Nextcloud 17 on Pogoplug E02

I thought I'd write a quick guide on installing Nextcloud 17 after seeing the Owncloud thread on this forum. It borrows heavily from a linuxbabe install guide linked here: https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/install-nextcloud-ubuntu-18-04-nginx-lemp . I've only tried this on a Pogoplug E02 with it's 256MB RAM but i don't see it being an issue on 128MB RAM Kirkwood devices as the system seems to idle around 55MB to 120MB range depending on what you're doing with it.

From my testing the least resource intensive setup involves using:

• Debian Buster rootfs by bodhi
• Hard drive of some kind or very fast sd card for the rootfs. (will run on a usb thumb drive but will be slower than it needs to be)
• Sysv init system
• PHP 7.3
• Nginx
• SQlite for database. Can't speak to it's long term stability but in my limited testing it's fine.

Optional: ZRAM to help in low mem situations. You can use a traditional swapfile or Zswap if you like but some form of swap is highly recommended.

1) Starting from a fresh install of Debian Buster perform the standard new install steps.

rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host*
ssh-keygen -A
passwd
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

if you see:

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.2.9-kirkwood-tld-1

Then regenerate the uInitrd boot file as per bodhi's instructions:

cd /boot
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs-5.2.9-kirkwood-tld-1 -d initrd.img-5.2.9-kirkwood-tld-1 uInitrd

2) Install a few missing utils:

apt-get install curl ca-certificates locales unzip

configure timezone and locales:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
dpkg-reconfigure locales

locales should have at the minimum en_US.UTF-8 selected. This might vary depending on language preference/system config.

3) Optional ZRAM step:

create zram config file

nano /etc/init.d/zram

paste the following into new blank file

# Author: Antonio Galea <antonio.galea@gmail.com>
#
# Thanks to Przemysław Tomczyk for suggesting swapoff parallelization
# Distributed under the GPL version 3 or later, see terms at
# https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          zram
# Required-Start:    $local_fs
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs
# Default-Start:     S
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Use compressed RAM as in-memory swap
# Description:       Use compressed RAM as in-memory swap
### END INIT INFO

FRACTION=75
MEMORY=$(perl -ne '/^MemTotal:\s+(\d+)/ && print $1*1024' < /proc/meminfo)
CPUS=$(nproc)
SIZE=$((MEMORY * FRACTION / 100 / CPUS))

case "$1" in
    start)
        param=$(modinfo zram | grep num_devices | cut -f2 -d: | tr -d ' ')
        modprobe zram $param=$CPUS

        for n in $(seq $CPUS)
        do
            i=$((n - 1))
            echo $SIZE > /sys/block/zram$i/disksize
            mkswap /dev/zram$i
            swapon /dev/zram$i --priority 10
        done
        ;;
    stop)
        for n in $(seq $CPUS)
        do
            i=$((n - 1))
            swapoff /dev/zram$i && echo "zram: disabled disk $n of $CPUS" &
        done

        wait
        sleep .5
        modprobe --remove zram
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $(basename $0) (start | stop)"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

# End of file

make it executable:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/zram

There's a slight quirk with the rootfs as it throws up an error complaining about:

insserv: FATAL: service rpcbind is missed in the runlevels 2 3 4 5 to use service nfs-common

in the next step so it is necessary to perform the following actions to fix it:

apt-get remove --purge rpcbind nfs-common
apt-get install rpcbind nfs-common
insserv zram

Now just reboot to enable ZRAM:

shutdown -r now

4) Install Nginx

apt-get install nginx

Remove the default symlink in sites-enabled directory:

rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Extend timeout window by editing /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

paste the following into the "http" section:

fastcgi_connect_timeout 60;
fastcgi_send_timeout 1800;
fastcgi_read_timeout 1800;

should look like this:

...
events {
	worker_connections 768;
	# multi_accept on;
}

http {

        fastcgi_connect_timeout 60;
        fastcgi_send_timeout 1800;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 1800;

	##
	# Basic Settings
	##
...

5) Install PHP 7.3

apt-get install php7.3 php7.3-fpm php7.3-mysql php-common php7.3-cli php7.3-common php7.3-json php7.3-opcache php7.3-readline php7.3-mbstring php7.3-xml php7.3-gd php7.3-curl

and

apt-get install php-imagick php7.3-common php7.3-mysql php7.3-fpm php7.3-gd php7.3-json php7.3-curl  php7.3-zip php7.3-xml php7.3-mbstring php7.3-bz2 php7.3-intl php7.3-bcmath php7.3-sqlite3

6) Download / Install Nextcloud

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-17.0.10.zip

Other versions can be obtained at nextcloud.com/changelog

Extract zip to /usr/share/nginx/:

unzip nextcloud-17.0.10.zip -d /usr/share/nginx/

change ownership of nextcloud directory to www-data user:

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/nginx/nextcloud/

Create nextcloud.conf:

nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/nextcloud.conf

paste the following into it:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name _;

    # Add headers to serve security related headers
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
    add_header X-Robots-Tag none;
    add_header X-Download-Options noopen;
    add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies none;
    add_header Referrer-Policy no-referrer;

    #I found this header is needed on Ubuntu, but not on Arch Linux. 
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";

    # Path to the root of your installation
    root /usr/share/nginx/nextcloud/;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud.access;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud.error;

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    # The following 2 rules are only needed for the user_webfinger app.
    # Uncomment it if you're planning to use this app.
    #rewrite ^/.well-known/host-meta /public.php?service=host-meta last;
    #rewrite ^/.well-known/host-meta.json /public.php?service=host-meta-json
    # last;

    location = /.well-known/carddav {
        return 301 $scheme://$host/remote.php/dav;
    }
    location = /.well-known/caldav {
       return 301 $scheme://$host/remote.php/dav;
    }

    location ~ /.well-known/acme-challenge {
      allow all;
    }

    # set max upload size
    client_max_body_size 512M;
    fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;

    # Disable gzip to avoid the removal of the ETag header
    gzip off;

    # Uncomment if your server is build with the ngx_pagespeed module
    # This module is currently not supported.
    #pagespeed off;

    error_page 403 /core/templates/403.php;
    error_page 404 /core/templates/404.php;

    location / {
       rewrite ^ /index.php;
    }

    location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)/ {
       deny all;
    }
    location ~ ^/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console) {
       deny all;
     }

    location ~ ^/(?:index|remote|public|cron|core/ajax/update|status|ocs/v[12]|updater/.+|ocs-provider/.+|core/templates/40[34])\.php(?:$|/) {
       include fastcgi_params;
       fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
       try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
       fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
       fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
       #Avoid sending the security headers twice
       fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;
       fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;
       fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.3-fpm.sock;
       fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
       fastcgi_request_buffering off;
    }

    location ~ ^/(?:updater|ocs-provider)(?:$|/) {
       try_files $uri/ =404;
       index index.php;
    }

    # Adding the cache control header for js and css files
    # Make sure it is BELOW the PHP block
    location ~* \.(?:css|js)$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php$uri$is_args$args;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=7200";
        # Add headers to serve security related headers (It is intended to
        # have those duplicated to the ones above)
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
        add_header X-Robots-Tag none;
        add_header X-Download-Options noopen;
        add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies none;
        add_header Referrer-Policy no-referrer;
        # Optional: Don't log access to assets
        access_log off;
   }

   location ~* \.(?:svg|gif|png|html|ttf|woff|ico|jpg|jpeg)$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php$uri$is_args$args;
        # Optional: Don't log access to other assets
        access_log off;
   }
}

verify conf file with:

nginx -t

which should respond with:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

finally reload nginx:

service nginx reload

7) Nextcloud Data Directory
The final-ish step in the install process is setting the location of the data directory for nextcloud. Essentially where your files will live when uploaded to your nextcloud install. For security purposes you'll want to have it live outside of /usr/share/nginx/nextcloud. Once you have decided on the location change the directories ownership:

chown -R www-data:www-data /LOCATION/YOU/CHOSE

8) Finalizing Install
With your web browser visit http://PogoPlugIP/nextcloud. Create your admin user and give it a password. Make sure to specify where your data directory is and to choose SQlite as your database (should already be selected). Click "Finish Setup". Don't panic if it times out and goes to a 504 Gateway Timeout page the install will continue without issue. It's helpful to run 'htop' on the pogoplug while the install process is going. Once you see the cpu activity subside, that's a good sign the install process is done.

Visit http://PogoPlugIP/login and login with the admin user you created.

9) Performance Tweaks
The main culprits i can identify as taxing the CPU/RAM are:

- Thumbnail generation (tip via hacksome's thread)
- Video playback

Disable thumbnails:

nano /usr/share/nginx/nextcloud/config/config.php

add the following to near the bottom of config file:

'enable_previews' => false,

Should look like this:

<?php
$CONFIG = array (
  'instanceid' => 'ocp#######',
  'passwordsalt' => 'c0##########################',
  'secret' => 'Jx5############################################',
  'trusted_domains' => 
  array (
    0 => 'Pogo.Plug.IP',
  ),
  'datadirectory' => 'NextCloud/Data/Directory',
  'dbtype' => 'sqlite3',
  'version' => '17.0.10.1',
  'overwrite.cli.url' => 'http://Pogo.Plug.IP';,
  'installed' => true,
  'enable_previews' => false,
);

Reload Nginx:

service nginx reload

Disable Video playback:

This one can be done from within the UI: Click on the gear on the top right, choose 'Apps' and then disable the "video player" app.

That should do it, If you have any questions or notice any errors please let me know.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2020 01:18AM by alexr.

alexr,

Very well done :) Thanks.

Added to the Wiki:

Quote

Home Cloud

OwnCloud optimization
Owncloud 10 on Debian Buster - Pogo V3 OXNAS
Nextcloud 17 on Pogoplug E02

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Hi alexr and bodhi

I want to try to install Nextcloud on the Dockstar but have some concerns:

1. will there be any problem since Docstar has only 128M ram. How much swap partition should I have? Any downside if it is set too much, e.g. 4GB?

2. I saw many more recent versions of nextcloud. 20.0.7 is the most recent. Should I download this one instead of 17.0.10 (unsupported)? Any modification I need to make if I choose 20.0.7?

Thank you

Hey jrey,

1) The only issue you'll have running it on 128MB of RAM (with swap) is degraded performance. Nextcloud can be sluggish on far more capable hardware. There should be no downsides to setting a large swap partition in this case, no.

2) Newer versions of Nextcloud usually have more features, which often (not always) translates to more demand on the machine you install it to. There could be optimizations they made, but I have no idea if that's the case. With newer versions of Nextcloud just make sure you're running the required version of PHP they want. I normally have all my pogoplugs running Debian Stretch but in this instance had to use Buster because even Nextcloud 17 required at the minimum PHP 7.3 which was not available on Debian Stretch without having to compile it myself.

Beyond that just make sure all the references to php-7.3 in the above instructions are modified to the correct version and it should run fine.

Hi alexr

I went ahead to install the latest version of nextcloud (ver 20) using your instruction. I did not modify anything during the installation. The web interface after installation was too slow. Not sure if I should have modified the PHP version or not but I have removed it already. I will try with version 17 again when I have time to see if it is running ok. Thank you.

-jrey

I have reinstalled debian and used your instruction above to install nextcloud 17.0.10. Everything seems to be working ok but the web and mobile app interfaces are very slow especially at the beginning. Is this what to expect or there is something I need to adjust to make it faster. I am using Pogoplug E02 with 256M RAM and 512M swap and zram.

It will be slow just due to hardware limitations but it should be usable. I only had timeout issues during initial setup. You can make things slightly faster by making sure your rootfs is on a decently fast usb disk/hard drive and performing the tweaks I outlined. Beyond that there's not much more that can be done unfortunately. As I said nextcloud is very sluggish, even on most anything before the raspberry 4.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2021 12:17AM by alexr.

alexr,

> Beyond that there's not much more that
> can be done unfortunately. As I said nextcloud is
> very sluggish, even on most anything before the
> raspberry 4.

Did you try to observe how much swap going on during NextCloud operation (on the Pogo E02 )? i.e. run vmstat to see the activity.

The problem with Pogo E02 is all USB, no SATA. So swap to USB HDD is slow inherently because of the slow bus.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Hey bodhi,

I have not actually. I ran this setup for about a week doing minimal operations with a user base of 1 (myself). I didn't notice much of an issue besides some slowness. You're right about the slow usb bus, but I have observed varying performance issues/boosts when using different brands of usb thumb drives and usb hard drives as they pertain to sustained reads/writes. Running the rootfs off a usb hard drive consistently performed best in my experience, not much mind you, but definitely better than some thumb drives I had laying around.

alexr,

Here is a new thread relevant to this subject.

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,117494

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)