Gibbon is an open-source School Information System designed for schools of all levels from primary to tertiary institutions. In this tutorial, we will explain how to install Gibbon on the FreeBSD operating system.
Before we start the installation process, make sure you have:
Once you have all of the above set up, you can proceed with installing Gibbon.
Before installing Gibbon, you need to install some dependencies required for its installation on FreeBSD. Execute the following command on your FreeBSD shell to install these packages using the pkg package manager.
sudo pkg install php74 php74-mysqli php74-zip php74-json php74-gd php74-mbstring
You are required to install Git version control system on your FreeBSD server to download Gibbon from Github. Execute the following command on your FreeBSD shell to install Git:
sudo pkg install git
Use the following command on your FreeBSD shell to clone Gibbon from its Github repository in your Document Root folder:
cd /usr/local/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/GibbonEdu/core.git gibbon
In this step, we will download and install all required dependencies using the Composer Dependency Manager. Navigate to your Gibbon directory and use the Composer command to install the dependencies:
sudo cd /usr/local/www/gibbon
sudo composer install
Next, you need to configure the database by creating a new database, user, and assigning privileges. Start by logging in to your MariaDB or MySQL instance.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Once you are logged in, create a new database, user, and grant privileges to the user on the newly created database:
MariaDB > CREATE DATABASE gibbon;
MariaDB > CREATE USER 'gibbonuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
MariaDB > GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON gibbon.* TO 'gibbonuser'@'localhost';
MariaDB > FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Before using Gibbon, you need to configure its configuration file, located in the config folder. Copy the config_example.php file to the config.php file using the following command:
sudo cp /usr/local/www/gibbon/config/config_example.php /usr/local/www/gibbon/config/config.php
Edit the config.php file with your preferred text editor.
sudo nano /usr/local/www/gibbon/config/config.php
Update the database configuration section with your newly created database details:
//Database Connectivity
$_SESSION["databaseHost"] = "localhost";
$_SESSION["databaseDatabase"] = "gibbon";
$_SESSION["databaseUser"] = "gibbonuser";
$_SESSION["databasePassword"] = "password";
Save the config.php file and exit.
Gibbon requires a virtual host configuration to get it up and running. Here's an example configuration for an Apache web server:
sudo nano /usr/local/etc/apache24/Includes/gibbon.conf
And add the following configuration details:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName gibbon.local
DocumentRoot /usr/local/www/gibbon/
<Directory "/usr/local/www/gibbon/">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Save and exit the file.
Restart Apache to apply the new configuration. Use the following command:
sudo service apache24 restart
Access Gibbon School Information System by visiting your server’s IP address or domain name in your web browser.
http://your_ip_address_or_domain_name/
Follow the prompts to setup Gibbon, setup the initial admin account, and configure your preferences.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Gibbon on FreeBSD. You can now use the power packed School Information System to your advantage.
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