DEV Community: Akhil Naidu

Openclaw: Why This Flawed AI Assistant is the Blueprint for Your Digital Future

Akhil Naidu — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:03:07 +0000

This blog post explores OpenClaw (formerly known as Moltbot and Clawdbot), an autonomous AI assistant that has recently gained significant traction in the developer community. We will examine its architecture, deployment strategies, and the critical security implications of giving an LLM full system access.

While many early adopters and beta testers are using it for performing real-world tasks like booking meetings and checking inboxes via messaging apps, dFlow is looking at it in a completely different way, especially to prevent attacks, maintain autoscaling, and provide analytics and performance insights for containers running in a box.

Throughout this article, I might use the terms OpenClaw, Moltbot, and Clawdbot. They all refer to the same project.

Autonomous AI Agents Are Already Here

Autonomous AI agents are no longer a distant idea. They are already executing real-world tasks, interacting with live systems, and making decisions without constant human supervision. One of the most discussed examples of this shift is OpenClaw, an experimental personal AI assistant that has gone viral in the developer community.

OpenClaw demonstrates what personal AI agents can already do today, but it also highlights a hard truth. Giving an LLM deep system access introduces security risks that the ecosystem is still learning to manage.

This post intentionally focuses on security, not hype. OpenClaw is impressive, but like many breakthrough tools before it, it is early, sharp-edged, and not yet ready for widespread adoption.

What Is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an autonomous AI assistant designed to perform real-world tasks such as:

Booking meetings
Reading and responding to inboxes
Monitoring social platforms
Executing local system commands (<3)

It operates primarily through messaging platforms like Telegram and Discord, acting as a personal agent rather than a traditional chat interface.

The project was created by Peter Steinberger and reached nearly 70,000 GitHub stars in under three months, which says a lot about developer curiosity around AI agents. Despite earlier naming confusion, OpenClaw is not affiliated with Anthropic or Claude.

Its popularity is not because it is production-safe. It is popular because it shows what is technically possible right now.

OpenClaw System Architecture at a High Level

OpenClaw connects local system capabilities with cloud-hosted language models using a distributed architecture.

System Architecture Overview

OpenClaw operates through a distributed architecture that connects local system commands with cloud-based LLMs.

Component	Description
Gateway Daemon	The core hub containing the web-based configuration dashboard and a WebSocket server
Nodes	Provide native functionality for hardware, such as camera or canvas access for mobile and desktop apps
Channels	Messaging interfaces (Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp) using libraries like Grammy or DiscordJS
Agent Runtime	Powered by PI, creating in-memory sessions to handle tool skills and communication hooks
Session Manager	Manages storage, state, and sensitive data like API tokens and chat transcripts

From a systems perspective, this design is elegant. From a security perspective, it is extremely powerful and therefore extremely dangerous if misused.

The Core Problem: Full System Access

The biggest concern with OpenClaw is not bugs. It is capability.

OpenClaw can:

Read files and PDFs
Scan emails and messages
Browse the web
Execute system commands

That combination creates a perfect environment for prompt injection attacks.

Why Prompt Injection Is a Serious Risk

If an agent can read untrusted input and execute commands, the following attack paths become realistic:

A malicious PDF contains hidden instructions that override agent intent
A web page injects a command that triggers data exfiltration
An email prompt causes the agent to install malware
An agent misinterprets content and performs unauthorized actions

There have already been reports of agents performing actions they were never explicitly instructed to do after consuming external data.

This is not a flaw unique to OpenClaw. It is a structural issue with autonomous agents.

This Is Not New: AI Tools Always Start Unsafe

It is important to zoom out.

Almost every major AI platform started with serious security gaps:

Early ChatGPT versions leaked system prompts and hallucinated confidential data
Plugins and browsing tools initially enabled prompt injection at scale
MCP-style tool calling raised concerns about uncontrolled execution
AutoGPT-style agents repeatedly demonstrated runaway behaviors

Over time, safeguards improved:

Sandboxing and permission scoping
Better prompt isolation
Explicit tool approval layers
Stronger memory boundaries

Security maturity always lags behind capability.

OpenClaw is currently in the capability explosion phase, not the hardening phase.

How Developers Are Hardening OpenClaw Today

Because local installation on a primary machine is risky, most serious users isolate OpenClaw aggressively.

Common Deployment Patterns

Dedicated Hardware

Running OpenClaw on a separate Mac mini or spare machine, isolated from personal data.

VPS Deployment

Using a low-cost VPS with a non-root user and minimal permissions.

Private Networking with Tailscale

Avoiding public IP exposure entirely by using Tailscale and accessing the dashboard only through SSH tunnels or private mesh networking.

These setups reduce blast radius, but they do not eliminate risk.

Security Best Practices If You Are Experimenting

If you still want to explore OpenClaw, treat it like untrusted infrastructure.

Use dedicated API keys that can be revoked instantly
Never connect it to primary email or financial accounts
Regularly purge chat logs and stored sessions
Prefer Telegram for now, as it is currently the most stable channel
Assume every external input is hostile

This is experimentation, not deployment.

Why OpenClaw Still Matters

Despite all of this, OpenClaw is important.

It proves that:

Personal AI agents are feasible
Tool-based autonomy works
Messaging-based interfaces are natural for agents
Developers are ready to accept complexity in exchange for leverage

What it does not prove yet is that autonomous agents are safe enough for everyday users.

dFlow’s Perspective

At dFlow, we view OpenClaw as a signal, not a solution.

This is not the time to adopt OpenClaw in production.

This is the time to study it closely.

We are actively researching how AI agents can safely operate on servers, infrastructure, and deployment workflows without requiring blind trust or full system access. The future is clearly agent-driven, but it must be permissioned, auditable, and reversible.

OpenClaw shows where the industry is heading. Security will determine how fast we get there.

Final Takeaway

OpenClaw represents the raw edge of AI autonomy. Powerful, exciting, and dangerous in equal measure.

If history is any guide, today’s security issues will be tomorrow’s solved problems. Until then, OpenClaw is best treated as a research artifact, not a daily driver.

Watch it. Learn from it. Do not rush to adopt it.

From Vibe Coding to Production: Why Developer Experience Shouldn't End at Deployment

Akhil Naidu — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 11:34:09 +0000

In today’s world, building a web application has never been easier. Thanks to the rise of AI-assisted development, low-code tools, and powerful frameworks, anyone can turn an idea into a working MVP in hours or days.

This new wave of rapid, intuitive development is earning a name: vibe coding.

Vibe coding is when you're in the flow—powered by AI or no-code tools—rapidly turning ideas into code without worrying (yet) about infrastructure, scale, or production-readiness.

It’s fun. It’s liberating.
And it’s changing how we think about building software.

But here’s the catch:
At some point, your vibe-coded project needs to move from just working on localhost to being production-ready.

And that’s when the vibe often dies.

The Hidden Reality Behind "One-Click" Deployment Platforms

To bridge the gap between development and production, many developers turn to platforms like:

Vercel
Railway
Heroku
And other PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) tools

These platforms are fantastic at first. They offer:

Simple Git-based deployments
Built-in monitoring and environment variables
SSL, CDN, and auto-scaling

Everything you need… until you need more.

The Catch?

As your app grows, these platforms:

💸 Get expensive quickly
🚫 Impose limitations (e.g., no persistent background tasks)
🔒 Lock you into their infrastructure
📈 Force you to upgrade for basic flexibility

For indie devs, startups, or bootstrappers, this is a turning point:

You love the experience, but hate the cost and constraints.

Cloud Credits to the Rescue?

If your project gains traction, you might receive free cloud credits from:

Startup incubators
Programs like AWS Activate, Google for Startups, or Microsoft Founders Hub
Co-working spaces or platforms like Product Hunt

Suddenly, you’re sitting on thousands of dollars in credits—but they don’t work on Vercel or Railway.

Now you face a tough decision:

“Do I keep paying for great DX,
or move to the cloud and figure out DevOps myself?”

If you choose the cloud route, you now need to:

Learn EC2, S3, IAM, security groups
Set up CI/CD (GitHub Actions? Jenkins?)
Manage secrets, scaling, monitoring, error reporting
Possibly learn Docker, Terraform, or even Kubernetes

And just like that…

You’re no longer building your app. You’re building your deployment system.

The Vibe Is Broken.

You started with momentum.
You were shipping features.
Now you’re Googling “how to set up a reverse proxy for Node.js on EC2.”

Meet dFlow: Your Self-Hosted Vercel or Railway—But Smarter

This is where dFlow comes in.

Imagine turning your existing cloud infrastructure—AWS, GCP, Azure, or even bare-metal—into your own personal Vercel.

🚫 No lock-in
💸 Use your free cloud credits
🛠️ No platform restrictions

What is dFlow?

dFlow is a modern deployment tool that:

Supports any language or framework
Works across all major cloud providers
Prioritizes developer experience, not DevOps pain

With dFlow, you can:

Use your own infra or credits
Deploy confidently and quickly
Scale only when needed
Avoid juggling 10 different tools

Why dFlow Matters (Especially Long Term)

Most apps don’t need Kubernetes on Day 1.
In fact, most don’t need it even on Day 1000.

What they do need is:

✅ A reliable way to ship code
💰 A sustainable budget
🧑‍💻 A developer-friendly interface
📈 A clear path to scale

That’s what dFlow offers—without pushing you into complexity too soon.

And when you're ready, the practices dFlow encourages—like clean separation of concerns, health monitoring, and environment management—make your app Kubernetes-friendly.

Who Is dFlow For?

dFlow is built for anyone who’s outgrown PaaS tools:

🧑‍💻 Solo developers tired of limitations
🚀 Startups with cloud credits to use wisely
🧠 Technical founders who love DX but hate DevOps sprawl
🏢 Small teams wanting control without complexity

Build Fast. Deploy Smart. Stay in the Flow.

dFlow bridges the gap between vibe coding and production readiness, so you can keep building without breaking the flow.

💡 There are countless tools today that let you build apps using AI and no-code. But when it’s time to go from idea to production, you need a deployment strategy that scales with you—not against you. That’s where dFlow shines.

Ready to Try dFlow?

Visit https://dflow.sh and explore how you can turn your infrastructure into a powerful, cloud-agnostic deployment platform—without compromising developer experience.

Your Personal PaaS, Powered by Dokku and Railpack. Introducing dFlow.

Akhil Naidu — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 12:36:46 +0000

dFlow combines the power of Dokku, Railpack, and SSH automation into a seamless PaaS experience you control

In today’s world of cloud infrastructure, developers often face a tough decision:

Should I go for the flexibility of VPS and self-hosting, or the convenience of PaaS platforms like Vercel, Heroku, or Railway?

With dFlow, you get the best of both worlds.

Built on the solid foundation of Dokku, enhanced with Railpack, and powered by remote provisioning through SSH, dFlow gives you full control of your apps without giving up the ease of use you love from commercial platforms — all manageable through a beautiful, intuitive UI at dflow.sh.

What Exactly Is dFlow?

dFlow is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) layer built on top of Dokku, the legendary open-source Heroku alternative.

But dFlow goes much further:

Multi-Server Support: Attach multiple Dokku servers across any cloud provider (DigitalOcean, AWS, Hetzner, your laptop — you name it).
Remote App Provisioning: Thanks to SSH automation (powered internally by node-ssh), dFlow can create, configure, and manage apps across servers without you touching the terminal.
Railpack Integration: We bring in concepts from Railway.app around smooth project linking, deployments, environment management, and service attachments.
Unified UI: Everything — from server connection, app deployment, domain linking, SSL certs, environment variables, to database provisioning — is handled in a single place.

You control your servers, your apps, your data — with dFlow simplifying everything else.

Why Build dFlow on Top of Dokku?

Dokku has been around for nearly a decade. It's proven, battle-tested, and has a simple plugin system for things like Postgres, Redis, Let’s Encrypt, and more.

But using raw Dokku often requires:

Manually SSH'ing into servers
Typing CLI commands
Managing multiple servers individually

That's where dFlow comes in — abstracting the complexity of Dokku into a modern cloud experience, without taking away your freedom.

It’s like giving Dokku superpowers.

How dFlow Works Under the Hood

At a technical level, here’s what powers dFlow:

Dokku: Installed on each server you attach. Dokku handles deployments, containers, and services.
Railpack Layer: We introduce app-level metadata management, service attachments, environment syncing, and team collaboration features — inspired by platforms like Railway and Render.
SSH Automation with node-ssh: dFlow provisions everything remotely — from creating new apps, setting domains, managing environment variables, to even scaling your containers — all through secure SSH connections.
Multi-Server Management: Add as many Dokku servers as you like. dFlow smartly groups apps per server and lets you deploy based on your preference or pricing needs.
dFlow.sh UI: A modern dashboard where you can:
- View all your apps
- Attach new servers in seconds
- Create new apps instantly
- Manage SSL, environment variables, databases
- Monitor deployments and logs

All without touching a single line of Bash.

Key Features at a Glance

Feature	Details
Attach Multiple Servers	No limits — add as many Dokku instances as you need.
Remote App Provisioning	Create and deploy apps remotely via SSH.
Database Attachments	Provision Postgres, MySQL, Redis, and more, right from the dashboard.
Custom Domains & SSL	Auto-configure your domains with free Let's Encrypt SSL.
Environment Management	Manage environment variables securely through the UI.
Teams (Coming Soon)	Invite teammates to collaborate on apps.
GitHub Integration	Auto-deploy from GitHub repos, just like Vercel and Railway.
Service Discovery	Coming soon: Cross-app service linking across servers.

Why dFlow?

If you're a developer or a small team that:

Wants full control over your infrastructure
Likes owning your servers without maintaining them manually
Hates the vendor lock-in of big PaaS providers
Wants a Heroku-like experience, but on your terms

then dFlow is designed for you.

You no longer have to choose between power and simplicity —

dFlow gives you both.

Get Started Today

Getting started with dFlow is super simple:

Install Dokku on your VPS (or let dFlow help you install it).
Connect your server to dFlow through a secure SSH connection.
Deploy your first app in minutes!

➡️ Visit dflow.sh to learn more and join the early access program.

The future of personal PaaS is here — and it’s fully under your control.

Welcome to dFlow Discord for more info or feedback🚀

Introduction to a new Self hosted PAAS

Akhil Naidu — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 15:49:58 +0000

DFlow: The Developer-First Self-Hosted PaaS

As developers look for more control over their infrastructure, the demand for a self-hosted PaaS solution that's both powerful and easy to use has never been higher. Most modern PaaS platforms focus on abstracting infrastructure—but at the cost of flexibility, pricing, and ownership.

Enter DFlow — a developer-first, self-hosted Platform-as-a-Service that gives you full control over your deployments, infrastructure, and scaling — without the need for Kubernetes, Swarm, or bloated orchestration tools.

What is DFlow?

At its core, DFlow is a UI-powered platform that connects directly to your servers via SSH and configures them with a production-ready stack powered by Dokku, node-ssh, PayloadCMS and Railpack. It transforms your VPS into a smart, scalable PaaS with just a few clicks.

But DFlow goes far beyond that.

It’s not just a UI wrapper for Dokku. DFlow brings its own opinionated architecture, offering:

A modern dashboard for managing apps, deployments, logs, and resources
Free domain provisioning via nip.io and automatic Let's Encrypt SSL
Out-of-the-box PostgreSQL, Redis, and other DB plugins
One-click app scaling (with plans for full autoscaling support)
Real-time monitoring powered by Netdata
A template creation system for turning any app into a reusable deployment recipe
Server provisioning directly from cloud providers like AWS

How is DFlow Different?

Unlike traditional PaaS tools, DFlow is intentionally simple, transparent, and modular.

Here’s what makes it stand out:

1. Smart Server Setup (via SSH)

DFlow connects to any fresh VPS using SSH, installs Dokku and Netdata, and configures the entire deployment stack. It handles everything from DNS to SSL, proxy setup, databases, and more—turning any server into a self-hosted Heroku alternative.

2. Not Herokuish—It’s Railpack First

While Dokku supports Heroku buildpacks, DFlow favors a Railpack-based approach, giving developers more control and flexibility. This avoids the limitations of the Herokuish ecosystem while still providing Docker-powered app builds under the hood.

3. No Heavy Orchestration

DFlow avoids Kubernetes and Docker Swarm on purpose. Instead of complex orchestration, it focuses on a horizontal scaling strategy where new cloud servers (e.g., AWS EC2) are spun up based on load or custom rules you define. These new instances are then auto-configured with Dokku and immediately available in the DFlow dashboard.

4. Admin Panel Decoupled from Your Servers

DFlow’s admin panel is not installed on your production servers. This is by design. Build processes can be memory and CPU intensive—and we believe your UI shouldn't slow down just because a deployment is running. You can host the DFlow admin on platforms like Railway with a one-click deploy button.

5. Template Creation UI

Soon, DFlow will ship with a template builder, allowing you to package your own apps (or open source projects) into reusable templates. This means you can standardize how projects are deployed across teams, clients, or products—all visually and without writing complex scripts.

DFlow Architecture Overview

Here’s how it all comes together:

🔗 1. SSH-based Agentless Control

DFlow does not install any agents. It connects directly to your server over SSH, runs configuration scripts, and sets up Dokku + Netdata seamlessly.

🌍 2. Proxy + DNS Automation

Every app gets a free subdomain via nip.io, and automatic Let's Encrypt SSL is handled out of the box.

⚙️ 3. Build & Deployment Pipeline

Underneath, apps are deployed using Docker containers—powered by either custom Dockerfiles or Railpack logic. All builds happen server-side, keeping the developer experience lean.

🧠 4. Autoscaling (Coming Soon)

Instead of container-based autoscaling, DFlow's approach is cloud-native. Based on your traffic or custom rules, DFlow will:

Spin up a new VPS on your AWS account
Install Dokku
Register it in your admin panel
Allow apps to be distributed across servers

📊 5. Monitoring & Logs

With Netdata pre-installed, you get real-time server health metrics, CPU/RAM usage, app logs, and more—all accessible from the dashboard.

What's Next?

We’re just getting started. Here's what’s coming soon:

🧩 ContentQL Integration: Launch servers on DFlow Cloud with the cheapest VPS plans available.
🔄 Autoscaling Rules: Define your own triggers for horizontal scaling.
📦 One-click App Templates: Share and reuse app blueprints.
🚀 Multi-cloud support: GCP and DigitalOcean next.

Try DFlow Today

You can deploy the DFlow admin panel on Railway with one click and connect your servers in minutes.

Final Thoughts

DFlow is a new kind of PaaS—one that’s simple enough for solo devs, powerful enough for teams, and flexible enough to run anywhere. Whether you're deploying a hobby project, SaaS app, or internal tools, DFlow gives you full control—without the chaos of managing complex infrastructure.

If you’re tired of cloud lock-in and ready to run your own platform with ease—DFlow is built for you.

This is still an ongoang project and if anyone is interested to join us, feel free to connect us via our discord.

Self hosting Forem(Dev) on your VPS; using t2d!

Akhil Naidu — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 12:23:16 +0000

Now you can have your own [dev.to like] community. In this installation process, I use t2d(Talk to Dokku) a bash script which is powered by whiptail and dokku.

Forem

Forem is open source software for building communities. It is the open source software that powers DEV and other inclusive communities; including my own community

Other Communities which are using Forem: https://www.forem.com/discover/

t2d

t2d aka Talk to Dokku; is a Terminal User Interface(TUI) powered by dokku and whiptail. With t2d you will be able to deploy apps in most popular programming languages, link them to most popular databases and all that with almost zero configuration from your side. Apart from all these amazing features it will also save you money along the way.

For more info Click Here

Demonstrating Forem Installation using t2d

Screen Shots of t2d v2.1

Press "Enter", to automate the Dokku installation. More information can be seen in the video above.

Once the installation was done, sometimes you need to update your ENV variables or Update your entire Forem instance with the latest changes.

You can also use t2d for post deploy configuration. Right now, I added only few very necessary options. This section of the t2d will update daily.

Repository

leewardslope / t2d

TUI for Dokku-CLI

What is t2d?

t2d aka Talk to Dokku; is a beautiful Terminal User Interface(TUI) powered by dokku. With t2d you will be able to deploy apps in most popular programming languages, link them to most popular databases and all that with almost zero configuration from your side. Apart from all these amazing features it will also save you money along the way.

Our Vision

We started to work on this because current deployment solutions were expensive or hard to configure. With t2d we plan to provide a solution where deployment experience is smooth, enjoyable and affordable.

What is Dokku?

Dokku is Docker-powered Heroku-like tool that allows you to deploy complex applications by simply pushing it via Git repository. Behind the scenes it runs on herokuish, which essentially is emulating same functionalities that you are using when you deploy your apps on Heroku. As it supports all the Heroku buildpacks, it…

View on GitHub

What is Hacking?

Akhil Naidu — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 04:52:25 +0000

A person who is able to discover a weakness in a system and manages to exploit it is called a hacker and this process is known as Hacking. Hacking is an art. It is the mastery of a system that gives you complete control over it. It is the act of modifying the inner workings of a system, in order to make it do something that it’s original creator never intended.

That’s the gist of it. But as with all things, the devil is in the details. This is what this website is for.

I’m going to make a broad claim here: The only thing you need to become a hacker is interest and dedication. But more than anything else, you need a thirst for knowledge. You should always be willing to learn something new, always open to new ideas. So come with me, follow along these series of tutorials and before long you’ll see for yourself that the claim has been justified.

Before moving on, there’s a couple things that we need to address.

First of all, privacy. Your data is everywhere, a part of you sitting on some servers around the world. Privacy is your right to decide who can use that data and how. The internet as we know it came into being decades ago. At the time, it wasn’t built with privacy in mind. But things have changed now. Not only do we need to protect ourselves against malicious agents but maybe, just maybe, a day may come when we must protect ourselves from those who are meant to be protecting us, our governments. Because of this, hacking no longer means just exploiting or patching up security holes in a system, it is now also a means of protecting a basic human right , the right to privacy.

Secondly, these days the only side of hacking that people hear about is the bad one. Credit card theft, identity theft, ransomware, stolen accounts and data and so on. The mere word_hacking_brings with it an inherently negative vibe. It doesn’t have to be this way. We hear about millions of accounts being leaked, attacks on major websites, attacks on individuals but we near really hear about all the attacks that never occurred.

There is a whole other side to hacking that never quite gets to see the light of day.

For every major hack that makes the news, many more are prevented by security specialists. These people, these whitehat hackers, possess exactly the same skillset as the blackhats, but they choose to use them for good. No software can ever be completely secure and that makes cyber security a cat and mouse game. A race between whitehats and blackhats. A battle of angels and demons, the stakes of which have never been higher than they are today. The global cost of cyber crime is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2019 and today it crossed that limit far ago.

The question is- Which side are you on?

Installing Forem in Linux

Akhil Naidu — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:35:41 +0000

This post is on the request of @benki

In this article, I focus less on my commentary and prefer more clarity in command execution. So if you find any words others than shell commands, take a good look at them.

One more tip while following this guide, single command lies in a single line.

This guide will be useful for anyone who wants to install forem in Linux. In a way, this is an alternative method to install Forem without Docker or Podman

Updating our system and Downloading Forem

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
git clone https://github.com/forem/forem.git
cp ~/forem/.env_sample ~/forem/.env

Ruby Installation

sudo apt install git curl autoconf bison build-essential \
    libssl-dev libyaml-dev libreadline6-dev zlib1g-dev \
    libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm6 libgdbm-dev libdb-dev

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
exec $SHELL

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
exec $SHELL

rbenv install $(cat ~/forem/.ruby-version)
rbenv global $(cat ~/forem/.ruby-version)

Install NVM and yarn

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh -o install_nvm.sh

bash install_nvm.sh
source ~/.profile
nvm install $(cat ~/forem/.nvmrc)
nvm use $(cat ~/forem/.nvmrc)

npm install -g yarn

Installing Postgre SQL

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev -y

In the coming command, Replace the term "ubuntu" with your own username.

sudo -u postgres createuser -s ubuntu
createdb
sudo -u ubuntu psql

Now within the psql Use \password command to create a password for the user ubuntu, in which we will create a database (later on).

You can exit psql by using the command \quit; this will help you get into the original bash/terminal of your VPS.

Let's update the DATABASE_URL and the DATABASE_URL_TEST accordingly in the .env file.

nano ~/forem/.env

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://ubuntu:mypassword@localhost:5432/$DATABASE_NAME"
DATABASE_URL_TEST="postgresql://ubuntu:mypasswordk@localhost:5432/$DATABASE_NAME_TEST"

Installing Imagemagick

sudo apt update && sudo apt install imagemagick

Installing and ConfiguringRedis

sudo apt install redis-server -y

sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf

Navigate to find the variable supervised and change it's value systemd

sudo systemctl restart redis.service

Installing Elastic search

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-oss-7.5.2-amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i elasticsearch-oss-7.5.2-amd64.deb

If you are someone who is trying to experiment with this Forem in a low-end server, maybe around 1GB or 2GB ram; It is mandatory for you to do edit the memory heap. And follow these if you are one among them, or else leave.

If you are not sure about this, skip and continue with the next step, but if you are facing any error in starting Elasticsearch try referring to this.

sudo nano /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options

First, un-comment the value of Xmx and Xms.
Next, modify the value of -Xms and -Xmx to no more than 50% of your physical RAM

# Xms represents the initial size of total heap space
# Xmx represents the maximum size of total heap space
# Use 128m if 1GB ram and 256m if 2GB ram

-Xms128m
-Xmx128m

Now let's start Elasticsearch

sudo /bin/systemctl daemon-reload
sudo /bin/systemctl enable elasticsearch.service
sudo systemctl start elasticsearch.service

Installing ImgProxy

git clone https://github.com/imgproxy/imgproxy.git
cd imgproxy

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libvips-dev

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install golang-go

sudo CGO_LDFLAGS_ALLOW="-s|-w" \
  go build -o /usr/local/bin/imgproxy

Now let's configure the .env for Imgproxy

Generate a key/salt pair by running the following in your terminal twice. Copy those values to your .env in the next step

echo $(xxd -g 2 -l 64 -p /dev/random | tr -d '\n')

We have one random string; but we need two of them, so let's run this command again.

echo $(xxd -g 2 -l 64 -p /dev/random | tr -d '\n')

Now we have 2 random strings; we will one of them as key and the other as salt. This can be done by adding few lines in .env file.

nano ~/forem/.env

Now add these three lines to it and save the file.

IMGPROXY_ENDPOINT='http://localhost:8080'
IMGPROXY_KEY='1b1c9aae804e070b0864f2547fba7ce8ff31bf7..........'
IMGPROXY_SALT='8c6d449d4fc2cada5bab538826cae709d2ade9f.........'

Replace, the key and salt with the values you generated in few steps back. (You can interchange those values, but as a convention, I use the first one as key and the later as salt)

Also store these values in this fashion, so that we can use this command to start our Imgproxy.

IMGPROXY_KEY='your key' IMGPROXY_SALT='your salt' imgproxy

Now we have all the required side packs for our installation

Installing and Starting Forem

If you are using a VPS, it is mandatory for you to update your APP_DOMAIN value with your VPS IP address in the .env file.

you can find your VPS IP address by using the command ifconfig
Use this command to edit your .env file: nano ~/forem/.env

sudo apt-get install libcurl4 libcurl4-openssl-dev -y
cd ~/forem
gem install bundler
yarn install
bin/setup
rails db:reset
rails data_updates:run

Now open 3 Terminal, the three boxes below indicate 3 different terminals

Terminal 01

IMGPROXY_KEY='your key' IMGPROXY_SALT='your salt' imgproxy

Terminal 02

./bin/webpack
bundle exec sidekiq -t 25

Terminal 03

bin/rails s -p 3000 -b 0.0.0.0

Installing Forem/Dev using Docker on Ubuntu

Akhil Naidu — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 08:52:12 +0000

Setting up Forem using Docker is one of the easiest ways to have Development Instance 😇. If you already have Docker and Docker-Compose, you can install a development instance with a single command, but you guys, you don't deserve the fun 😏 => You can check out the last section of this post and find the Golden Command

For the rest, let us do it but with fun 🥳🥳. Do you remember this song? One Kiss? 👶 Which made Dua Lipa, the Dua Lipa?

One command is all it takes
fallin' love with Forem
Possibilities
I look Like all you need

Fortunately, if you never installed Docker or Docker-Compose, don't worry 😵, I'm here for you. Open Youtube in the new tab and play this "One Kiss 💋 by Dua Lipa" in the background and copy-paste my commands.

Installing Docker using Repository

All the commands are from the official documentation of Docker itself, so don't worry, just copy-paste. In case if you don't believe me 🤔, click here, this will redirect you to the official documentation.

Updating and Installing some necessaries

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg-agent \
    software-properties-common

Adding Docker’s official GPG key

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Setting up the stable repository

sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"

Updating and Installing Docker Engine

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Testing the Docker Installation

sudo docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

With this our Docker installation was done 😁, now let's turn up towards the Docker-Compose Installation 💪.

In case, you are facing any errors!☠️ Click Here, choose your OS and follow the official instructions 💩.

Installing Docker Compose

As I mentioned earlier, I am following the official documentation, so you can copy and paste. In case, if you want to follow them by yourself 😒😤, click here

Downloading the current stable Docker Compose

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.26.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Giving executable permissions to the binary

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Verifying the Installation

docker-compose --version

For some unknown reason, if you end up with an error🧐 try repeating the docker-compose installation only. If the error persisted, I would suggest you reinstall your OS 🤒. You should not get an error😤.

Time to change the Beat

Enough of One Kiss. Time for some awesome beats, check this out Strobe by Deabmau5 => Youtube link to Strobe

Now we have Docker and Docker Compose installed in our local machine, but there is one more thing left for us to do 😳. We forget to fork and download the Forem code into our local machine from the GitHub 🤯.

I knew the response of many of you would be 🤬, but bare with me 👻.

Forking and Downloading the Forem code

Don't make me repeat it again 😠, play the Strobe by Deadmau5 in the background 🤗. I knew you can't make a coffee whenever you have to wait for some time, here, the Docker can consume enough time to bore you up.

Fork the repository from the Github

Better do it by using Github website, don't copy and paste this -_-

Link to the repository to fork: click here

Downloading the repository to you local machine

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/forem.git

Dude, please change the your-username to your own Github username, or else you can 🤮 on your experience 🥺.

Enter into the downloaded Forem folder

cd forem

The awaited Golden Command

🥵🥵🥵 You did nothing, but yeah, I assume you are horrified by the way I demonstrate this 🥶

Running Forem with Docker Via Docker-Compose

bin/container-setup

This command will do its job, you just keep an eye on the terminal by listening to strobe 🤭🤭. You will really appreciate the work done by the team Forem, they really made it easy for us (non-developers), but sure you can call yourself a DEV after this.

That's it! Navigate to http://localhost:3000

Any improvements 👨‍🔬, suggestions 🤦‍♂️, and issues ☠️ are welcomed in the comment section. This is not formal documentation for me to shy out, load them out, and let us change it according to our needs.

With this, we have our own Development Instance. I will catch you in the next post 👨‍💻 👩‍💻 (Devs), possibly with something similar to this but in a different environment.

Brief Introduction to the Installation Guide of Forem/Dev

Akhil Naidu — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 08:48:55 +0000

In this series of One-Stop to Install Forem, I will be discussing the Installation procedure of Forem using Forem Documentation as the primary reference.

The documentation provided by the Forem is one of the best starting points to wrap around this new Open Source, but having a semi-formal approach to discuss is also not a bad idea to me. So I am inclined to start one, and anyone who wants to improve this or have issues can contribute through the comment section.

From the past three months, I opened up various issues in the GitHub issues section to realize that most of the problems are related to a lack of my knowledge of the environment. Through this series, I will try to share my knowledge of experience to keep you on the right track.

Things to keep in mind

There are a few terms I might frequently use, so I would like to define them.

Development Instance: Local Forem Instance on your laptop.
Production Instance: Online Forem Instance for online users.

By the end of this series, we aim to create our Forem instance. To achieve this first, we need to create a Local Forem Instance or a Development Instance. Then finally, this Development Instance will act as a medium or local reference to support our Production Instance, which will stay in Heroku or VPS.

For more information related to Development and Production refer to this article

Note: Depending on your OS or medium of installation, choose the next post.

How to install Virtual Box in ChromeOS

Akhil Naidu — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 05:28:14 +0000

In this guide, I assume you are familiar with @sebanc brunch, Crouton, Chroot and obviously Virtualbox. If you are not familiar with anyone of these first go through the following links and get a brief idea for conceptual clearance in your head.

These are the steps we cover in this Guide.

[x] Install ChromeOS in your PC
[x] Installing a Chroot based Ubuntu Instance
[x] Setting up the Environment in Ubuntu
[x] Installing Virtual Box

Installing ChromeOS in your PC

I guess you are familiar with the Brunch of this master branch, with which you can use Install the ChromeOS in any PC - provided your PC meets the hardware requirements.

Any quires in this section, you are free to browse through the existing issues or to open a new issue.

Installing a Chroot based Ubuntu Instance

Follow these instructions, in case of any errors stop it - do some research or comment it below.

Download crouton
Open a shell (Ctrl+Alt+T, type shell, and hit enter)
Copy the installer to an executable location by running sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin -m 755 ~/Downloads/crouton
Now that it's executable, run the installer itself: sudo crouton -r xenial -t xfce
Wait patiently and answer the prompts like a good person. At the end of the installation you need to provide username and password for ubuntu installation.
Done! You can jump straight to your Xfce session by running sudo enter-chroot startxfce4 or, as a special shortcut, sudo startxfce4
Cycle through Chromium OS and your running graphical chroots using Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Back(F1) and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Forward(F2).
Exit the chroot by logging out of Xfce.

Step 6,7,8 are optional steps, which will provide you an idea about the usage of crouton

Setting up the Environment in Ubuntu

After successful completion of Step 5, you can launch the Ubuntu using Xfce using Step 6 or you can use this command: sudo enter-chroot to access the Ubuntu terminal. It's up to you how you want to access the Ubuntu terminal.

In ubuntu terminal, use this command before installing anything. sudo mount -o remount,rw /lib/modules/*

Installing Virtual Box

The above step, which focuses on setting up of environment is a must. The command: sudo mount -o remount,rw /lib/modules/* should be executed without any error. If you have no error proceed further.

crostini needs to be disabled in ChromeOS settings

sudo apt install virtualbox to install VirtualBox
Before using VirtualBox, run sudo modprobe vboxdrv

We are all set, now you have a working VirtualBox in ChromeOS, If you have any suggestion or issue feel free to comment.

for new updates visit: https://blog.leewardslope.com/how-to-install-virtualbox-in-chromeos/

India's opportunity to become THE global leader.

Akhil Naidu — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 12:45:11 +0000

We have the largest workforce in the world - close to 500 million strong - more than the population of every major country except China. This kind of opportunity doesn't come along often and we are squandering it. People don't stay young forever. We have maybe 25 years to capitalize on this and I know if we do we'll shoot straight to the top. I'm not suggesting it's an easy job but I truly believe we are capable enough to lift ourselves to the top.

In my opinion there are two factors that disproportionately affect our ability to generate value.

First, our people are not skilled enough, thanks to archaic and utterly pointless educational curricula. Bad education is the root cause of our suffering. Just ask the millions of jobless engineers. We're spending a paltry 3-4% of our GDP on education in comparison to the 6-8% of other developing nations. I strongly believe that solving the education problem will solve most other issues.

Second, policy changes and passing of bills take way too long. That's a result of the democratic process and I respect that, but again, people don't stay young forever. There are a lot of policies and rules that need an overhaul and the sooner we change them, the faster we can grow.

More Info