@psychobunny said:

I think the npm WARN message you might be able to safely ignore. Did you try going any further? Good luck with the support ticket!

I ended up signing on with a new host, WiredTree, yesterday and will be leaving HostGator once I get a few domains that I have registered with them transferred to Namecheap. I had an idea that my server with HostGator was messed up but didn't know exactly how much until I installed Magento on a new site with WiredTree. The install went flawlessly on WT and was a nightmare when trying to do the same on HG... all of WT's software is up to date as far as I can tell while some of HG's is close to being end of life. I will try installing NodeBB one more time on my own once things settle down and if I still can't do it, I will send WT a support ticket.

@HolyPhoenix and @a_5mith Thank you for your patience and for trying to help.

I tried installing NodeBB from the beginning again and when I got to sudo npm install -g npm I noticed that I was getting npm WARN unmet dependency in PuTTY as a result. I think I will send my host another support ticket and ask them to install NodeBB for me.

So from a clean start, I added Redis by following the directions located here: http://redis.io/topics/quickstart

wget http://download.redis.io/redis-stable.tar.gz
tar xvzf redis-stable.tar.gz
cd redis-stable
make

Then I did the "make test" command and everything looked fine.

Next (without uploading any files manually to my server) I did:

sudo yum update
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools" -y
sudo yum install nodejs git redis ImageMagick npm

cd /home/{yourusername}
git clone git://github.com/designcreateplay/NodeBB.git nodebb

cd nodebb
sudo npm install -g npm
sudo npm install

sudo service redis start

At this point NodeBB was added to my home/myusername directory.

Then I did:

./nodebb setup

When the setup ran I got something like the following and started running into problems:

URL of this installation (http://localhost)
Port number of your NodeBB (4567)
Use a port number to access NodeBB? (y)
IP or Hostname to bind to (0.0.0.0)
Which database to use (redis)
info: Now configuring redis database:
Host IP or address of your Redis instance (127.0.0.1)
Host port of your Redis instance (6379)
Password of your Redis database
Which database to use (0..n) (0)

What should I add (if anything) after URL of this installation (http://localhost) and before pressing enter?

At Use a port number to access NodeBB? (y) I typed "n" and pressed enter.

At Password of your Redis database should I enter a password or is it done later?

I've tried a few different things with the NodeBB setup and nothing brought me to a point where I could access a NodeBB forum.

I am still working on the apache proxy part. I'm not following it very well. Centos doesn't create a "sites-available" so you need to modify a file probably at /etc/httpd/conf.d/.

After running the NodeBB setup nothing was in the "etc" folder to edit.

What have I missed or done wrong?

This is very frustrating for someone who has never installed anything like NodeBB before. I might ask my host to install it if i can't do it on my own in the next day or so... I really would like to learn how to do it myself though.

@Kamal-Patel said:

A broader question: what's it going to take to make NodeBB ultra successful?

It will have to become MUCH easier to install.

After almost two days of having my host install CentOS 6.5 and then having them add permissions back, I tried installing NodeBB again. I am using PuTTY now and I am stuck at cd /path/to/nodebb/install/location. I uploaded NodeBB within the nodebb folder like so: home/mysite/public_html/nodebb, should I change cd /path/to/nodebb/install/location to cd /home/mysite/public_html/nodebb/instal/I-don't-know-what-should-go-here ?

Also, when, where and how should I install the Redis databse?

@psychobunny , my host is going to update CentOS for me today and I will try again from the beginning once that is done. NodeBB looks outstanding and I really would like to learn how to install it, so I'll be taking baby steps.

Thank you for replying @frissdiegurke @psychobunny (again) and @HolyPhoenix.

@HolyPhoenix said:

Are you using nginx or apache and what version? Your going to have to setup a proxy after the installation is complete to make it accessible via your domain and not a port. Are you on CentOS 6.5?

I am using Apache version 2.2.26, I am on CentOS 5.10 and I use cPanel. I use cPanel to access the SSH terminal. I'm guessing I will need to have my version of CentOS updated and I will send my host (HostGator) a support ticket.

I'm afraid most of this is way over my head and I will probably have to stick with something less complicated.

Thank you, @ psychobunny. I saw that and unfortunately it assumes that you know how to use a SSH terminal and that you know what to do with the down loaded NodeBB files. I need instructions that are written for someone who has never done anything like this before.

Can someone please walk me through the steps for installing NodeBB on CentOS from the very begining? I have installed plenty of forum platforms before but never anything like NodeBB and i have never installed anything through an SSH terminal before.

Would I upload the NodeBB files to my server's root directory (public_html)?

And then from my SSH terminal paste per the instructions:

sudo yum update

Press enter and then paste:

sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools" -y

Press enter and then paste:

sudo yum install nodejs git redis ImageMagick npm

Press enter and then at "Next, clone the repository." where it says:

cd /path/to/nodebb/install/location

Change it to something like cd /home/mysite/public_html/install/ ?

I would like NodeBB to be accessed at http://mysite.com. Any help would be greatly appreciated.