Not difficult at all. Takes some time and effort. But few wish to spend that time. Or put in that effort. Therefore the installation has been garbage for years. And likely will continue to be, for a while longer.
For this reason, many of us gave up on “easy install” years ago. We either install ERPNext manually, or maintain our own forks of Bench. Or both.
Interesting thread. I watched the progress of this over the past few weeks.
An strange occurence happened to me today with the latest version installation (v12.5.1)
I went to a dormant Ubuntu server that I had running 18.04.3 and I ran the apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to get it up to v18.04.4 and then I ran the install.
It failed with the exact same error that @Curt.Beck posted.
This didn’t make any sense to me so I wiped the server and spun up an fresh ubuntu 18.04.4 image, ran the update and upgrade. Then I ran the same install script again (just like I had an hour earlier) and it worked.
Mind you this is running the Easy Install method!!
To make sure my results were consistent, I wiped another server I had and rand through the same process (on a different VPS service provider) and again ran the update and upgrade and the erpnext easy install script.
This also works perfectly.
Possible Conclusion…
There may be something amiss in the upgrade process of Ubuntu from 18.04.3 to 18.04.4.
When I tried to upgrade to 18.04.4 and run an install it failed.
When I installed a recent 180.0.4 image and then update and upgraded it to most current the ERPNext Easy Install works perfectly.
Is that definitive proof? um… NO
But it is a curious result because I am very meticulous about doing installs and I notice these things.
So that is my results today. Two successful installs when using a fresh Ubuntu image.
However, as always… Your mileage may vary. 
BKM
That’s very strange. I’m struggling to think of what OS-specific changes (18.04.3 to 18.04.4), might yield these installation errors. The problems I’ve encountered during installation have been:
I’ve never encountered a situation where my OS was the problem, and had to be patched forward/backward. I’ve done installations on Ubuntu 16 through 18, Debian 9 and 10.
But of course, I’m not running easy install, and calling those Ansible playbooks. 
Regardless, I agree with @Curt.Beck. It’s unfair to expect ERPNext users to know how to “unpack commands” into sub-components, hack the installation scripts, and debug the installer process. No other business software application expects its users to troubleshoot Bash, Python, and JavaScript code. Yet ERPNext appears to require it.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago: ERPNext increasingly appears to be an application -by- Python developers, -for- Python developers. If you’re not already a *nix Pythonista, you’re at a large disadvantage.
It’s something that needs to change.
WTF!?
With the step by step guide i reached the login screen two days ago. Today I wanted to create a company, but i only got a time out message. Now i burn down the house!!!
The error is shown in Setup Wizard Request Timeout - Problem Solution - #2 by revant_one or Time out error for creating new companies - #9 by Ahmed.Khater or [Solved] Setup failed >> Could not start up: Error in setup - #2 by pipech.
Unfortunately all named solutions, time out 6000 or bench update --patch or many tries didn’t work for me.
The log of Google Chrome is
request.js:274 SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0
at JSON.parse ()
at Object.frappe.request.report_error (request.js:408)
at 500 (request.js:187)
at Object. (request.js:267)
at i (jquery.min.js:2)
at Object.fireWith [as rejectWith] (jquery.min.js:2)
at z (jquery.min.js:4)
at XMLHttpRequest. (jquery.min.js:4)
(anonymous) @ request.js:274
Please, can anybody help for the last steps? Thank you.
Yeah, I have seen that every time I try to run the startup wizard on a new install. The error presents itself in a separate pop-up box. Once you acknowledge the error you get to another pop-up box that has a very tiny link near the bottom that says “Retry” that you can use to run the last steps of the wizard again. This has always allowed it to finish. Not sure why, but it has been that way for me since starting to use v12.
As for the OS patching scenario…
I am not so sure it has much to do with patching as it does with possibly something being accidentally left our of the "apt-get upgrade process from 18.04.3 to 18.04.4
This is actually the second time I have seen this. The first time I simply attributed the problem to my having installed other unrelated packages to the OS before running the apt commands to update and upgrade. I thought it may have been some odd package tripping up other important OS functions. So when I loaded a 18.04.4 image and did the apt commands again, ERPNext installed just fine. That was in mid-January.
This time I had another fresh Ubuntu server on a dormant VPS that I had created in late November of last year (about 3 months ago) and it was just a spun up 18.04.3 image that I had not done anything with it yet. So I was surprised to see the same error that I had previously attributed to something I had done now popping up when I know there had been no activity at all. Simply the act of running apt-get update and apt-get upgrade from root and creating the accounts for a ERPNext install, the install would fail. I was quite surprised.
I no longer have access to the older 18.04.03 images to spin up and investigate further, but the limited evidence is mounting that there may have been something left out of the OS upgrade service.
It would be interesting to hear from others that have encountered the error to see if they were also going from 18.04.3 to 18.04.4 before the attempted the ERPNext install.
Not trying to point fingers here, but more data would sure be nice.
BKM
Back to the basics:
Are you installed on VM?
How much RAM you have? The minimum now is 4GB.
If it is less then your mashine get slow and stuck.
Hope it helps.
Yes, cloud server at www.hetzner.de with 2 VCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB disk space. Bevor I had installed multitenant WordPress und SuiteCRM, everything worked absolutely fine. For single ERPNext it should be enough power.
Is there a log or protocol where I can find the internal server error? Last year in October ERPNext worked on the server. Just because fo changes in software it does not run, I think.
Thanks.
I’m not a Linux or Python specialist, but I can choose different OS rebuilds for my cloud server:
Ubuntu 16.04
Ubuntu 18.04
Debian 9
Debian 10
CentOS 7
CentOS 8
I only have DIY experience in Ubuntu 18.04. Is there a 100% sure chance that ERPNext will run properly on another operating system mentioned?
Thanks.
I have been doing my installs over the past week using Ubuntu 18.04.4
When you select the operating system on your VPS providers site, they do not typically tell you anything beyond the “18.04” so you will not know the sub-point release versions.
At three of the VPS providers that I am using, the version of the image that I have been using has been 18.04.4
In November and early December my servers were getting an image version 18.04.3
It was the 18.04.3 that (at least form me) would fail ERPNext installs if I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade before running the Easy Install for ERPNext.
So, to answer your question… No, there is no guaranteed successful install. The variables are constantly changing (sometimes by the hour) and nobody has control over all of the variables.
In my case (and in my “opinion”) I ran into a possible condition where Ubuntu nay not have upgraded itself properly. Other variables that can affect a successful install also includes possible changes to the multitude of packages that frappe/erpnext depends on to build their system. All of those packages are also constantly being updated by their respective authors and foundations. We never know what is changing unless the package authors announce it publicly.
Installing ERPNext is NOT anything like installing some MS Windows program. Microsoft packages everything together into a single installation file. During their installs the large install file unpacked itself into temproary holding area and then installs everything from the contents. That means everything is all contained and controlled by the stuff in the single install file.
Microsoft also controls the operating system so they know exactly what is available to them to use during the install process.
Ubuntu is built from mainly opensource packages. The foundation that controls the OS does pull together everything together into a collection of known source versions in order to make a specific version install. This usually makes the Ubuntu OS just as stable as any Microsoft operating system.
ERPNext does NOT create a single install file for their application. They use a script that systematically reaches out to the repositories of all of the packages they depend on to build a ERPNext installation, and they do this “on-the-fly” as the actual installation is progressing on your server. The developer team does their best to try to request specific versions of the packages in the script that installs your ERPNext application. However, they sometimes forget to pin down a version or something and errors happen. We have also seen time when one of the packages the install script tries to access during the install is not available because it has been moved, altered, or even completely taken out of circulation by the original authors.
All of these variables are constantly changing and even more so with opensource projects.
Everything that makes up almost all Linux versions are opensource projects making the particular OS and opensource project itself (like Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, etc.).
Add to that the ERPNext project which is opensource and built from all opensource packages and the list of variables is beyond calculation.
Is our world perfect? No.
But is worth the discomfort we sometimes experience? Well, you will have to answer that for yourself.
BKM
I fully understand your point of view. If someone spends so much time creating such a program, we have to ask why? I think it’s made for users who need an ERP system that is more open and editable. But if this person have to be an absolutely professional programmer just to install the software (not to use it), I would say that the developers missed their target OR created ERPNext for their own purposes. Then it is logical that all ERPNext users can also program properly in Linux etc.
Nevertheless, what is a solution for this problem? Is there a solution for this at all? Is there a log file somewhere in which I can find the error?
PS: I checked my Ubuntu version: “Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-74-generic x86_64)”, managed with https://landscape.canonical.com.
Thanks
I don’t know that there is ever an all encompassing solution for getting a successful install of ERPNext.
I do also agree that the current process is difficult for any but the most experienced to have success.
All I can offer is what I know worked for me: (at least this week)
As "root"user: (replace anything in [brackets] with your own information)
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install python3-minimal build-essential python3-setuptools
adduser [def_user]
usermod -aG sudo [def_user]
Then logout as root user and log in again as [def_user]
As [def_user] do the following:
export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/frappe/bench/master/playbooks/install.py
sudo -H python3 install.py --production --user [def_user]
Note: I do not put any passwords in the command that starts the install.py because I want to see that the script progresses properly and asks for those during the process. Recent changes in how the script works have eliminated much of the verbose screen activity that used to keep you updated with the install progress. Forcing it to ask me for passwords lets me know at least a little bit about where it is in the process. You can do it anyway you like.
This is what has been working for me this past week. I cannot speak to anything else except to say that I have read on the forum that folks with Ubuntu 18.04.3 may have had better success by NOT running the apt-get update & upgrade commands. Your mileage may vary…
BKM
I don’t think this is correct. I installed on server with 2GB RAM a few hours ago without issues.
It tried your guide with a fresh OS without update and upgrade: same time out 
Ok… maybe I am missing something here…
What timeout?
Does the install complete?
Not sure what you mean by timeout.
If you mean a timeout of startup wizard, the just accept the timeout and click on “Retry” in the next box.
BKM
@Curt.Beck Okay just to be sure that this isn’t related to your cloud host… can you try any other host to see if that’s the issue? I regularly spin up test servers on google cloud VPS while my production server is on AWS and backup on DigitalOcean. Whenever there’s an update, i spin a test server and load my backup to test the update before upgrading my production. I installed a new instance a few hours ago to test v12.5.2 without issues so maybe you should try another host just to eliminate your host as being the issue.
Ok, let me see if I can get past this confusion.
Is this the process you are having trouble with:
Step 1 - Login as Administrator to start the setup wizard
Step 2 - Answer all the questions until you get to the Complete Setup button
Step 3 - After clicking the Complete Setup button the process begins…
Step 4 - The wizars experiences a timeout error like this:
Step 5 - Click on the “Close” button of the error screen
Step 6 - The underlying error screen is now revealed
Step 7 - Just click on the “Retry” button (see red arrow)
Step 8 - You are taken back to the last step of the wizard again. Just clicl “Complete Setup” again
Finally, in just a few minutes the wizard will complete and take you to the v12 desk.
This is the same thing that I have had to do since trying to install and use v12. It happens on every install and I just click through it to get a working system.
So, @Curt.Beck are you experiencing something different?
I ran through the server install exactly as I described a few posts back, and then started the wizard exactly like in this post. It took me about 45 minutes to complete everything, but I did it again so I could take the screenshots.
Please let us know if this is where you are having problems and if you tried this solution yet.
BKM
After a lot of retrys i found following solution:
I installed ERPNext like my step by step guide Fool proof install - step by step - #50 by Curt.Beck.
After setting up the company I tried and retried 10 times with my german data inputs, also for chart of accounts. I used SK04 first. After no happy ending and 10 times no succes I changed the data. The result is: I was able to succes the setting up process, but only with “Standard with Numbers” for chart of accounts. With our german SK04 i was not possible.
So, for a full ERP use not really a solution, but I don’t use accounting in ERP. So for me it’s working, but maybe not for other german users.
So after a long journey I completed the installation!!!
No I have the next problem. I can’t use more then one email outgoing account in MS Office 365. The next WTF. So i go on to the next topic. Login with Office 365: Email not verified
ERPNext has some good parts, but just to setting it up it’s a mess and really frustrating! (for a normal user and no professional Linux and Python god).
So for all othe installers, use my guide for a manual installation. It woked for me. I don’t know how long it works, maybe until the next update 
Thanks to all.
secondary thought on this … nobody is entitled to an easy installation routine (even though I agree that it would be a great plus to have such). Generally a multi-service application like ERPNext is complex and likewise users need to have some abilities to get things going and maintaining an installation. There are several offers (erpnext.com being one of them) taking the technical complexity away from users without sufficient expertise. So the choice is to pay with $ for services or with expertise/sweat for private deployments.
I came across into this post, by searching on discuss. Very interesting discussion.
I have been using this Erpnext for about 3 years. ( actually my wife used it ). I am far from a developer level. I just an software hobiist. She have been running a beauty clinic with 3 outlet in defferent town., since 2008. She bought a custom erp system wrote from scratch by the provider. on Php. In 2015 the provider has gone and the system crasch all time. I toke a look and gave up to maintain or repair. Coz the system has no framework.
I have tried odoo, the healthcare module too complex, she just need simple and easy to use. So I combined Odoo with openEMR installation on single server. But all users complaining to log in into TWO system. Anda difficult in daily working by click there and there. User complain made headache.
In 2016 I found erpnext and give tried. Most user feel comfort. Today we have been running the version 11 since 2018 and still usable.
In january 2020 I deployederpnext v.12 for a shipping company, and so far no complain.
In my point of view as software hobiist, Erpnext is great. I need just learning : Python, Mysql … that’s all. Easy Install script is just for FUN, it is not for Production.
This time, during the Covid19 I need to deploy again. I face the Mysql warning
2020-04-12 9:46:00 10 [Warning] Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’ (using password: NO)
The site running flawlessly, have no problem for operations. But the error log on this mysql is annoying. This is one of the problem for someone to poke easy install scripts and workable for various linux distros. My running server powered by gentoo, but the IT admin for shipping company only understand Debian, the deployment is on Debian 10.3 buster. ( which got sql warning ). Debian or probably Mariadb people set by default the plugin on auth_socket which is No Password required for root privilege and use sudo environment for root privileges.
However the bench command : bench new-site site-name --install-app erpnext ( I consider this is automatic install ) Always asking Mysql Root Password.
Let say user choose install procesure :
Log in as root to mysql shell
Create Databse
Grant root user to the database
Create a site for frappe with command
bench new-site site-name --db-name database-name --mariadb-root-username root --mariadb-root-password ROOTPASSWORD --install-app erpnext
I think and believed the root password is mandatory for frappe install in which Debian by default use auth_socket. mysql root password will work with plugin mysql_native_password plugin. I dont know either Debian perople or Mariadb People decided this.
Frappe people can not anticipate what happening at Debian and Mariadb, and probably ubuntu, linuxmint, arch, gentoo, windows or OSX. It is NOT FAIR for blaming Frappe on what did by other community/team.
Thus users have to familiarize themself to what they choose, decided use Debian OS, then have to dig debian, choose mariadb have to dig Mariadb, an so on.
There are thousands of “Solution” to solve Mariadb warning on the net world. I think most of them did not realize they screw up the things and many user use their guide but come into frustations.
So I decided to let the mysql warning stay there on log, as far as the frappe running well and smooth.
sorry for long post
