Build your own PRIVATE search engine - Using SearXNG¶

Setup a server running Ubuntu 20.04 or Debian 11

We was using Debian 11 in a Container hosted in Proxmox

Login as root and update.

apt install && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Install docker-compose

apt install docker-compose -y

Now we can move to the directory where we want to install Searx and using git
NOTE: if you don’t have git installed install it – apt install git

cd /usr/local
git clone https://github.com/searxng/searxng-docker.git

Verify that it copied correctly in to your current directory

ls

Now change in to the new directory

cd searxng-docker

adjust the content of the .env file

nano .env

Add you host name to SEARXING_HOSTNAME= your_host_name_here

If you want to use a SSL remove the # on the LETSENCRYPT= <email> and add you email address

exit the file using Ctrl+X hit “Y” and then “Enter”

Run this command to generate a key

sed -i “s|ultrasecretkey|$(openssl rand -hex 32) |g” searxng/settings.yml

Now to start SearX run this command

sudo docker-compose up -d

If you want to auto restart your on a reboot you will need to edit the docker-compose.yaml file

nano docker-compose.yaml

Add

add restart: always

after the following

environment:
– SEARXNG_HOSTNAME=${SEARXNG_HOSTNAME:-http://localhost:80}
– SEARXNG_TLS=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL:-internal}

..

tmpfs:
– /var/lib/redis
..

environment:
– SEARXNG_BASE_URL=https://${SEARXNG_HOSTNAME:-localhost}/

now restart SearX

sudo docker-compose up -d