Easy steps to Install koha on Ubuntu/Debian

koha is an open-source integrated library management system that is used worldwide for various types of libraries. We can install It on any Linux distribution e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint, etc. Just download the ISO file of any Linux distro from the website. Make a bootable pen drive and install it on your computer system.

Follow the below steps to install Koha LMS:-

Login as a root user

sudo su 

(Enter root password)

Update and upgrade the system

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade -y

Add Koha community repository to install the old stable version ( Replace oldstable with stable to install the latest version)

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/koha-keyring.gpg] https://debian.koha-community.org/koha oldstable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/koha.list'

Add Repository key

sudo sh -c 'wget -qO - https://debian.koha-community.org/koha/gpg.asc | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/koha-keyring.gpg'

Update Software Repository

apt-get update

Install  Koha 

sudo apt-get install koha-common

Server Configuration

Open the following file and make a change to the port numbers

sudo gedit /etc/koha/koha-sites.conf

INTRAPORT="8001"

OPACPORT="8000"

Install MariaDB server

sudo apt install -y mariadb-server 

Enter the password if asked during installation. If the password window does not appear, apply the following command to secure the MariaDB server

sudo mysqladmin -u root password koha@123

(In the above command koha@123 is the password, you can replace it with a suitable password)      

Koha instance creation 

Apply the following commands to set up Apache configuration files.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo a2enmod cgi

sudo service apache2 restart

Create a Koha instance named library

sudo koha-create --create-db library

Open the following file and assign the port number for the Koha staff client and OPAC

 sudo gedit /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Paste the following line below Listen 80

Listen 80
Listen 8000

Listen 8001

Restart the Apache server 

sudo service apache2 restart

Enable modules and sites 

sudo a2dissite 000-default

sudo a2enmod deflate

sudo a2ensite library

sudo service apache2 restart

Enable and start Plack for performance improvement (Enable only if you have sufficient RAM in your machine)

sudo koha-plack --enable library

sudo koha-plack --start library

Get the default koha password 

sudo koha-passwd library

Password will display in the terminal, copy and paste into the login interface of the koha staff client.

Open the following URL in the browser and complete the web installer steps

http://localhost:8001 or  http://127.0.0.1:8001

Enter the username (koha_library) and password (to get the password run the command "sudo koha-passwd library") and follow the further instructions for the koha configuration. Next Complete the installation process by creating the library, super librarian account, item type, etc.

URL for OPAC

http://localhost:8000 or http://127.0.0.1:8000

References:- https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_on_Debian

https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_on_ubuntu_-_packages