Koha is a free and open-source Integrated Library System (ILS) used widely by libraries and other organizations worldwide. Installing Koha on Pop! OS, a popular Linux distribution, can offer a range of features for managing library operations. This tutorial will guide you through the step-by-step process of installing Koha on Pop! OS.
Koha is a web-based application that requires a web server to run. In this case, we will use Apache, the most commonly used web server to host Koha. Run the following commands to install the web server:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2
Koha requires a database to store and manage its data. We will use MariaDB, a community-developed fork of MySQL, to install and manage the database. Run the following commands to install MariaDB:
sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo mysql_secure_installation
This will launch the MariaDB security script, which will prompt you to set up the root password and other security settings.
With the web server and database installed and running, we can now install Koha itself. Run the following command to add the Koha repository:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys D2C4F65E
sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://ubuntu.koha-community.org/ubuntu koha main'
After adding the repository, run the following command to update the package manager's repository list:
sudo apt-get update
Next, install Koha using the following command:
sudo apt-get install koha-common
Once the installation is complete, we need to configure Koha to make it functional. The koha-create command is used to create a Koha instance.
Run the following command to configure Koha:
sudo koha-create --create-db library
This will create a Koha instance named "library". You can replace "library" with any other name you prefer.
Once Koha is installed and configured, you can access it using a web browser. Type http://localhost/library into your web browser address bar (or replace "library" with the name of the instance you created in the previous step).
You should now see the Koha login screen. By default, the username is koha_library and the password is koha_library.
After logging in, you can customize Koha to match your specific library's needs.
Congratulations! You've successfully installed Koha on Pop! OS Latest.
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