Introduction

This page will guide you through the process of setting up the Database 4 Everything on your system.

Pre-Requisites

Debian Linux

While db4e is certified for Debian 12 Bookworm Linux, it should work with minimal tweaks on any Linux distribution.

This guide assumes a minimal (NetInst) install with only:

SSH server
Standard system utilities*

-selected.

Root Access

The db4e application does NOT require root access to run. However, root access is required to:

Install Pre-Requisite Linux packages
Install MongoDB
Run the XMRig miner
Configure sudo for XMRig control
Configure db4e as a system service

Dedicated db4e Account

PRO TIP: The best practise is to created a dedicated Linux db4e account and have that account own the db4e code and the GitHub Pages repository. This is optional.

MongoDB Install

MongoDB does not ship with Debian, however the good folks at Mongo run their own repository. See Installing MongoDB for detailed instructions on setting up repository access and installing MongoDB.

Create a GitHub Account

If you don’t already have one, you can get a free GitHub account.

Navigate to https://github.com and click on the Sign up button.

Create a Repository

Next you’ll need to create a GitHub repository. This will host the db4e website.

Navigate to https://github.com and click on the Sign in button.
Once you’ve signed in, click on your account icon in the top-right corner to access the drop down menu.
Click on Your repositories menu item
On the Repositories page click on the New button.
Choose a name for your repository, e.g. xmr.
Add a description, e.g. Monero XMR Mining Farm
Select GNU General Public Licence v3.0 to be inline with db4e’s licensing.
Click on the Create repository button.

Setup GitHub Pages

You need to configure the repository as a GitHub Pages site. Once you’re logged into GitHub and have navigated to your newly created repo:

Click on the Settings gear, near the top-right corner of the repository screen.
Under the Code and Automation section, select Pages.
Change the Branch from None to main and click the Save button.
Optionally put in a custom domain (e.g. xmr.osoyalce.com). NOTE: You will need to be able to create DNS records in the domain for this to work.

Generate a SSH Key

SSH keys are used to authenticate to GitHub. This is so you can upload report data to your website. Login to GitHub. The SSH key that’s needed is the one associated with the user who will be running the db4e application (e.g. sally, or db4e). The account’s public key is in the user’s home directory:

Check if you already have a SSH key:

ls -l ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you do not already have an ssh-key you can easily generate one with the ssh-keygen command:

ssh-keygen -b 10240

When prompted:

Enter file in which to save the key (/home/sally/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 

-simply hit enter (default path, empty passphrase).

Import Key into GitHub

Next you’ll want to import the public part of your new key to GitHub. This file is ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Once you’ve logged into GitHub, click on your account icon in the top-right corner to access the drop down menu.
Click on Settings (not the repository settings).
Click on SSH and GPG keys.
Click on the New SSH key button.
Enter a name for the key, e.g. db4e on my_server.
Next you’ll want to cut-and-paste the contents of the public key file (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) into the Key box in GitHub.

Test SSH

Test that the connection to GitHub pages you just setup works.

On your system, issue the following to test that everything is working properly:

ssh -T git@github.com

Sample output:

Hi SallyKolodny! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
sally@debian12:~$ 

Clone the Repository

Because they are both git repositories, you can NOT not clone your git repository into the db4e folder. You will need your GitHub account name (e.g. NadimGhaznavi) and the name of the repo you created (e.g. xmr). Here’s an example:

git clone git@github.com:SallyKolodny/xmr

Sample output:

Cloning into 'xmr'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 7, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (7/7), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
remote: Total 7 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (7/7), 13.68 KiB | 13.68 MiB/s, done.
sally@debian12:~$ 