Install gitea

Install MariaDB server

Get the package with the package manager

apt install mariadb-server

Create MySQL gitea user and gitteadb database

mysql

CREATE USER 'gitea'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';
CREATE DATABASE giteadb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON giteadb.* TO 'gitea'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download and and prepare gitea

Download the correct newest version from dl.gitea.com/gitea, e.g.:

wget -O gitea https://dl.gitea.com/gitea/1.21.5/gitea-1.21.5-linux-amd64

Then copy it to /usr/local/bin/gitea and make it excecutable:

cp gitea /usr/local/bin/gitea
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitea

Ensure the git user exists

adduser --system --shell /bin/bash --gecos 'Git Version Control' --group --disabled-password --home /home/git git

Create gitea directories:

mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/{custom,data,log}
chown -R git:git /var/lib/gitea/
chmod -R 750 /var/lib/gitea/
mkdir /etc/gitea
chown root:git /etc/gitea
chmod 770 /etc/gitea

Create daemon file into /etc/systemd/system/gitea.service :

[Unit]
Description=Gitea (Git with a cup of tea)
After=syslog.target
After=network.target
Wants=mysql.service
After=mysql.service

[Service]
# Uncomment the next line if you have repos with lots of files and get a HTTP 500 error because of that
# LimitNOFILE=524288:524288
RestartSec=2s
Type=simple
User=git
Group=git
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/gitea/
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/gitea web --config /etc/gitea/app.ini
Restart=always
Environment=USER=git HOME=/home/git GITEA_WORK_DIR=/var/lib/gitea

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

systemctl enable gitea
systemctl start gitea

The server should run now on port 3000. Access the page to finish the configuration.

Make sure the user git is allowed to connect to the server via SSH (check /etc/ssh/sshd_config for Allowed* entries and compare to the username and group).