Here are some brief notes on getting an up-to-date Phoenix setup on a fresh Ubuntu VM, suitable for newcomers to Linux, Elixir, and Phoenix. Includes PostGres.

• assuming you have Ubuntu v22.0.4.3 LTS, amd64
• access via a local terminal or via ssh, either is fine
• where prompted, just choose the default answer most times

Tools

• switch to root user
• update base system
• install my favourite tools, and some needed for phoenix
• add a memory-backed tmpfs
• https://ubuntu.com/blog/data-driven-analysis-tmp-on-tmpfs

$ sudo -s
# apt update
# apt upgrade
# apt install mosh git tmux fd-find rsync htop ripgrep \
  fish neovim net-tools inotify-tools
# echo "tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev" | tee -a /etc/fstab

Erlang and Elixir

• we use a 3rd party repository to get a nice fresh erlang & elixir as ubuntu is a bit behind
• https://elixir-lang.org/install.html#gnulinux

# add-apt-repository ppa:rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang
# apt update
# apt install elixir erlang-dev erlang-xmerl erlang-eunit
# reboot

the final reboot is only necessary if your apt upgrade requires it

Database

• don’t strictly need this but it’s the default DB for Phoenix
• set a terrifically bad but convenient password
• mostly cribbed from https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/databases-postgresql

# apt install postgresql
# sudo -u postgres psql
postgres=# ALTER USER postgres with encrypted password 'postgres';

Check the bits

• we should have a database, elixir & erlang

$ netstat -l |grep postgres
tcp        0      0 localhost:postgresql    0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     28918    /var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432
$ mix hex.info
Hex:    2.0.6
Elixir: 1.15.7
OTP:    26.1.2

Built with: Elixir 1.14.2 and OTP 23.3

Make a new Phoenix App

• make a dir to hold our source code
• install the Phoenix generator
• generate a working application scaffold

$ mkdir ~/src && cd ~/src
$ mix archive.install hex phx_new
$ mix phx.new --binary-id demo

$ cd demo
$ git init . && git add . && git commit -am ':mix phx.new demo'

$ mix ecto.reset
$ iex -S mix phx.server