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Linux

Quick Install with curl​

Install FDM Monster with a single command on Ubuntu / Debian / Raspberry Pi OS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fdm-monster/fdm-monster-scripts/main/install/linux/install.sh | bash

View Installation Script

What the Installer Does​

The one-click installer will automatically:

  1. Detect your platform and architecture (linux/amd64, linux/arm64, etc.)
  2. Install Node.js 24+ if not already present
  3. Set up Yarn via corepack
  4. Install @fdm-monster/server package
  5. Create and start systemd service
  6. Create CLI wrapper at ~/.local/bin/fdm-monster (alias: fdmm)
  7. Display access URLs and management commands

After installation completes, FDM Monster will be:

  • Running as a systemd service
  • Accessible at http://localhost:4000
  • Manageable via the fdmm CLI command

Requirements​

  • Linux: Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS, Arch, or similar
  • RAM: 512MB minimum (2GB+ recommended)
  • Storage: 500MB - 1GB free space
  • Architecture: x86_64 (amd64), ARM64, or ARMv7
  • Raspberry Pi: Compatible with Pi 3B+, Pi 4, and Pi 5

The installer will automatically install Node.js 24+ if it's not already present on your system.

Installation Directories​

After installation, FDM Monster will use these directories:

  • Install directory: ~/.fdm-monster
    • Contains the FDM Monster server installation
  • Data directory: ~/.fdm-monster-data
    • Contains your database and media files (logs, uploads, etc.)
  • CLI location: ~/.local/bin/fdm-monster
    • The fdmm command-line tool

Management Commands​

After installation, use the fdmm command (or fdm-monster) to manage your installation:

# View CLI version
fdmm version

# Check if FDM Monster is running
fdmm status

# View logs in real-time
fdmm logs

Service Control​

# Start FDM Monster
fdmm start

# Stop FDM Monster
fdmm stop

# Restart FDM Monster
fdmm restart

Updates and Upgrades​

# Upgrade to the latest version
fdmm upgrade

# Upgrade to a specific version (see GitHub releases)
fdmm upgrade 2.x.y

# Update the CLI tool itself
fdmm update-cli

Find available versions on the GitHub Releases page.

Backup and Maintenance​

# Backup your data directory
fdmm backup

# Reinstall FDM Monster
fdmm install

# Uninstall FDM Monster completely
fdmm uninstall
info

The fdmm uninstall command will ask you whether to delete your data folder. Use fdmm backup first if you want to keep a backup of your data.

Accessing FDM Monster​

After installation, the installer will display all available access URLs. Typically:

http://localhost:4000
http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:4000

Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with your server's IP address to access from other devices on your network.

Customization​

Environment Variables​

FDM Monster can be configured using environment variables. These are stored in a .env file located in your data directory at ~/.fdm-monster-data/.env.

To customize your installation:

# Stop FDM Monster
fdmm stop

# Edit the .env file
nano ~/.fdm-monster-data/.env

Add or modify environment variables:

# Change the server port
SERVER_PORT=8080

# Set environment mode
NODE_ENV=production

# Authentication settings
OVERRIDE_LOGIN_REQUIRED=true
OVERRIDE_REGISTRATION_ENABLED=false

Save the file and restart FDM Monster:

fdmm start

For a complete list of available environment variables, see the Environment Variables Guide.

warning

Do not edit the systemd service file directly as it may break configuration overrides. Always use the .env file in your data directory instead.

Troubleshooting​

Permission Errors​

If you encounter permission errors during installation, ensure you have write access to:

  • ~/.fdm-monster (install directory)
  • ~/.fdm-monster-data (data directory)
  • ~/.local/bin (CLI directory)

Service Won't Start​

Check the service status and logs:

# Check systemd service status
sudo systemctl status fdm-monster

# View logs
fdmm logs

Port Already in Use​

If port 4000 is already in use, see the Environment Variables section above to change the port.

Cannot Access from Other Devices​

Make sure your firewall allows connections on port 4000:

# For UFW (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo ufw allow 4000/tcp

# For firewalld (Fedora/CentOS)
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=4000/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Command Not Found: fdmm​

If the fdmm command is not found after installation, ensure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

# Reload your shell configuration
source ~/.bashrc  # or source ~/.zshrc

Upgrading FDM Monster​

To upgrade to the latest version:

fdmm upgrade

To upgrade to a specific version (find versions on GitHub Releases):

fdmm upgrade 2.x.y

Your data in ~/.fdm-monster-data is automatically preserved during upgrades.

Backup and Restore​

Backup​

Use the built-in backup command:

fdmm backup

This will create a timestamped backup file in ~/.fdm-monster-backups/:

Backup created: ~/.fdm-monster-backups/fdm-monster-20260111-161209.tar.gz

Restore​

To restore from a backup:

# Stop FDM Monster
fdmm stop

# Extract the backup to restore your data
tar -xzf ~/.fdm-monster-backups/fdm-monster-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz -C ~/

# Start FDM Monster
fdmm start

Replace YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS with the actual timestamp from your backup filename.

Uninstalling​

To remove FDM Monster:

# Uninstall
fdmm uninstall

This will:

  • Stop the systemd service
  • Remove the service file
  • Delete the installation directory (~/.fdm-monster)
  • Remove the CLI tool (~/.local/bin/fdm-monster)
  • Ask whether to delete the data directory (~/.fdm-monster-data) - defaults to keeping it
tip

Your data directory is preserved by default during uninstall. Use fdmm backup before uninstalling if you want an additional backup.

Alternative Installation Methods​

If you prefer not to use the one-click installer, see these alternatives:

Next Steps​

Getting Help​

Complete Installation Output​

Below is an example of what you'll see during installation:

    ___________ __  ___   __  ___                 __
   / ____/ __ \/  |/  /  /  |/  /___  ____  _____/ /____  _____
  / /_  / / / / /|_/ /  / /|_/ / __ \/ __ \/ ___/ __/ _ \/ ___/
 / __/ / /_/ / /  / /  / /  / / /_/ / / / (__  ) /_/  __/ /
/_/   /_____/_/  /_/  /_/  /_/\____/_/ /_/____/\__/\___/_/

FDM Monster One-Click Installer
https://fdm-monster.net

✓ Detected platform: linux/arm64
✓ Node.js v24.12.0 detected
ℹ Setting up Yarn via corepack...
Preparing yarn@stable for immediate activation...
✓ Yarn 4.12.0 ready
ℹ Installing @fdm-monster/server...
➤ YN0000: · Yarn 4.12.0
➤ YN0000: ┌ Resolution step
➤ YN0000: └ Completed
➤ YN0000: ┌ Post-resolution validation
➤ YN0086: │ Some peer dependencies are incorrectly met by dependencies; run yarn explain peer-requirements for details.
➤ YN0000: └ Completed
➤ YN0000: ┌ Fetch step
➤ YN0000: └ Completed in 0s 667ms
➤ YN0000: ┌ Link step
➤ YN0000: └ Completed in 0s 279ms
➤ YN0000: · Done with warnings in 1s 139ms
✓ @fdm-monster/server installed
ℹ Creating systemd service...
✓ systemd service created and started
ℹ Creating CLI wrapper...
✓ CLI created at /home/pi/.local/bin/fdm-monster (alias: fdmm)
ℹ Waiting for FDM Monster to start...
✓ FDM Monster is ready!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  FDM Monster v2.0.3 is ready!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  Access FDM Monster at:
    http://localhost:4000
    http://192.168.179.69:4000
    http://172.17.0.1:4000
    http://172.18.0.1:4000

  Management commands: (use 'fdm-monster' or 'fdmm' - CLI v1.0.6)
    fdmm install              - (Re)install FDM Monster
    fdmm start                - Start FDM Monster
    fdmm stop                 - Stop FDM Monster
    fdmm restart              - Restart FDM Monster
    fdmm status               - Check if FDM Monster is running
    fdmm logs                 - View logs
    fdmm upgrade [version]    - Upgrade to latest or specified version
    fdmm backup               - Backup data directory
    fdmm update-cli [url]     - Update CLI tool (optionally from custom URL)
    fdmm version              - Show CLI version
    fdmm uninstall            - Remove FDM Monster

  Data directory: /home/pi/.fdm-monster-data
  Install directory: /home/pi/.fdm-monster

  Documentation: https://docs.fdm-monster.net
  Discord: https://discord.gg/mwA8uP8CMc

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