How to Install Crater on Elementary OS Latest

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Crater, an open-source and self-hosted invoicing system on Elementary OS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before you begin with the installation, make sure your system meets the following requirements:

• A user account with sudo privileges
• Apache or Nginx web server installed and running
• PHP 7.2 or higher along with extensions (curl, mbstring, xml, zip, gd)
• Composer and Node.js installed
• MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL database server installed and configured

Step 1: Install Required Packages

To install the required packages, you can run the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git curl zip unzip apache2 libapache2-mod-php composer nodejs npm php-gd php-mbstring php-zip php-xml php-curl php-mysql php-pgsql

Step 2: Configure Apache

Enable Required Modules

To enable the required Apache modules, run the following commands:

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2enmod headers
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Configure Virtual Host

Create a virtual host configuration file for Crater:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/crater.conf

Add the following configuration to the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName your-domain.com
    ServerAlias www.your-domain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/crater/public

    <Directory /var/www/html/crater/public>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/crater_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/crater_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain name. Save and close the file.

Activate the virtual host:

sudo a2ensite crater.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 3: Install and Configure Crater

Clone Crater Repository

Clone the Crater repository:

cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone https://github.com/bytefury/crater.git
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data crater

Install Dependencies

Change to the crater directory and install dependencies:

cd crater
sudo composer install --no-dev
sudo npm install

Create .env File

Create a .env file:

sudo cp .env.example .env

Edit .env file:

sudo nano .env

Edit the following entries:

APP_NAME="Crater"
APP_URL=http://your-domain.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=crater
DB_USERNAME=your-db-username
DB_PASSWORD=your-db-password

Replace your-db-username and your-db-password with your actual database credentials.

Generate an application key:

sudo php artisan key:generate

Migrate Database Schema

Migrate database schema:

sudo php artisan migrate --seed

Set Permissions

Set the required permissions to the storage and bootstrap/cache directories:

sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache

Step 4: Access Crater

Navigate to http://your-domain.com in your web browser to access Crater. You will be prompted to create a new admin account.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Crater on Elementary OS Latest.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!