Installing Koha on Arch Linux

Koha is a free and open-source library management system. It is easy to use and customizable. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps for installing Koha on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation process, you must ensure that you have the following prerequisites installed on your device:

• Arch Linux (latest version)
• LAMP stack
  • Apache
  • MySQL
  • PHP
• Perl
• Git

Note: You can install these prerequisites on your device using the default package manager in Arch Linux (Pacman).

Step 1: Download Koha

Open your terminal and navigate to the directory where you want to install Koha. Then, clone the latest stable version of Koha from the official Koha Community Git repository using the following command:

git clone --branch 21.05 --depth 1 git://git.koha-community.org/koha.git koha-21.05

This command will download the latest stable version of Koha in the koha-21.05 directory.

Step 2: Install Koha dependencies

Before installing Koha, you must ensure that all the dependencies are installed on your device. You can install the dependencies using the following command:

sudo pacman -S perl-crypt-openssl-rsa perl-dbd-mysql perl-json perl-json-xs openssl

Step 3: Configure MySQL for Koha

Koha uses MySQL as its database management system. So you must configure MySQL properly before setting up Koha.

Create a Koha database

Open the MySQL prompt by typing the following command in the terminal:

mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password and press Enter. Then, create a Koha database using the following command:

CREATE DATABASE koha_db;

Create a Koha user

Next, create a new user for Koha in MySQL. Use the following command to create a user named kohauser with a password of your choice:

CREATE USER 'kohauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Note: Replace password with your preferred password.

Grant privileges to the Koha user

Finally, grant all privileges to the kohauser account for the koha_db database using the following command:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON koha_db.* TO 'kohauser'@'localhost';

Exit MySQL

Exit the MySQL prompt by typing the following command:

exit

Step 4: Install Koha

Now that you have completed all the prerequisites and MySQL configuration, you can proceed with Koha installation.

Navigate to the Koha directory using the following command:

cd koha-21.05

Then, run the Koha installation script using the following command:

sudo ./installer/data/mysql/updatedatabase.pl --install_koha --create_db --user kohauser --pass password --verbose

Note: Replace password with the password you set for the kohauser.

The installation process may take several minutes to complete.

Step 5: Configure Koha

After the installation is complete, it's time to configure Koha.

1. Start Koha with the following command:

sudo systemctl start koha-common

2. Configure Apache for Koha. Open the Apache configuration file /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf using your favorite editor and add the following lines at the end of the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName koha
ServerAlias koha.*
DocumentRoot /usr/share/koha/intranet/htdocs
PerlSetEnv KOHA_CONF /etc/koha/sites/koha/koha-conf.xml
    <Directory /usr/share/koha/intranet/htdocs>
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

3. Enable rewrite module for Apache. Type the following command in the terminal:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

4. Restart Apache to apply the changes with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 6: Access Koha

Now that Koha installation and configuration are complete, you can access Koha by typing http://localhost in your browser.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Koha on Arch Linux. You can now use Koha to manage your library's resources. Enjoy!

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