How to self-host a Prosody XMPP server on Bazzite with Podman for Movim

6 months ago by Tattorack to c/selfhosted

Just to start off, know that I have zero experience with this. I'm only looking into doing this because I'm absolutely sick and tired of centralised services (in this case Discord) turning to shit, and want to start a Discord-like/alternative federation between my friends.

Prosody seems to be the easiest to set up, and has all the available capabilities for a server that allows Discord-like functionality (text, group voicecall, streaming). Movim is the client that makes use of all that.

But I don't have a clue how to set up a Prosody server with Podman. I've never done this before. I started by downloading the Prosody image through Podman, then tried running it, which prompted the creation of a container. Kept everything at the defaults and tried running it, but it didn't work.

What do I do from here?

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impolitecarry 8 points 6 months ago

This is maybe a bad idea: if you want reliable services, you need a hosting with some experience and reliability. You also want things to run on a real server, not your desktop. Servers are expected to be online 24x7, not only when you are awake. Also, AFAIK, bazzite is meant to be a desktop distro, not a server distro.

If you just want to enter the XMPP ecosystem, the answer is not necessarily self hosting: you could opt for one of many open sign up servers (for example, conversations.im).

You also dont need to self host movim, just pick any instance you want from https://join.movim.eu/ .

The beauty of XMPP is this: you can use any server, and any client, and you can talk to anyone connected to the larger XMPP network, even if they made different server/client choices than you did.

On the other hand, if your primary motivation is to learn, disregard all of the above. You learn by trying things and making errors and reading documentation and trying again, and reliability is a remote possibility that might come true (or might not) at the very end of your journey.

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Tattorack 4 points 6 months ago

It's a bit of both:

My friends need a drop-in replacement for Discord (or as close as possible), sooner rather than later. My idea for self hosting is to defeat the need of someone hosting a 24/7 server; if we all host our own accounts on our own computers we'd essentially have a peer-to-peer Discord-like group.

The other reason is indeed to learn, because every centralised service has the same problem; it's not a question if a service will turn bad, but when. It's an inevitability, and it's happening faster and more frequently. The only out-way I see is if me and at least some of my friends learn to self-host.

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impolitecarry 6 points 6 months ago

There are some misconceptions here, probably because your experience with the internet outside of these decentralised / federated services has taught you those.

1.) Servers are expected to be online 24x7. Clients can go offline and online as they please, but servers are always always always online. Otherwise very strange things start happening.

2.) Peer to peer stuff is generally speaking, somewhat brittle, because of the kinds of compromises it comes with.

3.) Signing up on an xmpp server managed by someone else is still not signing up to a centralised service. Its still just one node on the XMPP super network. Your friends can still sign up on some other server, and you can still talk to each other, with whatever clients you prefer.

There may still be a case to be made for installing movim on your own computers, but I'd say, go with the easy route and pick any movim instance from the link shared above.

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