Galene

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

Declared in: projects/Galene/default.nix

1. Install Nix
   Debian

   Bash

   $ apt install --yes curl git jq nix

   Ubuntu

   Bash

   $ apt install --yes curl git jq nix

   Arch

   Bash

   $ pacman --sync --refresh --noconfirm 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
   Debian Sid/Trixie

   Bash

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

   Ubuntu 25.04

   Bash

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

   Ubuntu 24.04

   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"

   Arch

   Bash

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

5. Usage Instructions

   1. 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

   2. 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.

   3. 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.

   4. 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