 summary: How to update/install Dendrite when you don't have a recent enough Golang on your server.
   5 ---
   6 I decided to share the method I just devised for updating (and perhaps
   7 installing) Dendrite on my VPS.
   8
   9 ## Motivation
  10 I discovered that yesterday (as of writing), Dendrite was updated to
  11 [0.13.2](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/releases/tag/v0.13.2), and I was
  12 running 0.13.1. Because old thing bad and new thing good, I decided to update
  13 right away!
  14
  15 The method I tried using for this was essentially the same as I used for the
  16 initial install:
  17
  18 1. Stop dendrite service
  19 1. Download new tarball
  20 1. Unpack new tarball into existing dendrite directory
  21 1. Run `go build -o ./bin ./cmd/...`
  22
  23 This is where the issues start: it errored out on some nats something and I
  24 assumed it just didn't like being unpacked into an existing dendrite directory,
  25 so I made a new one. It failed again and then I read the actual error that
  26 occurred, and as it turned out the version of Go packaged in Debian is too old
  27 to compile the nats thing. Isn't that a classic?
  28
  29 I looked around to see if maybe Go has its own Debian repository, but I was out
  30 of luck. It seemed that the 2 options were either install Go from source or just
  31 stick with Dendrite 0.13.1, but in the end I decided on a 3rd solution:
  32
  33 ## Compiling it locally
  34 My personal machine runs Artix, so there should be no problem with outdated Go
  35 (or anything really) whatsoever. I figured that I could compile Dendrite on my
  36 personal machine and then `rsync` the binaries onto my VPS, just like I did with
  37 my Piped-Material frontend. Here are the steps:
  38
  39 1. Clone [Dendrite git repository](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite)
  40 1. Checkout `v0.13.2` *(replace with latest version)*
  41 1. Run `go build -o ./bin ./cmd/...` and wait for it to compile
  42 1. On VPS, move `/opt/dendrite` to `/opt/dendrite-old` and create new
  43    `/opt/dendrite`
  44 1. *(optional)* Strip the binaries so they take up less space: `strip
  45    --strip-unneeded bin/*`
  46 1. `rsync` the `bin` directory: `rsync -aAXvhzP bin root@vps:/opt/dendrite/`\
  47    *Most likely all these options aren't needed, it is what I use for VPS
  48    backups so I decided to not touch it just to be safe.*
  49 1. Back on the VPS, copy over `matrix_key.pem`, `media_store`, *(if it exists)*
  50    `searchindex` and `dendrite.yaml` from `dendrite-old` into `dendrite`.\
  51    I have noticed that Dendrite also creates a `jetstream` directory, I'm not
  52    sure what it is for but my homeserver seems to work fine without copying it
  53    over.
  54 1. Update configuration file. To do this, I went back to the Git repository on
  55    my local machine and ran `git log -p dendrite-sample.yaml`. This time the
  56    only change was that MSC2946 (Space Summaries) was de-MSCified, so I removed
  57    that from the config file.
  58 1. Make sure the user and group `dendrite` own every file in `/opt/dendrite`.
  59    Run: `chown -R dendrite:dendrite /opt/dendrite`
  60
  61 After doing this, I started Dendrite again using `systemctl` and to my surprise
  62 the homeserver was up and running first try. I also took this time to enable
  63 server-side search and DNS caching, which is something I overlooked during the
  64 initial setup of my homeserver. I have also verified that space previews still
  65 work despite MSC2946 being removed from the configuration file.
  66
  67 This way I was also able to save a bit of disk space, which is important since
  68 space is often rather limited on VPSes.