Installing on macOS with nginx webserver

This is an alternative method to install RompЯ on macOS which uses the nginx webserver instead of the built in Apache server. This method installs everything from Homebrew, which should future-proof it better against Apple removing stuff from macOS in the future. This guide assumed you’ve already installed a player and copied the RompЯ files to /Users/YOU/Sites/rompr

Install Homebrew

Homebrew

Install nginx webserver

nginx installation

brew install nginx imagemagick

nginx configuration

Now you need to edit a configuration file to tell nginx which user it should run as. It needs to be the same as the user you log in as, which is the same YOU in the path where you installed rompr

nano /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

At the top of that file, you need to change the setting for user. This gives nginx permission to read and write to your rompr installation. So here, where I’ve put “YOU” you should put your user login name.

user YOU staff;

Now hit ctrl-X to exit. Answer ‘Y’ and hit enter when it asks you if you want to save the file.

RompЯ configuration

We’re going to create a configuration for rompr

nano /usr/local/etc/nginx/servers/rompr

This will create an empty file, into which you should paste the following (cmd-V will paste):

server {

    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    root /Users/YOU/Sites/rompr
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    server_name www.myrompr.net;

    client_max_body_size 256M;

    # This section can be copied into an existing default setup
    location / {
            allow all;
            index index.php;
            location ~ \.php {
                    try_files $uri index.php =404;
                    fastcgi_pass unix:/usr/local/var/run/php.sock;
                    fastcgi_index index.php;
                    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
                    include fastcgi_params;
                    fastcgi_read_timeout 1800;
                    fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
                    fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
            }
            error_page 404 = /404.php;
            try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
            location ~ /albumart/* {
                    expires -1s;
            }
    }
}

You must edit where I’ve put YOU, as before.

Again hit ctrl-X and the answer Y to save that file.

Install PHP

PHP installation

brew install php@

PHP configuration

The exact location of the config files will depend on the version of PHP that Homebrew has decided to install. At the time of writing, it was 7.4 and it should be obvious where this might need to be changed in the commands that follow

nano /usr/local/etc/php/7.4/php-fpm.d/www.conf

Ctrl-W is ‘find’ in nano.

First find and edit the user and group entries - as before “YOU” should be your username

user = YOU
group = staff

Now find and modify the following:

listen = /usr/local/var/run/php.sock

For performance reasons I like to also change

pm.max_children = 10

or an even higher number but this uses up more memory and is not essential. I’ll leave it up to you.

As usual, ctrl-X and then answer ‘Y’.

Now edit the php ini file:

nano /usr/local/etc/php/7.4/php.ini

and edit the following parameters:

allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 128M
max_execution_time = 1800
upload_max_filesize = 10M
max_file_uploads = 200
post_max_size = 256M

(The last 3 entries are really only used when uploading Custom Background Images. They set, respectively, the maximum size of an individual file (in megabytes), the maximum number of files you can upload in one go, and the maximum total size (megabytes) you can upload in one go. The values above are just examples - but note that post_max_size has an equivalent called ‘client_max_body_size’ in the nginx config file and it’s sensible to keep them the same).

As usual, ctrl-X and then answer ‘Y’.

Install Some Additional Bits

If you’re using Mopidy

brew install gst-libav

Edit Hosts Definition

You may have noticed we used www.myrompr.net above. We need the OS to know where that is

sudo nano /etc/hosts

and add a line

127.0.0.1   www.myrompr.net

On other devices you can either add an entry to their hosts file for the IP address of your mac (eg 192.168.1.5 www.myrompr.net) or you just enter that IP address directly into the browser.

Start Everything

sudo brew services start php
sudo brew services start nginx

And We’re Done

Your browser can now be pointed at www.myrompr.net.

To access rompr from another device you need to edit the hosts file there too. If you can’t edit the hosts file, just use the computer’s IP address.