Install Tiny Tiny RSS Reader on Ubuntu/Debian

If you are still searching for the best alternative to Google Reader which is now discontinued, well you are on the right track.

In this article, I will show how to install an alternative for Google Reader called Tiny Tiny RSS Reader.

Tiny Tiny RSS is a simple, open-source web-based RSS reader. It allows the user to manage separate RSS feeds through a web browser, just like Google Reader. You can import your existing feeds easily to Tiny Tiny RSS Reader.

Install Tiny Tiny RSS

Before installing, install MySQL sever and client packages and its dependencies:

sk@server1:~$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client apache2 libapache2-mod-php5

During MySQL installation, it will ask you to set the root user password. Enter the password twice and installer will begin to install and complete.

Add the following PPA to your system created by http://www.webupd8.org/ team:

sk@server1:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/tt-rss

Update the source list:

sk@server1:~$ sudo apt-get update

Now install it using this command:

sk@server1:~$ sudo apt-get install tt-rss

During installation it will ask you to select the webserver. Select apache2 and click OK to continue.

sk@server1: ~_002After a while, it will ask you to configure a database for tt-rss.

sk@server1: ~_003Select the database type, MySQL.

sk@server1: ~_004Enter the password for tt-rss database Administrative user.

sk@server1: ~_005Enter the password for tt-rss MySQL application.

sk@server1: ~_006Re-enter the password.

sk@server1: ~_007The installer will continue and install Tiny Tiny RSS.

Configure Tiny Tiny RSS

After installation has completed, open up /etc/default/tt-rss file and change from DISABLED=1 to DISABLED=0:

sk@server1:~$ sudo nano /etc/default/tt-rss 
## Defaults for Tiny Tiny RSS update daemon init.d script

# Set DISABLED to 1 to prevent the daemon from starting.
DISABLED=0

# Set FORKING to 1 to use the forking daemon (update_daemon2.php) instead of
# the standard one.
FORKING=0

Now open up the file /etc/tt-rss/config.php in any editor:

sk@server1:~$ sudo nano /etc/tt-rss/config.php

Find the line define(‘SELF_URL_PATH’, ‘http://yourserver/tt-rss/’); and change to your own IP address. If you want to use it locally, then simply replace it with localhost. I want to use it remotely, so that I use my server IP address.

[...]
define('SELF_URL_PATH', 'http://192.168.1.201/tt-rss/');
[...]

Save and exit the file. Now run the following command to link tt-rss to Apache:

sk@server1:~$ sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/conf-available/50-tt-rss.conf /etc/apache2/conf.d/

Restart apache2 service:

sk@server1:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now start the tt-rss service:

sk@server1:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/tt-rss start

Now go to your web browser and navigate to http://ip-address/rr-tss or http://localhost/tt-rss. You should see the following screen. Enter username as admin and password as password.

Tiny Tiny RSS : Login - Mozilla Firefox_008Now you will able to login to RSS feed section.

(35) Tiny Tiny RSS - Mozilla Firefox_009Subscribe to New feed

Click on the Actions drop-down box on the top-right corner. Select Subscribe to Feed. Enter the feed URL and you’re done.

(35) Tiny Tiny RSS - Mozilla Firefox_010Click on the website feeds on the left side and you will see the latest feeds. For instance, I have a created a new feeds from Unixmen.com.

(45) Tiny Tiny RSS - Mozilla Firefox_011Import Existing Feeds

Go to Actions drop-down box on the top-right corner. Select Preferences -> Feeds -> OPML. Click on Browse. Select your existing opml file and click Import my OPML.

Tiny Tiny RSS : Preferences - Mozilla Firefox_012

That’s it.