HOW TO JOIN // ORPHEUS // AOL // HOLO OS // HAQBOOK // URBIT TUTORIAL
If you found this guide useful consider joining us in discord.gg/simulation
Step 1 [Get your planet and network keys.]
You can get a planet by buying one with a ETH wallet like metamask which will be important later. Opensea Urbit Planets If you are in GENESIS, we recently bought the star ~lonfeb and will supply you with a planet for free if you are a subbed member or own a AOL NFT.
Once you have your planet and have it on your ETH wallet in Metamask. Go to the Urbit Bridge to reset your network key. This is important because it helps you refresh the Urbit Planet and avoid any errors. If it's a brand new planet, you have to do this anyway because there are no network keys attached to the Urbit Planet yet.
Connect via Metamask Browser Extension
Click OS Sponsor, Network Keys, Access Key
Click on Network Keys Reset or if it's a new planet generate the keys.
This will take you to where you can download the new keys. The keys will be in a .key file.
You should be able to open the .key file with a text editor app to get the number in the file. If you're having a problem opening the file because sometimes Macs or other OS may read the .key file format as a diffrenet program file. Try to rename it key.txt and then open it in a text program or right click the file and open with program and choose a text editor.
Step 2 [Making a VPS so the Urbit Planet runs in the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere.]
In this step you will make a VPS which will cost $5 a month so that you can access your Urbit Planet from anywhere. A VPS is just basically a computer in the cloud that you will access from a terminal later on to boot the planet and always have it running.
Make and account on Linode
Click +Create in the upper right corner.
Under compute choose Linode.
For region choose the closest region to where you live.
For Choose OS you can leave it on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (as of this writing). We're basically booting up a Linux server as our VPS.
For Linode Plan we can choose Shared CPU.
Then we can choose Nanode 1 GB. Which should be the first option.
For Linode Label we can name it whatever we want. I named mine urbitplanet.
Then we can skip down to Security Root Password. We must choose a password that is strong enough that it lights up all 3 bars for security. Make sure to write it down somewhere since this is the password we will use to login to our VPS through our terminal later.
Now scroll all the way to the bottom and click on Create Linode so that our VPS gets created. We don't have to worry about any of the other settings.
You will see a status lit up with what state your VPS is currently in. We will wait until the circle is green with the text RUNNING next to it.
Write down your Public IP Address which should be something like 192.123.123.33. Your address will be different but that's what it will look like. Also right next to it under Access you will copy the SSH Access which should be something like ssh root@192.123.123.33 (with your IP address obviously).
Now we can move on to the next step which is installing the Urbit software on our VPS and booting up our planet so we can access it from anywhere.
Step 3 [Booting up your planet.]
In order to boot your planet you need to use the computer terminal to log in to your Linode VPS. In Windows you can use Terminal or Powershell. In Mac you can use the Mac terminal. This is where you will be entering commands. Please keep in mind that spaces are important for every step when inputing commands into the terminal.
Once you open the terminal you will enter your SSH Access as follows:
ssh root@youripaddressnumber
Then press enter.
If this is your first time logging into the VPS you will be prompted with some info concerning a fingerprint. Go ahead and type yes then press enter.
Now you will be prompted to enter the password you created in Step 2 for your VPS. Press enter once you type it in.
You should now be in your Linode VPS. The first thing we will do is download the Urbit program on to the VPS. To do this we will copy and paste this command.
curl -L https://urbit.org/install/linux-x86_64/latest | tar xzk --transform='s/.*/urbit/g'
Now hit enter. This will download Urbit on to your VPS.
Next we will have to make what is known as a swap file. Urbit needs this swap file to install correctly other wise the install will fail.
Copy and paste every command that follows one by one pressing enter after each line. So copy the first command, paste it into your terminal, press enter, then repeat the same with the next one.
sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
Now that you have created the swap file you need to get your keyfile.key on to the VPS. To do this you will open the keyfile.key file you downloaded from the Urbit Bridge using any text editor. You will copy the key inside the file making sure you just copy the key and nothing else like extra spaces at the end or anything like that just the key because other wise the boot will fail.
Next you will go back to the terminal window and enter this command.
nano keyfile.key
Press enter.
This will open a text editor in the terminal window. Next you will paste the keyfile.key key you just copied making sure you don't add any spaces or extra characters.
Now you need to save this file in the terminal so we will do.
Ctrl + o on the keyboard at the same time.
Now press enter.
Now you will exit the nano text editor by pressing
Ctrl + x on the keyboard at the same time.
This should return you to the terminal.
Now you will enter this in the terminal. Make sure that when you enter your planet name you don't include the ~. For example I would put dovdev-binzod
./urbit -w yourplanetname -k ./keyfile.key
Press enter.
This will start booting your planet in the terminal. You want to give it at least like 15-20 minutes to make sure it boots all the way. Once you see the word dojo in the terminal and it not doing anything you will enter this command.
+code
Now press enter.
This will give you 4 words. This is your Urbit password to get into the Urbit Landscape UI. Make sure you save these in a safe place because you will need them later.
Next you want a place to log in for you Urbit Planet online. Urbit provides a url domain that you can use instead of just using your IP address plus they give you a free SSL certificate. To get this set up you will enter.
|dns-config
Now press enter.
This will start setting up your domain.
They dojo command will ask you for IP address. Just go ahead and put that in. Should just be numbers don't confuse it with your ssh login.
Then it it will ask for a system check type out yes and press enter.
Please give it at least 5 minutes to install.
Your URL to log into Urbit will be yourplanetname.arvo.network that you put into a web browser.
Your password will be the 4 word password you wrote down.
Don't log in yet, we need to make sure that the terminal is still running once you close it. To do this first you need to shut down your planet. You will do
ctrl + d on the keyboard at the same time.
This will shut down your planet. Next you will enter this into the terminal
screen -S name_of_the_screen
Now press enter.
This will clear the terminal screen. You need to delete your keyfile.key from the server to do this you will run
rm keyfile.key
Now press enter
Next you will boot your planet back up by doing the following. Again make sure you don't use the ~ sign. For example for me it would be dovdev-binzod for my planet name.
./urbit yourplanetname
Now press enter.
This will boot your planet back up. Please give it at least 5 or so minutes until you see the dojo terminal again. You may now close the terminal. Your planet is now running in the cloud.
In your browser go to yourplanetname.arvo.network
You should see the Urbit login page. Enter your 4 word password and login. You are now in Urbit. Click on the TLON messenger app for it to open. Feel free to add me ~dovdev-binzod and send me a message. If you want to be invited to the GENESIS HOLOGRAPHIC group chat.
Step 4 Set up your media server
We will now make a server on digital ocean so that you can upload your media. The reason we do this is so you are in control of your own images and media. This is what makes Urbit so different, the fact that you control your own data.
Make an account on digitalocean.com
On the left hand side click on Spaces Object Storage, this is what is known as a S3 bucket.
Leave the default settings and make sure to turn on ENABLE CDN.
Name your bucket in all lowercase letters no spaces, remember this name.
Click on your bucket you just created and click on settings.
Scroll down to CORS and configure it.
Add your domain with https:// included in it. This is the domain we made where you access your planet ending in arvo.network.
Click on get and put
Click on header put this * by itself.
Leave everything else alone and click on save.
Click on create access key in the your s3 bucket settings page.
Click full access and change permissions to read/write/delete.
Give it whatever access name you want and save.
IMPORTANT you will see a secret access key make sure to copy this and put it somewhere for now because we will need it later and it only shows it to us once.
Copy your access key ID as well.
Copy your Origin Endpoint at the top of your S3 bucket settings page.
Go to your Urbit Landscape homepage. Click the small black box next to the bell on the left. Click on Remote Storage.
Paste your endpoint removing your bucket name so that it looks something like this (your location may be different). https://sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com
Paste your access key ID.
Paste your secret access key.
For region just type in global
Leave public url base empty.
For bucket name put exactly what you named your S3 bucket exactly the way you typed it in Digital Ocean.
Click save.
Go to any group in Urbit now and try to upload an image. It should upload if not please follow the guide again.
Step 5 Download it on your iphone.
Download Tlon Messenger in the Apple app store.
Login using your arvo network planet domain that you use on desktop and your 4 word password that you have for your planet. Once you are logged in you will be able to see your groups and send messages as well as upload images from your phone.