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Installing and Configuring the Element Chat Application
Traducciones al EspañolEstamos traduciendo nuestros guías y tutoriales al Español. Es posible que usted esté viendo una traducción generada automáticamente. Estamos trabajando con traductores profesionales para verificar las traducciones de nuestro sitio web. Este proyecto es un trabajo en curso.
Element is a free open source chat and messaging client that is an alternative to Discord and Slack. It implements communication protocols from the Matrix application layer using end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Formerly known as Riot and before that as Vector, Element is available as either a web application or a desktop/mobile app. This guide explains how to download and install both Element and the Matrix-Synapse communication layer. It also describes how to set up encryption and use these applications with the NGINX web server.
Before You Begin
If you have not already done so, create a Linode account and Compute Instance. See our Getting Started with Linode and Creating a Compute Instance guides.
Follow our Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance guide to update your system. You may also wish to set the timezone, configure your hostname, create a limited user account, and harden SSH access.
Register a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for your Element service. The DNS records for the domain should be set to the IP address of your Linode. Consult Linode’s DNS Records: An Introduction and DNS Manager guides for assistance when configuring your domain.
sudo
. If you are not familiar with the sudo
command, see the Linux Users and Groups
guide.Advantages and Features of Element
Element offers features such as voice and group chat, video calls, and file sharing. It prioritizes security through the use of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and cross-signed verification. Due to its open-source status and its governance by the Matrix.org Foundation, it is free from corporate influences. This means users are protected from eavesdropping, data mining, and intrusive ads.
Element also provides bridges, which allow Element users to communicate with other applications and networks such as IRC, Slack, Telegram, and Discord. Bots and widgets allow users to view or import content, such as GitHub results, Wikipedia pages, and RSS feeds.
Although the core version of Element is free for basic users, several commercial upgrades are available. Element Home is a paid service featuring more accounts and extra features, while Element Matrix Services is geared towards businesses. Element can even support large organizations and governments.
Element is based on React and uses Electron for bundling. See the Element GitHub Page to learn more, including how to develop in Element.
A Summary of the Element Installation and Configuration Process
A complete Element installation consists of the high-level steps outlined in this section. Because Element is a web client for Matrix-Synapse , you must first download and install the Matrix-Synapse software package. Element also requires a web server, such as NGINX . Although these instructions are geared towards Ubuntu installations, they are broadly applicable to most Linux distributions.
- Set Up DNS Records
- Download and install the Matrix-Synapse communication layer
- Download, install, and configure the Element client
- Install and configure the NGINX web server
- Install Certbot and generate Let’s Encrypt certificates
- Configure security settings for Element
- Enable and test the Element client
The following sections describe each step in more detail.
Set Up DNS Records
Before connecting to Element, register a base domain for your service and set the corresponding DNS records to reference your Linode.
Create two further subdomains for the matrix and element services, each with its DNS records.
Create DNS records for the following domains and subdomains:
example.com
(general website and hosting for the Matrix services)example.com
(general website and hosting for the Matrix services)matrix.example.com
(Matrix/Synapse communication layer)element.example.com
(Element web client)Note Throughout this section and the rest of the guide, replaceexample.com
with your own domain name. See the guide for the Linode DNS Manager for more information on adding domains and DNS records.
Download and Install the Matrix-Synapse Communication Layer
Install the Matrix-Synapse service. Element depends on Matrix functionality to work properly.
Ensure the necessary software dependencies are installed.
sudo apt install -y lsb-release wget apt-transport-https
Download the Matrix Organization’s GPG key.
sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.matrix.org/debian/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg
Add the Matrix repository.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.matrix.org/debian/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/matrix-org.list
Use
apt
to install Matrix.sudo apt-get update -y sudo apt-get install matrix-synapse-py3 -y
During the installation process, Matrix asks for the name of your domain. Enter the name of the
matrix
subdomain.For the
Anonymous Data Statistic
, choose No.Edit the Matrix-Synapse configuration file at
/etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
and setenable_registration
to true.vi /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
- File: /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
1 2 3
... enable_registration: true ...
(Optional) To limit who can register, uncomment the
registration_shared_secret
field in thehomeserver.yaml
file. Set the value of this field to a secure password and enclose it in quotation marks. This allows users to register, provided they know the password, even whenenable_registration
is set tofalse
.- File: /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
1 2 3 4
... registration_shared_secret: "your_password" ...
(Optional) To enable additional features based on email lookups and bridging with other applications, configure an identity server for Element to use. You can use your own Linode, the default server at
https://matrix.org
, or a third-party service. Uncomment thedefault_identity_server
entry inside the/etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
file and enter the address of the server. Even without an identity server, Element still functions normally and its core features are still available.Restart Matrix-Synapse to apply the changes, and then verify its status.
sudo systemctl restart matrix-synapse sudo systemctl status matrix-synapse
Matrix should indicate a status of
active
.matrix-synapse.service - Synapse Matrix homeserver Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/matrix-synapse.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-04-08 10:56:34 UTC; 8s ago
To allow Element and other clients to find Matrix-Synapse, create a
.well-known
file for it. This file must contain thehostname
andport
. Substitute your own domain name forexample.com
in the following commands.sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/example.com/.well-known/matrix echo '{ "m.server": "example.com:443" }' | sudo tee /var/www/html/example.com/.well-known/matrix/server
Download, Install, and Configure the Element Client
Software packages for installing Element are found on the Element releases page
. Download the tar
file to your Linode using wget
. The current version of Element is 1.7.24. When downloading the files, substitute the actual version you are downloading in place of 1.7.24
.
Create a directory for Element inside
/var/www/html
and change to the directory. Substitute your domain name forexample.com
in the following commands.sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/element.example.com cd /var/www/html/element.example.com
Download the Element software using
wget
.sudo wget https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/releases/download/v1.7.24/element-v1.7.24.tar.gz
Install
gnupg
and download the signature.sudo apt install -y gnupg sudo wget https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/releases/download/v1.7.24/element-v1.7.24.tar.gz.asc
Import the signing key for Element.
sudo gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --search-keys releases@riot.im
The
gpg
utility confirms the key is imported.gpg: key 74692659BDA3D940: public key "Riot Releases <releases@riot.im>" imported gpg: Total number processed: 1 gpg: imported: 1
Use this key to validate the
asc
signature.sudo gpg --verify element-v1.7.24.tar.gz.asc
gpg
confirms the signature is good.gpg: assuming signed data in 'element-v1.7.24.tar.gz' gpg: Signature made Mon Mar 29 12:44:56 2021 UTC gpg: using RSA key 5EA7E0F70461A3BCBEBE4D5EF6151806032026F9 gpg: issuer "releases@riot.im" gpg: Good signature from "Riot Releases <releases@riot.im>" [unknown]
Extract the Element software using the
tar
utility.sudo tar -xzvf element-v1.7.24.tar.gz
Create an alias for the application to make it easier to remember and set the ownership.
sudo ln -s element-v1.7.24 element sudo chown www-data:www-data -R element
Change to the
element
directory, and create a copy of theconfig.sample.json
file namedconfig.json
.cd element sudo cp config.sample.json config.json
Edit the
base_url
andserver_name
attributes inconfig.json
so they reference your domain. Thebase_url
value must reference thematrix
subdomain, whileserver_name
must indicate the base domain.- File: /var/www/html/element.example.com/element/config.json
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
{ "default_server_config": { "m.homeserver": { "base_url": "https://matrix.example.com", "server_name": "example.com" }, "m.identity_server": { "base_url": "https://example.com" } }, ...
Install and Configure the NGINX Web Server
You must install NGINX before using Certbot. For more information about NGINX, see Linode’s How to Configure NGINX guide.
Install NGINX.
sudo apt -y install nginx
Create files for each virtual host, corresponding to each domain, and link the directories using the
ln
command. Substitute the name of your domain forexample.com
throughout the rest of this section.sudo touch /etc/nginx/sites-available/{example.com,matrix.example.com,element.example.com} sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/matrix.example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/matrix.example.com sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/element.example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/element.example.com
Change to the
/etc/nginx/sites-available
directory and add the following information to the file associated with the base domain, in this case,example.com
. Use your domain for theserver_name
androot
variables.cd /etc/nginx/sites-available vi example.com
- File: /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name example.com; root /var/www/html/example.com; index index.html; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } }
Edit the file associated with the
element
subdomain, such aselement.example.com
, and add the following information. Use theelement
subdomain name throughout, and append theelement
directory to the end of theroot
field.vi element.example.com
- File: /etc/nginx/sites-available/element.example.com
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name element.example.com; root /var/www/html/element.example.com/element; index index.html; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } }
Edit the file corresponding to the
matrix
subdomain, and add the following information. Use thematrix
subdomain name in theserver_name
androot
variables.vi matrix.example.com
- File: /etc/nginx/sites-available/matrix.example.com
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name matrix.example.com; root /var/www/html/matrix.example.com; index index.html; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:8008; } }
Use the NGINX syntax checker to validate the new files.
sudo nginx -t
The output indicates that the syntax is valid.
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Restart NGINX to apply all the configuration changes.
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Install Certbot and Generate Let’s Encrypt Certificates
To use Element, you must enable encryption. The easiest way to do so is by using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP allows users to authenticate the websites they visit and ensures their data is private. A website must possess a public key certificate signed by a trusted certificate authority before it can accept HTTPS requests. This ensures the owner of the certificate operates the website in question.
You can use Let’s Encrypt to generate certificates. This service grants basic SSL/TLS certificates to websites in an automated manner. Certbot , a tool from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), automates the entire certificate-granting operation. It identifies all of the relevant domains and manages the challenge requests and the granting process. It also makes all necessary changes to the NGINX configuration.
You can install Certbot using the snap
utility, which is already pre-installed on Ubuntu. Certbot uses Python to request and configure the certificate, but all necessary Python components are included in the Certbot package.
Run the following commands to update Snap and verify the current version.
sudo snap install core sudo snap refresh core snap version
The
snap version
should output the following:username@localhost:~$ /etc/nginx/sites-available$ snap version snap 2.49.2 snapd 2.49.2 series 16 ubuntu 18.04 kernel 4.15.0-142-generic
Note If Snap is not already installed, run the commandsudo apt install snapd
first.Remove any existing Certbot packages using
apt-get remove
. This avoids possible conflicts.sudo apt-get remove certbot
Install Certbot.
sudo snap install --classic certbot
The Snap module confirms Certbot is installed.
certbot 1.15.0 from Certbot Project (certbot-eff) installed
Configure a symbolic link to the Certbot directory using the
ln
command.sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
Use Certbot to generate certificates for your domains. Generate all three certificates with one command by using the
-d
option in front of each domain. Substitute your domain names in the following command:sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d element.example.com -d matrix.example.com
You can run the client without the email address using the
--register-unsafely-without-email
at the end of the command:sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d element.example.com -d matrix.example.com --register-unsafely-without-email
Certbot displays updates about the requests and challenges and then confirms the domains are successfully enabled. You might be required to supply some additional information if you have never used Certbot before.
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx Requesting a certificate for example.com and 2 more domains Performing the following challenges: http-01 challenge for element.example.com http-01 challenge for example.com http-01 challenge for matrix.example.com Waiting for verification... Cleaning up challenges Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/element.example.com Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/matrix.example.com Redirecting all traffic on port 80 to ssl in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com Redirecting all traffic on port 80 to ssl in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/element.example.com Redirecting all traffic on port 80 to ssl in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/matrix.example.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Congratulations! You have successfully enabled <https://example.com>, <https://element.example.com>, and <https://matrix.example.com> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Configure Security Settings for Element
To improve the security of your Element installation and deny unauthorized traffic attempts, configure the ufw
firewall. In addition to allowing NGINX traffic, port 8448 must be unblocked. You can list all eligible applications using the sudo ufw app list
command.
Allow
ufw
to acceptOpenSSH
connections, and enableNginx Full
. This allows access for both IPv4 and Ipv6 requests.sudo ufw allow OpenSSH sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
Unblock port 8448 in the firewall.
sudo ufw allow 8448
Enable the firewall.
sudo ufw enable
Verify the firewall is active and properly configured using the
status
command.sudo ufw status
Status: active To Action From -- ------ ---- OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere Nginx Full ALLOW Anywhere 8448 ALLOW Anywhere OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6) Nginx Full (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6) 8448 (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
ufw
allows OpenSSH
traffic. Otherwise, you could lock yourself out of your Linode.Enable and Test the Element Client
The easiest way to ensure Element works properly is to access the site and create a login.
Enable
nginx
andmatrix-synapse
insystemctl
. This ensures they are activated whenever the Linode reboots. Restart the webserver to ensure all changes are applied.sudo systemctl enable nginx sudo systemctl enable matrix-synapse sudo systemctl restart nginx
Using a web browser, visit the Element landing page at https://element.example.com , substituting your domain name in the URL. Element displays the following login screen.
To verify that Element can communicate with Matrix, create an account and ensure you can view the Element dashboard.
Learn More About Matrix-Synapse and Element
Compared to some open source projects, documentation about Element is limited. However, there are some helpful resources available.
- Element provides a FAQ that answers many common questions.
- The Element GitHub page also provides more information.
- There is also a page explaining Element’s advanced configuration options .
- Technical information about Matrix-Synapse can be found on a separate GitHub page .
More Information
You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.
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