Anyone hosting Lemmy and Mastodon on the same server?

I have Mastodon running on a VPS running Debian 11. Now I would like to add a Lemmy instance on the same server. I tried using the from scratch method from Lemmy documentation, but ran into errors that likely stemmed from minor version incompatibilities of the dependencies. I tried using the Lemmy easy deploy script but it wants to bind all traffic on port 443 for Lemmy which would break my Mastodon install. Has anyone managed to get Lemmy and Mastodon running on the same box, and if so, can you share any details of your setup?

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Kinda tangential, but have you tried Kbin? Handles both Mastodon and Lemmy really well from a user standpoint.

TrinityTek,

Interesting point. I hadn’t given that any consideration but if my Mastodon/Lemmy plans don’t work out I might give it a shot.

eh,

jsyk, with how ActivityPub works changing the software that's running from under it will break federation with you in all sorts of subtle ways. When you pick a thing to run under a domain you're effectively locked into running that software under that domain. And of course there is some cryptographic verification as well so you change the keys (or you wipe or forget to back up the database) you may as well burn that domain from federating ever again.

TrinityTek,

Thanks for pointing that out! In this case I am using subdomains so hopefully I won’t run into any issues with that. I recently bought fdr8.us with the intention of creating subdomains under it for my federated projects. Mastodon.fdr8.us and Lemmy.fdr8.us are now live. If I do a kbin instance it will probably follow the same format.

Dusty,

I tried kbin and don’t really understand it to be honest. I looked at their documentation and it doesn’t really explain much other than how to create an account on an instance.

Going to kbin.social and creating an account didn’t get me much farther. I don’t undrestand how to “subscribe” to (for example) the lemmy communities I follow her, or the users I follow on mastodon. And the “magazines” thing I really don’t get.

Maybe I’m too dumb for it or something.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Nope don't feel bad - it's totally understandable. Kbin is new, so the documentation is lacking.

Almost all content on Kbin, including users, has a follow / subscribe button in the sidebar beneath the magazine or user description. There's also a block button. These buttons can be used on almost all Kbin content, so it's very powerful - after spending about a week adding subs, my Kbin feed is far more active than Reddit was, even at its height.

Kbin breaks down your content into Magazines, Microblogs, and Threads. Magazines are synonymous with Communities on Lemmy, or subreddits on reddit. Microblogs are where the Mastodon Toots go, and how you interact with instances based on that architecture. Threads are just like posts on reddit, and can be text only, a link, a pic, or a video (although it seems video is still under development).

The best place to start getting subscriptions are in the magazines section:

https://kbin.social/magazines

...which lists all of the currently federated communities. Putting a domain search into the search bar will bring up all magazines in the instance on that domain:

https://kbin.social/magazines?q=lemmy.world

This domain searching is extremely powerful, especially when you use the domain section (which can be hard to find) - you can get a breakdown of any domain currently federated on kbin by using the following link:

https://kbin.social/d/lemmy.world

...where you'd put the domain you're interested in in place of 'lemmy.world'. You can then subscribe to the entire instance through that feed, or block it f you'd like. This also works for standard domains as well:

https://kbin.social/d/imgur.com

So it will scan all content and links for that domain that's federated on kbin.social.

Tag searching is also another undocumented gem, as it searches across both Mastodon and Lemmy instances for relevant tags:

https://kbin.social/t/cat
https://kbin.social/t/dog

There are already some really nice greasemonkey add-ons that I highly recommend here that help make the navigational experience friendlier.

I hope that helps - I see a lot of potential in this platform, and with a bit of polishing I think it's a better app than Reddit or Twitter ever were.

Dusty,

Thank you for that.

I did find one glaring issue on kbin that will keep me from using it in the future.

I had apparently opened an account whoknowswhen, and figured I’d remove it and start again. When I went to delete the account, it didn’t actually delete it, instead it keeps me logged in and just put this at the top >Your request to delete the account has been submitted.

That seems like a bit of an issue, as I shouldn’t have to wait for it to be submitted (which also appears to mean approved) before deleting an account. Until that’s fixed, I’ll stick with lemmy and mastodon separately.

losttourist,
losttourist avatar

The developer of kbin, @ernest, has said that automated processing of account deletion requests is on the roadmap but currently it's a manual process.

As you can imagine, for a piece of software that two months ago was in alpha status with fewer than 100 regular users and then suddenly became one of the most-used systems on the Fediverse, there are still a lot of rough edges to be cleaned up.

ablackcatstail,

Yes, I am running them both on an Arch server using docker containers. So far no issues at all. Each service runs on its own private internal network so they’re isolated. I just have the lemmy-ui listening on port 1236 and mastodon-web listens on port 443.

TrinityTek,

Thanks for talking through it with me, everyone. I got it working with a Docker compose install of Lemmy and a non-Docker Mastodon install. Reverse proxy was configured manually in nginx. Mastodon.fdr8.us and Lemmy.fdr8.us are now live! I have some fine tuning to do still and a lot of setup, but I’m happy that they are working. Cheers!

Voroxpete,

This is what containers were made for my friend. I’m sure that both Lemmy and Mastodon have Docker images available. If not you can always run your installs in LXC containers instead.

TrinityTek, (edited )

I just got it working. I used a Docker install for Lemmy but not for Mastodon and setup reverse proxy manually. I still have some fine tuning to do, but it works! Woot!

Voroxpete,

I would personally recommend putting them both in Docker containers, but I’m glad it’s working for you.

TrinityTek,

Thanks for the suggestion. What would be the benefit of switching to a docker install of Mastodon?

Voroxpete,

Basically the whole point of docker is that it keeps all the fiddly junk involved in actually running an application separated off into its own little box where it can’t affect the host system. So by taking one of those applications and putting it directly on the host system you’re sort of undoing all that.

The idea is that the docker host basically shouldn’t do anything other than run docker itself. That way there’s minimal chance of anything getting screwy. Also using docker installs for all your critical apps means that you can use Watchtower to auto update them, which is a nice bonus.

TrinityTek,

Thanks for the perspective! I am a reluctant newcomer to Docker so I appreciate it. Time for me to get with the times and embrace Docker since that’s the most popular installation method for many of my favorite self hosted platforms these days. It might take a while for me to really get used to it though. Since I have this setup and working it will probably remain as is, but I’ll make a point to do a pure Docker setup on a similar build in the future.

veroxii,

You need a reverse proxy like nginx or traefik. Your mastodon server is using the web ports. Lemmy also wants to use the same ports. Obviously the can’t both use them.

The solution is to let neither use the ports and set them up on some other ports.

The reverse proxy is then set up as your main “web server”. It will then look at every request coming in and based on the domain name or url requested redirect (or rather forward or proxy) the request to the correct service… mastadon or Lemmy.

I run dozens of services on the same server. And use traefik to sit in front and manage it all.

TrinityTek,

I have reverse proxy configured for Mastodo using Nginx. It’s the Lemmy Easy Deploy script trying to bind all traffic on port 443 where I run into problems.

key,

Don’t use that silly script. Easiest is to use the docker compose method and modify the compose file to remove the nginx container since you already have nginx. Then once you have lemmy’s containers running, add config to nginx to point to the ports lemmy/lemmy ui listen on

TrinityTek,

Thanks for the tips! That sounds like a great approach. I’ll give it a shot.

TrinityTek,

This worked great! Thanks again for the advice! When the from scratch install didn’t work, multiple people suggested the easy deployment script. For my setup the Docker compose deployment was perfect and offered the opportunity for customization I needed. The easy deployment script does look pretty slick though if someone just wants a turnkey setup and wants to dedicate their whole box to it.

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