Installing FileRun on Debian 11: A Quick, No‑Nonsense Guide
If you’re looking to turn your Debian 11 server into a slick file‑sharing hub, this walk‑through shows you how to get FileRun up and running in under half an hour—no fluff, no fancy bells and whistles.
1. Prep the Server
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Debian ships with a stale snapshot of packages that can bite you later. Updating first keeps Apache, MySQL, PHP, and the rest on a sane baseline.
sudo apt install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-gd \
php-xml php-curl php-zip php-intl php-bcmath mariadb-server \
unzip -y
FileRun needs a LAMP stack. MariaDB is the drop‑in replacement for MySQL that ships with Debian 11 and behaves better under heavy load.
sudo systemctl enable --now apache2 mariadb
Enable services at boot—no more “I forgot to start it” headaches.
2. Harden PHP
Open /etc/php/$(php -r 'echo PHP_MAJOR_VERSION.".".PHP_MINOR_VERSION;')/apache2/conf.d/00-filerun.ini and add:
file_uploads = On upload_max_filesize = 512M post_max_size = 520M max_execution_time = 300 memory_limit = 256M
FileRun will be dealing with big uploads. Without these tweaks, the server would just abort halfway through a file transfer.
3. Create the Database
sudo mysql -u root
Then inside MySQL:
CREATE DATABASE filerun CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON filerun.* TO 'filerun'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword!'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
FileRun’s installer will read the DB name, user and password. If you skip this step, the web UI will complain that it can’t connect.
4. Pull Down FileRun
cd /tmp wget https://github.com/filerun/filerun/releases/download/v3.7.1/FileRun-3.7.1.zip unzip FileRun-3.7.1.zip -d /var/www/html/
Installing under /var/www/html/ keeps everything in the web root, and wget + unzip are lighter than pulling from GitHub with git clone.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/FileRun
Apache runs as www-data. Without correct ownership, FileRun can’t write logs or create its own config.
5. Configure Apache Virtual Host
Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/filerun.conf:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName filerun.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/FileRun
<Directory "/var/www/html/FileRun">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/filerun_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/filerun_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
sudo a2ensite filerun sudo systemctl reload apache2
A dedicated vhost keeps logs tidy and makes it easier to enable HTTPS later.
6. Run the Web Installer
Open your browser, hit http://filerun.example.com (or the IP if you’re still playing locally). The FileRun wizard will ask for:
- DB name: filerun
- Username: filerun
- Password: StrongPassword!
The installer does a few sanity checks—like verifying PHP extensions—and creates config.php. Skipping it results in a 500 error that looks like the server is broken.
> I’ve seen this happen after a bad update of Apache that removed the mod_rewrite module. FileRun’s installer will immediately warn you, so keep an eye on those messages.
7. Secure with HTTPS (Optional but Highly Recommended)
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y sudo certbot --apache -d filerun.example.com
FileRun stores passwords and tokens in the database, so encrypting traffic protects those secrets. Certbot is the easiest way to get Let’s Encrypt certificates on Debian 11.
8. Tweaks for Production
sudo nano /var/www/html/FileRun/.htaccess
Add:
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
</IfModule>
Basic security headers reduce the risk of cross‑site scripting attacks that FileRun’s UI might be tricked into.
9. Test It Out
Log in with the admin account you created during installation. Upload a file, try sharing it via link, and check that the log files show activity—no mysterious 404s.
If anything looks off, look at error.log first; FileRun will complain about missing PHP extensions or incorrect folder permissions right there.
That’s all there is to it: an Apache + MariaDB stack, a quick DB setup, a single download of the archive, and a few lines in Apache. If you hit a snag after any step, double‑check file ownerships and that every required PHP module is enabled—those are the most common culprits.
