dhis2-devs team mailing list archive

[Knut Staring <knutst@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Bob,

I don't know how many people are currently interested in running DHIS2 on
Ubuntu, but I don't think it is negligible, and I would like to see it
increase. The reason this came up now, is that I have been trying to guide
people in Malawi over IM, not an efficient process. Installation needs to be
made as easy as possible - preferably also in "standalone" conditions, i.e.
where you bring a USB stick or CD to a computer with no or sloooow internet
connection. We should not require end users to have to touch the command
line or know about config files.

There are several approaches, and we could offer more than one:

0) Write out the steps (including for Postgres and Mysql) in a clear and
easy to follow manner, prominently displayed on dhis2.org

1) An installer that basically just unzips everything you need. This was
done already 3-4 years ago in Kerala by Øystein, using BitRock (he also made
a CD image that installed DHIS2 and Mysql on Windows, then created a
partition for Linux, installed the very lightweight http://wolvix.org/ distro
with Tomcat and pointed it to the same Mysql database on the Windows
partition).

2) A more conventional installer using IzPack that does what is required

3) "meta-debs" as you suggest

4) Provide downloadable Ubuntu virtual machines images with everything
nicely set up

My take is that I could do 0) right now, 3) could follow when you have some
time, and 4) perhaps longer term.

Knut



On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:08 PM, Bob Jolliffe <bobjolliffe@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> The deb package as it is currently is set up with dependencies on java and
> tomcat (so they will be triggered to install if necessary).  By default it
> will just run out of the box using an h2 database in /opt/dhis2/database.
>
> I held off on the postgres dependency because I know there are also mysql
> users out there so it didn't seem right to make it a dependency.  So
> currently you would be required to:
>
> 1.  install dhis2 from deb
> 2.  install postgres (apt-get install )
> 3.  configure hibernate.properties manually
>
> I guess what would be useful hand-holding would be to have a dhis2-postgres
> meta package which does the above three, though I'm not sure entirely how to
> handle dependencies where dhis2 is not yet available from ubuntu
> repositories.  Basically this would just contain just the
> hibernate.properties and the dependency information.  A dhis2-mysql package
> would look very similar.
>
> One solution would be to host the debs in a repository on dhis2.org.  Then
> it would just be a case of getting users to add http://dhis2.org to their
> software sources.
>
> A simpler (and much uglier) solution is to create dhis2-postgres as an
> alternative version of dhis2 package with the exception that this has the
> webapp as well as the postgres dependency and hibernate.properties
>
> Cheers
> Bob
>
> PS.  How real is the use case.  ie is it worth putting effort into this?  I
> didn't get the sense that there was too much interest in the deb.  It seems
> to be a useful little curiosity.
>
> 2010/1/28 Ola Hodne Titlestad <olatitle@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi,
>>
>> I think it would be really useful to have a .deb package that is set up to
>> use postgres out of the box.
>>
>> Ideally the DHIS deb install process should trigger installs of any other
>> needed packages, like java, tomcat, postgres. Would that be possible?
>>
>> Ola
>> ----------
>>
>> 2010/1/28 Knut Staring <knutst@xxxxxxxxx>
>>
>>>  There is some good info at
>>> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs-core/dhis2/trunk/annotate/head:/tools/dhis2deb/Readme.txt<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Edhis2-devs-core/dhis2/trunk/annotate/head:/tools/dhis2deb/Readme.txt>
>>>
>>> But it is hidden away in an obscure place and not complete enough to be
>>> truly helpful for an installation - unlike the DHIS2 Live or  IzPack
>>> installers we have for Windows.
>>>
>>> k
>>>
>>> 2010/1/28 Lars Helge Øverland <larshelge@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> See dhis2/tools/dhis2deb/Readme.txt in the repo.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Cheers,
>>> Knut Staring
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs<https://launchpad.net/%7Edhis2-devs>
>>> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs<https://launchpad.net/%7Edhis2-devs>
>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs<https://launchpad.net/%7Edhis2-devs>
>> Post to     : dhis2-devs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs<https://launchpad.net/%7Edhis2-devs>
>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>
>>
>


-- 
Cheers,
Knut Staring