Installing LedgerSMB 1.3 Series (Open Source Accounting/ERP Application) On Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

By Frans van der Star (f.van.der.star [at] gmail [dot] com)
Date: 21-10-2011

This tutorial explains how to install LedgerSMB 1.3 on an Ubuntu 11.10 system. LedgerSMB is an open source financial accounting and ERP program. As of 1.3, it offers solid AR, AP, and GL tracking as well as inventory control and fixed assets handling.

Used tarball: ledgersmb-1.3.1.tar.gz

1. Preliminary Notes

The installation took place on an “empty” fresh installed basic system Ubuntu 11.10 DESKTOP.

The IP address used is 127.0.0.1 = localhost.

This tutorial is only for LedgerSMB 1.3 series.

For the 1.2 versions please refer to https://www.howtoforge.com/ledgersmb_debian_etch of which author is Falko Timme: Installing LedgerSMB (Open Source Accounting Application) on Debian Etch.

Only with this remark that libmd5-perl is not in the repositories anymore. Hereunder you will find how to download and install this Perl-module.

Thanks to Falko I could explore LedgerSMB in the beginning. Evidently I would like to thank also Chris Travers (www.ledgersmb.org) who has assisted me a lot.

Of course there is no guarantee that this will work in general terms.

This instruction is made with the intention that you can copy and paste the commands into the terminal. In case of sudo commands your password will be asked.

The same goes for the needed changes in some configuration files; evidently the changes in those files have to be done manually.

2. Installation Of Required Perl Modules And Required Texlive Modules

sudo apt-get install libdata-dumper-simple-perl perl-modules liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl libdbi-perl libdbd-pg-perl libconfig-any-perl libmime-lite-perl libhtml-linkextractor-perl libnet-tclink-perl libparse-recdescent-perl libmodule-build-perl libperl5.12 libuuid-perl liblocale-gettext-perl libyaml-tiny-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtext-charwidth-perl libmodule-install-perl liblatex-driver-perl

(This is one command.)

There are another three modules to be installed, the first two (SOURCE: Falko Timme):

libclass-std-perl
libconfig-std-perl

But they are not in the repositories. First both should be done by downloading from Sourceforge:

cd /tmp
wget http://mesh.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ledger-smb/deb-prereq-1.2.8.tar.gz
tar xvfz deb-prereq-1.2.8.tar.gz
cd deb-prereq-1.2
sudo dpkg -i libclass-std-perl_0.0.8-1_all.deb libconfig-std-perl_0.0.4-1_all.deb

The last one is:

libmd5-perl

This is to be downloaded from Debian:

cd /tmp
wget http://ftp.debian.org/pool/main/libm/libmd5-perl/libmd5-perl_2.03-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i libmd5-perl_2.03-1_all.deb

In connection with the above mentioned installed Perl modules a few texlive modules should be installed also. I would like to emphasize if those are not installed Perl will not work with the LedgerSMB!!!

sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-extra texlive-latex-extra-doc texlive-lang-all texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended texlive texlive-doc-en

This could take long time (700MB)!!!

Unfortunately one needed Texlive-module is not in the repositories:

texlive-generetic-extra

This is going to be downloaded from Ubuntu: http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/texlive-generic-extra

Just copy and paste this in your browser in order to enter this website. Under the page you will see this: "Download texlive-generic-extra" and go to
"all" under "architecture", then choose a "site" (a lot) for download and choose save.

In order to install this do the following:

cd ~/Downloads
sudo dpkg -i texlive-generic-extra_2009-7ubuntu3_all.deb

3. Installation Of Apache

sudo apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils libexpat1 ssl-cert build-essential

4. Installation Of LedgerSMB 1.3

As stated before this tutorial is only for the LedgerSMB 1.3 series. For the 1.2 series would like to refer to my preliminary notes in 1. For the most actual version please consult:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ledger-smb/files/ledgersmb/

cd /tmp
wget http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ledger-smb/ledgersmb-1.3.1.tar.gz (At the moment, 19-10-2011, most recent version)
tar xvfz ledgersmb-1.3.1.tar.gz
sudo mv ledgersmb /usr/local/

5. Configuration Modifications And Commands Which Enable Connection Of LedgerSMB Including Perl Modules With Apache Server

In order to get full access to Apache:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/local/ledgersmb

In order for the Apache server to work it should be connected with the appropriate config-files:

sudo sed -e "s|WORKING_DIR|$PWD|g" /usr/local/ledgersmb/ledgersmb-httpd.conf.template > /etc/apache2/conf.d/ledgersmb-httpd.conf.template

Then the Apache server should operate in "rewrite" mode:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart of Apache is needed:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Some modifications of the configuration files are needed:

sudo mv /usr/local/ledgersmb/ledgersmb.conf.default /usr/local/ledgersmb/ledgersmb.conf

sudo gedit /usr/local/ledgersmb/install.sh

Change in line 22 ledgersmb-httpd.conf into ledgersmb-httpd.conf.template

AND

Change in line 24 ledgersmb-httpd.conf into ledgersmb-httpd.conf.template

Restart of Apache is needed:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

5. Installation Of The Perl Files In LedgerSMB

cd /usr/local/ledgersmb

sudo perl Makefile.PL

sudo make

This can take a long time.

Before we make test we have to install the Latex Perl module; otherwise test will fail:

sudo cpan Template::Latex

This can take long time and at the end you will see PASS

sudo make test

During the three processes three questions will be asked. Just hit Enter!

6. Installation Of The Perl Files LedgerSMB Put On Apache

cd /usr/local/ledgersmb

sudo sh install.sh

During this process similar as the previous ones three questions will be asked. Just hit Enter!

At the end:

You will be asked two questions:

Which user does your web server run as?

Type this: www-data no space!!

Where do we copy the ledgersmb-httpd.conf.template file to?

Type this: /etc/apache2/conf.d no space!!