Setting up you own Room-House
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Prerequisites
A 64-bit CPU (x86-64, Intel or AMD); for other CPUs, see support on VirtualBox site.
~4G or more of unused RAM (~6G+ of total RAM).
Static IP4 on your Internet router.
Pre-install
Check that Virtualization is ENABLED in your BIOS.
Check that Hyper-V (on Windows only) is NOT running.
Installation
Download the latest VirtualBox for your OS from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Run the installation of VirtualBox to its default Windows location:"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox"
In case you're on a different OS, like Linux, congrats, the rest of this is true, too.
A shortcut of all the commands in one awesome script for you:
https://github.com/kl3eo/room-house/blob/main/VM_create_RH_only.sh
Setup xTER VM
Open the command line (terminal) - it usually prompts to "C:\Users\Bob" - if you're a User named Bob.
Set a correct PATH to find the VirtualBox binary files:
Now, check that Windows understands the "VBoxManage" command - type "VBoxManage" in the terminal and see the output.
If Windows doesn't understand this command, this link explains why not:
https://www.roelpeters.be/vboxmanage-is-not-recognized-and-how-to-solve-it/
If you have installed VirtualBox in a different folder, don't forget to set a correct PATH in the terminal before running the rest of this setup.
If Windows understands the "VBoxManage" command, and there is some old VM named "xTER", now you may want to delete it:
If there is no folder "C:\Users\Bob\VMs", now make one:
Create a new VM named "xTER" of type "Linux Red Hat 64-bit":
Here is a new folder created - "C:\Users\Bob\VMs\xTER".
Change to it:
Set up your new VM with minimum 4GB of RAM, 1 or 2 CPU cores, no audio, with EFI, port forwarding and logging external request IPs. If you can, increase the RAM size and # of CPU cores according to what is actually there on your host computer:
Set up internal host-to-guest port forwarding for the Room-House audio/video chat and to the HTTPS admin web interface:
Create at least 2Gb disk for Room-House database, logs, etc:
Create a virtual SATA controller:
Download our bootloader file "https://github.com/kl3eo/room-house/blob/main/loop.vdi" and put it to "C:\Users\Bob\VMs\xTER"
NB: for Validate.Guru install, download and use "loop_vg.vdi" instead of "loop.vdi".
Attach this file to the VM as Disk 0:
Attach the 2Gb file as Disk 1:
Add a directive to boot from Disk 0:
Boot and post-install
Now, boot the VM from the VirtualBox graphical manager. You should see another window open and xTER start in it.
If instead of seeing the bootloader's greeting you're in the command prompt, that means the VB can't find your bootloader.
It happened more than once, so there is a way to go on - just start the bootloader manually!
Type the following three commands, one by one (in command one, "FS0:" is FS+"zero"+"column").
FS0: cd efi\boot bootx64.efi
After the xTER has booted, you'll see a confirmation in this window.
== OR == If there is no graphical manager, e.g. when you set up on a remote "headless" host, use the command line.
Start the "headless" xTER VM with the command:
Warning: You will NOT see any output from the loading xTER in this case - just wait a few minutes.
Use the admin's web admin interface ("Manager" program) in your browser at https://localhost:8843
[ The rest of this setup is also covered in Help at https://xter.tech/vbhelp/index.html - go to p.17 and browse to the end. ]
If your browser complains that this site's certificate is ".room-house.com" (or ".validate.guru"), while you're trying to access it locally - that's OK.
We will allow access on the right URL later, and this certificate will then be good for your new Room-House/Validate.Guru node.
Use the default login/password, if it is the first time you log in the Manager.
These defaults are printed on the xTER boot "black" window next to the xTER greeting.
You may also find them in one of the pictures in the Help HTML file on the link given above.
Don't forget to change the default admin password and "Save" it. See the Help file on the link above about the details.
Check your Room-House node is usable
Before anything, do port forwarding to your host machine on your Internet router:
First, forward the port 443. It's the workhorse port of the Room-House chat.
You have to forward this port 443 from the router to the port 8443 on your host machine, R-443=>H-8443
[ Which we assume has an IP like 192.168.0.11 - or whatever, you know it better.]
Second, forward the Manager program port 8443 from your router to the port 8843 on your host, R-8443=>H-8843
Warning: Make sure that you've changed the default admin password in "Settings" menu of the Manager - as we hope you already did!!! Only you must know this password now.
Now, it's time to check things in the Manager.
Open the Manager menu "Info" page, search for Disk Use and Memory Use columns.
If you setup this VM with a recommended minimal amount of RAM (i.e. 4096M), then you're now with ~860M of free disk space and ~160M of free RAM.
Check that this is indeed the case.
If you'd allowed more RAM during setup, then of course there would be more disk space and more memory available now.
Now, look at the list of running processes in the same page below the middle line inside a wide container. Check that the KMS is running.
There must be a line ending with "kurento-media-server". If it's there, it's the first line on top.
Now, look at the bottom of the same container, there must be a very-very VERY long line containing hundreds of words, like "java", "spring", "guava", etc.
If it's there, congratulations, your R-H node is running.
If it's not there, maybe the chat has not started automatically.
This is known to happen if your VM's power is low.
In this case, just hit the "Restart KMS" button in the left column.
Wait a few seconds, then you'll see your R-H node is running.
If your R-H node is NOT running, whatever you did, and an alert keeps telling you that there has been "a problem with your static IP",
then your external IP is dynamic, or maybe it's static but is not visible from outside.
Or, you've failed to forward the two ports (443 and 8443) on your router correctly - see again pp.1 and 2 in this Chapter.
Check this on your router again to be sure the port forwarding is there and it's correct.
Also make sure that your external IP is static and not dynamic - or contact your Internet provider and request a static IP.
It is NOT possible to run an R-H node on a dynamic IP, though it is ok to boot xTER and use the Manager!
Note that the R-H node will also temporarily stop running when your external IP becomes invisible from the outside. When this problem disappears, so does the problem with the R-H node - it's up and running again, automatically.
Now that your R-H node is up and running, proceed to go public.
Go public
It's time we make your node visible to the world and after that you begin to earn Skypirl coins for the Room-House traffic.
Use Twitter or Telegram and tell us what's your static IP.
Example: IP 81.13.44.89 Your city: London
We will add your node to our proxy servers list and it becomes visible to the world as "london.room-house.com"
And as soon as we add your node to the list on our proxies, we will inform you.
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Good luck!
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SkyPirl(Pirl) Room-House.com Rumhaus
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