How to add brotli to nginx on ubuntu

Sallymelek

Hey,
Need help on installing on brotli… however im on ubuntu 20.04 lts, will the following guide help?

https://www.vultr.com/docs/add-brotli-support-to-nginx-on-ubuntu-18-04

phenomlab

Sallymelek Yes, but you only need Steps 3 and 4. Please don’t do the other steps, as this will render your current install inoperable.

Sallymelek

phenomlab

Thanks

Stuck in this step;

Compile the ngx_brotli as a dynamic module and copy it to the standard directory for Nginx modules, /etc/nginx/modules.

Also from the guide, i saw the git that was being been https://github.com/eustas/ngx_brotli (but seen it was archieved) So i used this to download to the serve; https://github.com/google/ngx_brotli. Will it cause an problem?

phenomlab

Sallymelek that won’t cause a problem, no - unless you upgrade nginx and that compiled version isn’t supported.

The reason why you get the compliation error is because there is no complier installed on your system

You could resolve this with sudo apt install build-essential which includes a compiler.

Sallymelek

phenomlab

So i need to check if th git package is compatible whenever I upgrade my Nginx.

Also currently im inroot@forum: '' /nginx-1.15.2# so install sudo apt install build-essential do I need to go to the root directory? if you so what is code to go there?

phenomlab

Sallymelek you can run the apt command from the current directory you are in. Take a backup first though before you do anything just in case. The GCC compiler won’t hurt your system, but best to be safe.

Sallymelek

phenomlab

Great thank also I already have a backup done, it’s waiting for any mistakes. 😆

Sallymelek

phenomlab

is there a problem here?

phenomlab

Sallymelek looks like the directory doesn’t exist. I think you’ll need to create it

Sallymelek

how?

phenomlab

Sallymelek try sudo mkdir /etc/nginx/modules. Then try the compile again

Sallymelek

phenomlab
on the current directory ?

phenomlab

Sallymelek yes.

Sallymelek

phenomlab

then do this step again right?

Sallymelek

@phenomlab

Seems I finished Step 3.

So for Step 4 it states to configure sudo vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf do i need to do this instead sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/flarum.conf

phenomlab

Sallymelek it’s typically done at the nginx.conf level.

Sallymelek

phenomlab
I added

load_module modules/ngx_http_brotli_filter_module.so;
load_module modules/ngx_http_brotli_static_module.so;

However getting this error,

root@forum:~# sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
root@forum:~# sudo nginx -t
nginx: [emerg] dlopen() "/usr/share/nginx/modules/ngx_http_brotli_filter_module.                       so" failed (/usr/share/nginx/modules/ngx_http_brotli_filter_module.so: cannot op                       en shared object file: No such file or directory) in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:6
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

phenomlab

Sallymelek /usr/share/nginx/modules/

What’s the content of this directory ?

Sallymelek

phenomlab

i dont know, im just following the guide

phenomlab

Sallymelek Right. I had a look at this, and it seemed to be purely a case of the modules being in the wrong location. I copied these to the right places

However, when I executed nginx -t I received the error message indicated. On checking, it’s because the build environment for the modules which you created does not match the installed version of NGINX

https://www.nginx.com/blog/failed-nginx-plus-upgrade-module-version-x-instead-of-y/

Based on this, I’ve commented out the modules in the nginx.conf file and tested with nginx -t - result below

Debugging this will be very invasive, and will require (probably) a replacement build of NGINX with the Brotli modules compiled to be created. As your forum is live, I strongly advise that you do not do this on the current droplet you have, but perhaps test it on a replica where if it does go wrong, it doesn’t matter because it can simply be discarded.

I want to play safe here 🙂 The advantages of Brotli speak for themselves, but the reward of having Brotli will never take preference over a site being functional or not.

Sallymelek

phenomlab
ohhh i see, thanks