This manual was tested with Debian 7.6. It shows how to set up a simple SQL-Ledger server that runs in a local network. For servers available in the Internet, additional security measures are required.

First you have to download the ISO file of the operating system. Go to the Debian homepage and download the network installation image, or, if you need a DVD with the complete edition, download the DVD ISO image in the 32 or in the 64 bit version, according to your needs.

You can install Linux either on 'real' hardware or in a virtual machine running on your computer.

Existing hardware

To be able to install the operating system, you have to burn the downloaded ISO-file to a CD. Don't copy the file to the CD, choose the ISO burn function in your burning software.

Virtual Machine

To create a virtual server, you can use for example Virtualbox that you get here

Start Virtualbox, click “New”, give your machine the name “SQL-Ledger” and choose Linux and Debian for operating system. You don't need much memory, 256 - 512 MB are enough. For the virtual hard disk, use the default settings, just press next and finish until your disk and server are created. Before you start, you have to change the network settings. Open the network adapter and change it to “Bridged Adapter”. Now you can turn the machine on. The First Run Wizard appears and asks for the installation media. Show him the previously downloaded ISO file.

Turn on your computer with the Linux CD in the drive or the virtual machine with the ISO file connected.

• change the language on the welcome screen
• select Install
• choose your language and location
• change the keyboard layout if it's not US
• set the host name to “my-server” or a name you choose
• add a “root” (administrator) password
• add a user name and its password
• choose “Guided - use entire disk” for partitioning
• accept the proposed partitioning
• say Yes that you want to write changes to disk

Wait some minutes until the basic installation is finished.

• set your user name, account name and password
• don't encrypt your home directory
• you probably don't have to specify an Http proxy
• select no automatic updates
• don't choose software to install, we will make this manually
• install Grub: Yes
• on a real computer, eject the CD, on a virtual machine, disconnect the ISO file.
• select Continue

Now the system restarts.

Login to the server with your user name and password. To be able to install the software, we have to change to the “root” account. In this way, we get administrator rights. Type:

   su

and enter your password. With the following command, we download the SQL-Ledger Network installation script for Linux Debian:

  wget http://www.sql-ledger-network.com/debian/install_ledger123

Next we need to change the user rights for the downloaded file by typing:

  chmod 744 install_ledger123

Now you can install SQL-Ledger and LedgerCart with the following single command:

  bash install_ledger123

The installation needs some time. While installing postfix (the mail server), the system asks you about the mail configuration.

• select “internet site”
• for SMTP relay host, enter the name of your mail server (smtp…)

Now you can call the SQL-Ledger admin interface from your browser at

  http://ip_of_your_server/ledger123/admin.pl
  

and the login screen at

  http://ip_of_your_server/ledger123/login.pl    

If you use another language than English, you may want to install an additional package that supports hyphenation in your language, for example

  apt-get install texlive-lang-german

You get a list of all available language packs with:

  apt-cache search texlive-lang

CUPS is the printing system for Linux. You have to install it if the SQL-Ledger server should be able to print to printers in your network.

  apt-get install cups hplip hpijs cups-driver-gutenprint
  cupsctl --remote-admin
  

Now you can call from your browser the CUPS web interface at

  https://ip_of_your_server:631
  

and add your printer. Remember the name you give to your printer. Then open sql-ledger.conf

  nano /usr/local/sql-ledger.conf
  

and move to “# available printers”. There you see an example of two printers. Replace them with your own printer or printers. The name on the left side is the name you will see in SQL-Ledger, the one on the right side immediately after -P is the name by which the printer is known to the operating system.

There are some additional components that make working with the SQL-Ledger server more comfortable.

Samba is a file server for Windows PCs. If you install it, you are able to connect to the server with its name instead of the IP address from your Windows computer.

  apt-get install samba
  

If you followed our example and work on Windows, you can click on the following link to connect to your server:

  http://my-server/sql-ledger
  

If you chose another name, use

  http://another_name/sql-ledger
  

SQL-Ledger can use different printers to print its documents. If you want print to shared printers connected to Windows workstations, install:

  apt-get install samba-client
  

Linux probably has no driver for your Windows printer. In this case use WLprinter.

Webmin is a web based administration interface for Linux. It is very convenient for a lot of administration tasks. The following code is for 1.580, you may have to change the version number. Check the actual version at the Webmin homepage .

  cd /tmp
  wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.710_all.deb
  apt-get install libapt-pkg-perl apt-show-versions libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl
  dpkg --install webmin_1.710_all.deb
  If you have installed the Samba server, Webmin is now available at

   https://my-server:10000
   

The Webmin server needs some instants (10 seconds or more) to start up. Just wait until the login screen appears and log in with your Linux user name and password.

In the default configuration, your server gets its IP address dynamically via DHCP. This address may change from time to time. You probably want to give it a fixed address, so you can access it always in the same way.

If you open the config file with

  nano /etc/network/interfaces
  

it looks like this:

  # The primary network interface
  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet dhcp
  

If you want to give your server the fixed address 192.168.1.10 and your internet router has the address 192.168.1.1, you have to change the file the following way:

  iface eth0 inet static
      address 192.168.1.10
      netmask 255.255.255.0
      broadcast 192.168.1.255
      network 192.168.1.0
      gateway 192.168.1.1
      

With this change, the server looses the possibility to configure the name servers automatically. Many routers work as name servers, so in most cases it's enough to type:

  echo "nameserver 192.168.1.1" > /etc/resolv.conf
  

After that, restart the network services with

  /etc/init.d/networking restart
  

If you installed Webmin, you can make these changes in the Networking–Network Configuration tab.