How to Install FreeScout on MXLinux Latest

FreeScout is an open-source help desk system designed to help businesses manage customer support requests. With FreeScout, businesses can keep track of tickets, assign them to agents, and provide timely responses to customers, all in one place.

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing FreeScout on MXLinux Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we start with the installation process, you should ensure that you have the following:

Step 1: Update the System Packages

Before installing any new software, it's always a good idea to update the system packages to ensure that you have the latest security patches and bug fixes.

To update the system packages, log in to your server using an SSH client and run the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

This command will update the list of available packages and upgrade any existing packages to their latest versions.

Step 2: Install Apache and PHP

FreeScout requires a web server and PHP to run. In this step, we will install Apache and PHP on our server.

To install Apache and PHP, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install apache2 php php-cli php-curl php-mysql php-json -y

This command will install Apache and PHP, along with the necessary modules.

Step 3: Install MariaDB

FreeScout requires a database to store customer support tickets and other data. In this step, we will install MariaDB, a popular open-source database server.

To install MariaDB, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client -y

During the installation process, you will be prompted to set a root password for MariaDB. Choose a strong password and remember it, as you will need it to log in to the database server later.

Step 4: Create a Database and User for FreeScout

Now that we have installed MariaDB, we need to create a new database and user for FreeScout.

To do this, log in to MariaDB by running the following command:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password when prompted to log in to the database server.

Next, create a new database by running the following command:

CREATE DATABASE freescout_db;

This command will create a new database named freescout_db.

Next, create a new user and grant them access to the new database by running the following commands:

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

Replace 'password' with a strong password of your choice for the new user.

Step 5: Install FreeScout

We can now proceed with installing FreeScout.

First, go to the FreeScout GitHub page at https://github.com/freescout-helpdesk/freescout and download the latest release package in ZIP format.

Next, extract the ZIP package to the /var/www/html directory by running the following command:

sudo unzip Freescout-*.zip -d /var/www/html/

This will extract the contents of the ZIP archive to the /var/www/html/freescout directory.

Next, set the correct ownership and permissions for the FreeScout files by running the following commands:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/freescout/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/freescout/

These commands will set the Apache web server user (www-data) as the owner of the FreeScout files and set the appropriate permissions for them.

Step 6: Configure FreeScout

We need to configure FreeScout to connect to the MariaDB database we created earlier.

To do this, navigate to the /var/www/html/freescout/.env file and open it in a text editor. This file contains various configuration options for FreeScout, including the database connection settings.

Find the following lines in the .env file:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=homestead
DB_USERNAME=homestead
DB_PASSWORD=secret

Replace these lines with the following:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=freescout_db
DB_USERNAME=freescout_user
DB_PASSWORD=password

Replace 'password' with the password you chose for the freescout_user database user earlier.

Save and close the file when you're done.

Step 7: Access FreeScout

Now that we have installed and configured FreeScout, we can access the web interface.

Open a web browser and navigate to the URL http://<your server's IP address>/freescout/public. You should see the FreeScout login page.

Log in with the default username and password: admin / admin. You should change the password as soon as possible after logging in.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed FreeScout on MXLinux Latest.

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