Galene

Galene is a self-hosted video conferencing server. It features advanced networking and video algorithms and automatic subtitling.

1. Install Nix

   Arch Linux

   Bash

   $ pacman --sync --refresh --noconfirm curl git jq nix

   Debian

   Bash

   $ apt install --yes curl git jq nix

   Ubuntu

   Bash

   $ apt install --yes curl git jq nix

2. Download a configuration file

   # default.nix
   {
     ngipkgs ? import (fetchTarball "https://github.com/ngi-nix/ngipkgs/tarball/main") { },
   }:
   ngipkgs.demo-vm (
     {
       lib,
       pkgs,
       ...
     }:
     let
       galeneTestGroupsDir = "/var/lib/galene/groups";
       galeneTestGroupFile = "galene-test-config.json";
       galenePort = 8443;
       galeneTestGroupAdminName = "admin";
       galeneTestGroupAdminPassword = "1234";
     in
     {
       services.galene = {
         enable = true;
         insecure = true;
         openFirewall = true;
         httpPort = galenePort;
         groupsDir = galeneTestGroupsDir;
       };
   
       # https://galene.org/INSTALL.html
       environment.etc.${galeneTestGroupFile}.source =
         (pkgs.formats.json { }).generate galeneTestGroupFile
           {
             op = [
               {
                 username = galeneTestGroupAdminName;
                 password = galeneTestGroupAdminPassword;
               }
             ];
             other = [ { } ];
           };
   
       environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
         ffmpeg
         galene-stream
       ];
     }
   
   )
   

   Download
3. Enable binary substituters

   Bash

   $ export NIX_CONFIG='substituters = https://cache.nixos.org/ https://ngi.cachix.org/
   trusted-public-keys = cache.nixos.org-1:6nchdd59x431o0gwypbmraurkbj16zpmqfgspcdshjy= ngi.cachix.org-1:n+cal72roc3qqulxihpv+tw5t42whxmmhpragkrsrow='

4. Build and run a virtual machine

   Arch Linux, Debian Sid and Ubuntu 25.04

   Bash

   $ nix-build ./default.nix && ./result

   Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04/24.10

   Bash

   $ rev=$(nix-instantiate --eval --attr sources.nixpkgs.rev https://github.com/ngi-nix/ngipkgs/archive/master.tar.gz | jq --raw-output)

   $ nix-shell -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/$rev.tar.gz --packages nix --run "nix-build ./default.nix && ./result"

5. Usage Instructions

   A demo VM for testing Galène.

   To use Galène, you have to set up a group, and permissions & users within this group. For full details, take a look at: https://galene.org/README.html#group-definitions

   After Galène has finished starting up, the on-screen text in the VM will inform you about the exact directory that your group configs need to be put into.

   An example config is available within the VM under /etc/galene-test-config.json. If you copy this file to the group directory and name it test.json, then a group named test will be available in the web interface for you to use.

   A known issue with specifically this demo is that WebRTC doesn't seem to be working: You can join the group and get familiar with the interface, but audio and video is unlikely to work. Installing Galène properly on a local system will get rid of this issue.

{
  lib,
  pkgs,
  ...
}:
let
  galeneTestGroupsDir = "/var/lib/galene/groups";
  galeneTestGroupFile = "galene-test-config.json";
  galenePort = 8443;
  galeneTestGroupAdminName = "admin";
  galeneTestGroupAdminPassword = "1234";
in
{
  services.galene = {
    enable = true;
    insecure = true;
    openFirewall = true;
    httpPort = galenePort;
    groupsDir = galeneTestGroupsDir;
  };

  # https://galene.org/INSTALL.html
  environment.etc.${galeneTestGroupFile}.source =
    (pkgs.formats.json { }).generate galeneTestGroupFile
      {
        op = [
          {
            username = galeneTestGroupAdminName;
            password = galeneTestGroupAdminPassword;
          }
        ];
        other = [ { } ];
      };

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    ffmpeg
    galene-stream
  ];
}

This project is funded by NLnet through these subgrants:

• Galene