Install Jitsi On Ubuntu 20.04

If you’re looking to install Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, this guide will take you through the process step-by-step.

Jitsi Meet is an open-source video conferencing software that provides secure and easy-to-use video conferencing capabilities. It is designed for use in small to medium-sized teams and has features such as screen sharing, chat, and recording capabilities.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites:

Before we start installing Jitsi Meet on Ubuntu 20.04, we need to make sure that our system is up-to-date. To do this, open a terminal window and run the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install OpenJDK Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 8

To run Jitsi on Ubuntu, you need to have the Java Runtime Environment installed. It is recommended to install OpenJDK JRE 8:

sudo apt install -y openjdk-8-jre-headless

Make sure that OpenJDK is installed correctly and functioning properly:

java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_362"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_362-8u362-ga-0ubuntu1~20.04.1-b09)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.362-b09, mixed mode)

Configure the environment variable JAVA_HOME.

# echo "JAVA_HOME=$(readlink -f /usr/bin/java | sed "s:bin/java::")" | sudo tee -a /etc/profile

# source /etc/profile

Install the Nginx Web Server

For optimal performance with Jitsi on Ubuntu, it is recommended to use Nginx, which will be automatically configured during the installation process if it is installed beforehand.

# sudo apt install -y nginx

# sudo systemctl start nginx.service

# sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Install Jitsi on Ubuntu

We can now install Jitsi on Ubuntu Meet by running the following commands:

# wget -qO - https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

# echo "deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/"  | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list

# sudo apt update

# sudo apt install -y jitsi-meet

During the installation process, you will be asked to provide some information. The installer will ask you to enter the hostname for your Jitsi Meet server. Enter your server’s hostname and press enter.

Next, you will be asked to enter a domain name. If you have a domain name that you would like to use, enter it here. If you don’t have a domain name, leave this field blank and press enter.

After that, you will be asked if you want to generate a new self-signed certificate or if you want to use your existing SSL certificate. If you don’t have an SSL certificate, select the option to generate a new self-signed certificate.

Install and Configure Let’s Encrypt:

To install Certbot on Ubuntu 20.04, you can use the package manager to install it from the official Ubuntu repository.

sudo apt install certbot

To update the install-letsencrypt-cert.sh script to use Certbot instead of Certbot-auto, you’ll need to make some changes to the script code.

sudo sed -i 's/\.\/certbot-auto/certbot/g' /usr/share/jitsi-meet/scripts/install-letsencrypt-cert.sh

The Jitsi script assumes that Certbot is located in /usr/sbin, but on Ubuntu it’s installed in /usr/bin. To resolve this, you’ll need to create a symbolic link for the script.

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/certbot /usr/sbin/certbot

The next step is to configure Let’s Encrypt to secure our Jitsi on Ubuntu installation. Run the following command to generate a new SSL certificate:

sudo /usr/share/jitsi-meet/scripts/install-letsencrypt-cert.sh

Initiate a new meeting.

Using your preferred web browser, go to https://jitsi.example.com to access your Jitsi Meet video conferencing service.

Conclusion:

In this guide, we have shown you how to install Jitsi Meet on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. We started by adding the Jitsi repository and installing the necessary packages. We then installed Jitsi Meet and configured Nginx and Let’s Encrypt to secure our installation. Finally, we started Jitsi Meet and accessed the interface.

Jitsi Meet is a powerful video conferencing tool that is easy to use and provides secure communication. By following this guide, you should now have a fully functional Jitsi Meet installation on your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server.

If you need a high-quality server for your Jitsi server you can choose from our 29 data centers are located around the world, and we’re proud to offer our services in these locations: