Re: newbie notes 1: getting started

["Elizabeth Krumbach" <..hidden..>]

On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 9:25 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <..hidden..> wrote:
<snip>
> I don't know how to deal with dependencies in a .deb.  I may not be
> alone.  I used dpkg -i to install the package.  I got a lot of
> complaints.  "apt-get -f install" seemed to fix things up.

I'm afraid a lot of these problems are more general needing to know
more about Debian/Ubuntu administration rather than LedgerSMB
installation problems, as you're run into these issues with a lot of
software. In this case if you're not familiar enough with apt you may
consider using one of the graphical package installers, I am pretty
sure they allow you to just double-click on a .deb and will
automatically resolve dependencies and install the packages.

I can see about trying to write something for someone completely new
to Debian server administration, PostgreSQL and Apache2, since you're
not the first person to have stumbled upon these issues. Meanwhile,
there are a lot more people on the ledgersmb users mailing list than
on the IRC channel, so when you're stumped please feel free to post
there.

> I find out (too late) about README.Debian (from INSTALL).
>
> ==> Perhaps some big "START HERE" sign is needed.  Perhaps there was
>    one that I missed.

Again, with Debian administration it's assumed that someone managing a
system will know that the "START HERE" sign is the README.Debian.

> ==> it would be really nice if the .deb files were contributed to a
>    Ubuntu repository.  That way dependencies would get handled by the
>    machinery of apt-get or synaptic.

There is a bug for this already. As I mention in the bug I'd help with
such a thing since I already maintain the package but it's a lot of
additional work and I don't have the time to do it alone:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/150374

> When I recreated things, I used the same password everywhere.  I think
> that there are different passwords for different purposes, but I was
> not confident which password was needed in each context.

If you use the README.Debian I explain what each password is for:

In step 1: "Here it will prompt twice for the new ledgersmb database
user password, remember what you enter here for step 5." (step 5 is
where you enter this database info into your
/etc/ledgersmb/ledgersmb.conf)

In step 4: "Populate the user database and set an admin password (this
admin password will be used to log into the administrative
interface)."

I am open to suggestions of how to make this more explicit, but I don't see how.

> As an example, I'm not 100% confident of the new lines I've added to
>  /etc/postgresql/8.3/main/pg_hba.conf
>
> README.Deb mentions the pg_hba.conf in step 6 but isn't explicit about
> what the required line looks like or where to place it.

I'm afraid it does assume some knowledge of how to use postgres. Not
all servers are the same, not all suggestions will work everywhere so
I simply make the suggestion of "Depending on your security
infrastructure you can use the METHOD md5 or trust." Again I'm not
sure how exactly to improve this without inserting a crash course to
postgres in the middle of the install docs.

> Now I get a login screen from LedgerSMB!  That means that LedgerSMB
> can log into PostgreSQL.  But I don't yet know what to do with it.
> Tentatively, I enter the name "admin" and my universal password.  I
> get this page:
>
>    Error!
>    LedgerSMB/User.pm:199: FATAL: database "host=localhost" does not exist

It looks like somewhere in your config you called the database
"host=localhost"? Some parsing problem in your config file perhaps?

Hope this helps,

-- 
Elizabeth Krumbach // Lyz // pleia2
http://www.princessleia.com