How to Install Redmine on Arch Linux

In this tutorial, we will be exploring how to install redmine on Arch Linux. Redmine is a popular project management and issue tracking tool written in Ruby on Rails.

Prerequisites

Before we start the installation process, make sure you have an Arch Linux machine and follow the below prerequisites.

• Basic understanding of Linux terminal commands
• sudo access to the machine
• A web server (e.g. Apache or Nginx) installed and running on your Arch Linux system.

Step 1: Update System

Make sure your Arch Linux system is updated to the latest packages by running the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Redmine is built on Ruby on Rails and requires different dependencies. Run the following command to install necessary dependencies.

sudo pacman -S ruby mariadb mariadb-clients mariadb-libs ruby-rdoc rubygems git

Step 3: Install Redmine

Run the following commands to download and extract the Redmine archive.

cd /var/www/
sudo mkdir redmine
sudo chown -R http:http redmine/
sudo -u http git clone https://github.com/redmine/redmine.git

Step 4: Database Configuration

After installing Redmine, you need to configure a database for Redmine. MariaDB is the recommended database for Redmine. Run the following command to install MariaDB:

sudo pacman -S mariadb

After installing MariaDB, start the MariaDB service using systemctl:

sudo systemctl start mariadb

Set the root password for MariaDB:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create a new MySQL database for Redmine:

sudo mysql -u root -p
create database redmine character set utf8;
create user 'redmine'@'localhost' identified by 'mypassword';
grant all privileges on redmine.* to 'redmine'@'localhost';
quit

Step 5: Configure Redmine

Refer to the config/database.yml.example file and create a database.yml file with the MySQL database configuration details.

cd redmine/config
sudo cp database.yml.example database.yml
sudo vi database.yml

Update the following lines in database.yml:

production:
  adapter: mysql2
  database: redmine
  host: localhost
  username: redmine
  password: "mypassword"
  encoding: utf8

Step 6: Install and Configure Passenger

Run the below commands to install Passenger on the Arch Linux machine.

sudo pacman -S passenger
sudo rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
sudo touch /etc/nginx/conf.d/redmine.conf
sudo chown -R http:http /etc/nginx/conf.d/redmine.conf
sudo chmod -R g+w /etc/nginx/conf.d/redmine.conf
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/conf.d/redmine.conf /opt/redmine/redmine.conf
sudo passenger-install-nginx-module

When asked for the installation directory, set it to /opt/redmine. Press ENTER to continue.

Next, you will be asked to add the following lines to your Nginx configuration file.

http {
  passenger_root /usr/share/ruby/vendor_ruby/phusion_passenger/locations.ini;
  passenger_ruby /usr/bin/passenger_free_ruby;
}

Add the above lines to your Nginx configuration file.

sudo vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Then, add the following to the bottom of the http block:

include /var/www/redmine/redmine.conf;

To ensure that the current user, http, can write to the required directories, run:

sudo chown -R http:http /opt/redmine
sudo chmod -R g+w /opt/redmine

Step 7: Start Nginx and Test Redmine

Run the below command to start Nginx:

sudo systemctl start nginx

Now, navigate to http://localhost/ and you should see the following message:

Information
--------------
Congratulations, you have just installed Redmine!

...

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored how to install Redmine on Arch Linux. We hope the tutorial was helpful, and now you can successfully install and configure Redmine on Arch Linux.

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