Installing Kimai on Arch Linux

Kimai is an open-source time-tracking and invoicing software that is useful for freelancers, small businesses, and enterprises. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Kimai on an Arch Linux system.

Prerequisites

1. Arch Linux system
2. sudo access to execute administrative commands

Steps

1. Open the terminal on your Arch Linux system.
2. Update your system packages by running the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu

3. Install Apache web server and PHP:

sudo pacman -S apache php php-apache

4. Install MariaDB database server using the following command:

sudo pacman -S mariadb

5. Once you have installed MariaDB, start the MariaDB service using the following command:

sudo systemctl start mariadb

6. Secure MariaDB server by running:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

7. Enter a new password for the MariaDB root user and answer "yes" for all other prompts.
8. Download the latest version of Kimai from the official website using the following command:

wget https://github.com/kevinpapst/kimai2/releases/download/1.12.6/kimai-1.12.6.zip

Note: Replace the version number with the latest release available at Kimai releases page 9. Once the download is complete, extract the archive using the following command:

unzip kimai-{version}.zip

10. Rename the extracted directory with "kimai" using the following command:

mv kimai-{version} kimai

11. Move the "kimai" directory to the document root of the Apache server:

sudo mv kimai /srv/http/

12. Change the ownership of the "kimai" directory to the Apache user using the following command:

sudo chown http:http /srv/http/kimai -R

13. Create a database for Kimai using the following command:

sudo mariadb -u root -p

14. Once you are logged in to the MariaDB console, create a new database by running the following command:

CREATE DATABASE kimai;

15. Create a new user and grant privileges to the Kimai database by running the following commands:

CREATE USER 'kimai_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON kimai.* TO 'kimai_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Note: Replace "password" with a strong password for the database user. 16. Configure Kimai by editing the "parameters.yml" file present in the "kimai" directory using the following command:

sudo nano /srv/http/kimai/var/parameters.yml

You will see the following configuration parameters:

parameters:
    database_driver: pdo_mysql
    database_host: host
    database_port: port
    database_name: database
    database_user: username
    database_password: password

Replace the parameters with the following values:

parameters:
    database_driver: pdo_mysql
    database_host: localhost
    database_port: null
    database_name: kimai
    database_user: kimai_user
    database_password: "password"

Note: Replace "password" with the password you set for the "kimai_user" database user in step 15. Save the changes and exit the editor.

17. Install the required PHP extensions for Kimai using the following command:

sudo pacman -S php-gd php-intl php-mysql php-ldap php-xml php-zip

18. Restart the Apache web server to apply the changes using the following command:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

19. Access Kimai from the web browser by navigating to the following URL:

http://your_server_ip/kimai/public/

You will see the Kimai homepage, and you can start tracking your work hours and generating invoices.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Kimai on your Arch Linux system.

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