EPIM using Ubuntu Server 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

[Oceanwatcher]

Installing EPIM on Ubuntu Server 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

First of all:

My server is set up in a "sequre" environment. This means that it is behind a firewall and there are no ports forwarded to any machines behind the firewall. So I am a little less concerned with security on this server than if it had been accessible from the internet.

I already have a functional LAMP setup as well as DNS (bind9), ftp (proftpd) and Samba running.

The server has not been changed in any way (recompiled libraries etc.) so everything can be updated without any fear of overwriting customizations.

Also, it is headless and I am controlling it by using PuTTy ( http://www.putty.org/ ) on a Windows XP machine. I can upload files to the server either by placing them in a shared folder via Samba, or I can upload the files via ftp to any folder I have permissions in. I assume you already have a working copy of EPIM on the Windows PC and that you have a network key registered.

Most of the stuff in this section has been taken from the guide at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Firebird2.1 and some things has been taken from this guide: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5078&p=21300&hilit=debian#p21300 and then some things have been found out the hard way by trial and error

In all flavors of Ubuntu, it is not recommended to enable the root account. Instead you can either run a command as root by putting the word sudo at the beginning of the command, or you can assume the role of root for this session by issuing

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sudo su

You will then be asked for the password (the password for the user you are logged in as, provided you are allowed to become root). For this installation, I recommend you use this option.

We can now get to work.

First of all we need to install Firebird SQL server:

The Firebird2.1 package (version 2.1.1) for Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10, Hardy 8.04, Gutsy 7.10, Feisty 7.04, Dapper 6.06 is located into the ppa repository - https://launchpad.net/~mapopa/+archive

The repository must be added into sources.list , Here is the example for Ubuntu Server 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). I prefer to use pico/nano instead of gedit to edit textfiles via the commandline.

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pico /etc/apt/sources.list

and you should add these lines

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deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mapopa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mapopa/ubuntu intrepid main

Then you need to update the cache repository

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apt-get update

Here is how you can inspect the firebird2.1 related packages

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apt-cache search firebird2.1-*

install the super server package (you will be asked about the SYSDBA password and what service to enable :Super Server or Classic ) Choose Super Server.

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apt-get install firebird2.1-super

Or install Classic if you have more than one cpu (dual core or SMP machine) and want SMP support

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apt-get install firebird2.1-classic

I got a couple of warnings that these packages could not be verified, but chose to ignore that by continuing.

You need to configure the package after it is installed

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dpkg-reconfigure firebird2.1-super

Install the examples and dev files

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apt-get install firebird2.1-examples firebird2.1-dev

The employee.fdb archive will be under /usr/share/doc/firebird2.1-examples/examples/empbuild/ and we need to move it to the dir where Firebird will have it's databases:

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cd /usr/share/doc/firebird2.1-examples/examples/empbuild/
gunzip employee.fdb.gz
chown firebird.firebird employee.fdb
mv employee.fdb /var/lib/firebird/2.1/data/

Now we can connect to the database

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isql-fb

SQL> connect "/var/lib/firebird/2.1/data/employee.fdb " user 'SYSDBA' password 'SYSDBApassword';

and you can check the server version and the tables

SQL> show tables;
       COUNTRY                                CUSTOMER
       DEPARTMENT                             EMPLOYEE
       EMPLOYEE_PROJECT                       JOB
       PROJECT                                PROJ_DEPT_BUDGET
       SALARY_HISTORY                         SALES

SQL> show version;
SQL> quit
CON>; 

I had some difficulties getting my normal prompt back and too impatient to Google for the solution, so I just quit the session and logged back in again.

For a GUI admin tool I recommend you take a look at the Flamerobin administration tool. It is available for several platforms and you find it on http://www.flamerobin.org/ . Download the package that is right for your platform and unpack it.

Before you continue, you need to copy the local Firebird database engine, C:\Program Files\EssentialPIM Pro Beta\Gds32.dll to the Flamerobin folder. If you do not do this you will get some errors. Things might work, but this is an easy way to deal with it.

Start the version you need and rightclick on Home in the window that opens. Choose "Register server" and choose a display name for the server (can be anything you want). In the "Hostname field" you can add the IP address of your server. I left the portnumber open to just let it use the default port. Using this you can try to connect to the example database.

Rightclick on the server you just registered and choose "Register Existing Database". You can add the following to get the example database registered:

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Display name: Example db
Database path: /var/lib/firebird/2.1/data/employee.fdb
Username: SYSDBA
Password: the password you chose for the SYSDBA user

You can leave the rest of the fields as they are.

When you have confirmed that this is working, you are ready to move to the next step - adding the EPIM database.

In EPIM choose:

File>New>EPIM Datafile

Close EPIM and and when you are asked if you want to save, name the file whatever-you-like.epim

Copy the file to your server. It is normally located under

C:\Documents and Settings\your-logged-in user\Application Data\EssentialPIM Pro

I did this by copying it to the shared folder on the server. The only problem I got was that the file got the wrong owner and group. But we will deal with that later.

On the server command line go to the shared folder

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cd /home/shared/
mv whatever-you-like.epim /var/lib/firebird/2.1/data/

To check that it is there

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cd /var/lib/firebird/2.1/data/
ls -l

Now you can probably see that the other files has firebird as owner and group. So you need to change the database you just uploaded.

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chown firebird:firebird whatever-you-like.epim
ls -l

All files in the folder should now have the same owner and group.

You can now try to connect to this database from EPIM.

File>Connect to database

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Server: IP address of your server
Database file: /var/lib/firebird/2.1/data/whatever-you-like.epim
Login: SYSDBA
Password: the password you entered for SYSDBA

To create the users in EPIM you need to be logged in as SYSDBA and go to Tools>Users and add all the users that you need.

That is it. You now need to repeat the installation of EPIM and connecting to the database from all PC's that will use EPIM with the right usernames. If two users on the same PC will use EPIM, you need to connect to the database for each of them.

In this setup I do not consider complications caused by a local firewall running on the server. As said in the beginning, I assume a "safe" environment. But this guide should be an ok starting point for most people on Ubuntu Server versions.

[ahmedsh]

So, what does all this process do? Does it make it possible for you to connect from several computers and several users to EssentialPIM or what?

Sorry for asking but i find it kind of difficult.


Regards. Ahmed

[klauzser]

Is there a page where I can see this step by step. I am new to codes and don't quite understand it very well.

[Max]

The below post shows how you should install Firebird server on your Linux machine if you want a Linux machine to be a EPIM server. If you do not understand this, you probably do not need this. You can use Windows machine to install EPIM server on it, which is much easier.

[Trinitylab]

edit: done that.