These instructions assume that you are starting with a clean installation of Ubuntu. If you already have an Ubuntu server, you will be able to skip some steps, but you may have to reconfigure
some existing software.
Getting Started
Install Ubuntu. These instructions were originally written with Ubuntu Server Edition 10.04 LTS in mind, but they should also work on other versions with little or no modification. They have
most recently been tested with version 12.10. You can obtain a free copy of the software and find installation instructions at www.ubuntu.com [http://www.ubuntu.com/]. You do not need to install
any special packages during the install process to get VuFind working.
If the dist-upgrade doesn't produce any results, you might want to try this command first:
sudo apt-get update
After installing patches, you should probably reboot your system so that everything can take effect:
If you do not have all of VuFind's dependencies installed already, dpkg will fail with an error message. You can correct this problem by installing the missing requirements using apt-get:
sudo apt-get install -f
If this fails to install everything you need, you may also want to try installing packages individually like this:
sudo apt-get install [package from dpkg error message]
If necessary, repeat the process of attempting a dpkg installation and installing missing dependencies with apt-get until dpkg is successful. You will know the installation was successful because you
will be prompted for database information by VuFind's installation script.
If you need to install MySQL, you will be prompted for a root password during installation. For better security, it is a good idea to set this; if you do, be sure you remember it so you can
configure VuFind to access the database later.
If you are a Voyager library, you will also need to install the PHP OCI Driver for Oracle see this page for detailed instructions.
If you will be accessing a Sybase database (e.g. for the Horizon LMS), you should also install the php5-sybase package using apt-get.
You will need to answer some prompts during the installation process. If you use a graphical package manager rather than the command line tool, you may not be able to see these prompts
unless you open a Terminal window. For this reason, it is recommended that you use the command line method as described above.
You may see some minor errors and warnings while everything gets set up this is normal, so don't panic!
If, for some reason, you need to remove the package, you can issue this command (note that -P is for purge and will remove configuration files as well as executable components; use -r for a
more cautious removal): sudo dpkg -P vufind
Once everything is set up, you should have a working copy of VuFind in /usr/local/vufind. You may want to restart your system one more time to be sure all the new settings are in place, then
you can proceed to Configuring and Starting VuFind below to finish setup and get things running!
Detailed Installation Instructions
Following these steps will give you a running instance of VuFind. Note that if you already followed the steps above to install VuFind from the DEB package, you can skip this entire section!
After installing patches, you should probably reboot your system so that everything can take effect:
sudo shutdown -r now
3. Install MySQL
VuFind uses the MySQL database for storing user comments, tags and other information. You should install this component next:
Note: During installation, you will be prompted for a MySQL root password. For better security, it is a good idea to set this; if you do, be sure you remember it so you can configure VuFind to
access the database later.
Note: If you would like to do web-based administration of your database, you may also find it helpful to install the phpmyadmin tool: sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
4. Install PHP
Most of VuFind is written using the PHP language. We must install this next, being sure to enable modules for key technologies used by VuFind (MySQL, LDAP, etc.)
sudo apt-get -y install php5 php5-dev php-pear php5-ldap php5-mysql php5-xsl php5-pspell php5-gd
Note that the php5-ldap library is only needed if you will be using LDAP authentication, and the php5-pspell library is not used at all but might feature in future spelling-related enhancements; you
can exclude these packages if you like. The php5-gd package is also optional, though including it will ensure better support for cover images. PHP's mbstring library is strongly recommended, but
as of this writing, it appears to be automatically included in the php5-dev package.
If you are a Voyager library, you will also need to install the PHP OCI Driver for Oracle see this page for detailed instructions.
If you will be accessing a Sybase database (e.g. for the Horizon LMS), also install php5-sybase:
sudo apt-get -y install php5-sybase
Note: These instructions used to recommend using the Sun JDK (package: sun-java6-jdk) rather than the default. However, sun-java6-jdk is harder to install in Ubuntu 10.x and higher, and the default JDK seems to work just
as well.
Note: You can run the Jetty server with the JRE, but in order to ensure that your server can run with the -server to enable server heuristics, you need to install the JDK.
6. Download VuFind
All the prerequisites are in place, so now for the fun part downloading and installing VuFind itself! The easiest method is through the Subversion tool, so these steps install Subversion and use it
to load VuFind:
Note that we download VuFind to the tmp directory and then move it into place as a second step this prevents it from being loaded with root ownership, which can cause permission
problems.
If you prefer not to use Subversion, you can also download the software from the downloads page [http://www.vufind.org/downloads.php] and unpack it manually.
Apache needs to have write access to some of the VuFind subdirectories these commands set that up:
8. Install VuFind
The groundwork is set, so you can now run VuFind's install script to set up final details. This will prompt you for database settings; most can be left at their defaults. Now is when you'll need to
remember the root MySQL password if you set one up earlier. You may see some minor errors and warnings while everything gets set up this is normal, so don't panic!
cd /usr/local/vufind
sudo /usr/local/vufind/install
Scripts for running and updating VuFind need to be made executable so they can run from the command line:
Note: If you are using the Sun JVM instead of the default JVM, your JAVA_HOME path should actually be /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun.
After editing /etc/profile, you must reload it for the changes to take effect:
source /etc/profile
1. Configure VuFind
The software is installed, but you still need to configure it with things like your site's base URL and keys for various third-party services. Edit the /usr/local/vufind/web/conf/config.ini file to
personalize VuFind for your library. The configuration file contains comments that should help you along the way.
You can use any text editor; if you are new to this, you might find Nano relatively easy (it's not beautiful, but at least the command reference is visible on the screen!):
sudo nano /usr/local/vufind/web/conf/config.ini
If you used a non-standard install directory (not /usr/local/vufind), you should also edit import/import.properties to adjust paths. If you plan to load authority records, the same thing needs to be
done in import/import_auth.properties.
2. Start VuFind
To start VuFind:
cd /usr/local/vufind/
./vufind.sh start
For more information on managing the operation of the VuFind server, including how to make it start automatically, see the Starting and Stopping Solr page.
3. Import Records
VuFind won't do much good without any data see the indexing page for more details on loading your content into the system.
5. Mail Issues
If you are unable to use text this and email this try installing: