Setting Up Erpnext on a Raspberry Pi 5 Running Ubuntu 23.10

ERPNext
1

So Raspberry Pi 5 is out, and being 2-3 times faster than the Pi 4B it should now be possible to reliably Run Erpnext. So here is a tutorial on how to set up Erpnext 14 on a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB running Ubuntu 23.10.

This tutorial Has essentially been copied, word for word, from Here with a few tweaks. So thank you very much to @ hashank_shirke.

Hi guys! :raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed:

Installing Frappe & ERPNext can be a daunting task, especially when you try to install it manually but don’t worry! Just follow this simple step-by-step guide and you’ll sail through the installation process.

This guide might look intimidating at first but trust me it is lengthy because it is detailed and explains each step one by one.

Let’s start!

:page_facing_up: Table of Contents:

  • Step 1: Server Setup
  • Step 2: Install Required Packages
  • Step 3: Configure MySQL Server
  • Step 4: Install CURL, Node, NPM, Yarn
  • Step 5: Install Frappe Bench
  • Step 6: Install ERPNext and other Apps
  • Step 7: Setup Production Server

PRE-REQUISITES:

  • Operating System: Ubuntu 23.10 for Raspberry Pi with Desktop
  • Recommended Hardware: Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB or 8GB RAM)
  • A Fresh Installation

:one: SERVER SETUP

1.1 After First power on go through the usual setup i.e. Language, Keyboard, Username and Password etc etc

1.2 After you reach the desktop you can open terminal and start setting up ERPNEXT (ctrl+alt+t is a shortcut)

1.3 Update & upgrade server packages

sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y

1.4 Create a new user
We create this user as a security measure to prevent root user access.
This user will be assigned admin permissions and will be used as the main Frappe Bench user

(first command below creates the user, second one adds the user to the sudo group, the third one logs you in as the newly created user and the fourth switches you to that user’s home directory)

sudo adduser [frappe-user]
sudo usermod -aG sudo [frappe-user]
su [frappe-user] 
cd /home/[frappe-user]/

Note: Replace [frappe-user] with your username. Eg. sudo adduser myname

:two: INSTALL REQUIRED PACKAGES

Frappe Bench and ERPNext requires many packages to run smoothly. In this step we will install all the required packages for the system to work correctly.

Note: During the installation of these packages the server might prompt you to confirm if you want to continue installing the package [Y/n]. Just hit “y” on your keyboard to continue.

2.1 Install GIT

sudo apt-get install git

Check if GIT is correctly installed by running git --version

2.2 Install Python & 2.3 Install Python Virtual Environment

sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-venv python3-pip

Check if Python is correctly installed by running python3 -V

2.4 Install Software Properties Common (for repository management)

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

2.5 Install MariaDB (MySQL server)

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

Check if MariaDB is correctly installed by running mariadb --version

2.6 Install Redis Server

sudo apt-get install redis-server

2.7 Install other necessary packages (for fonts, PDFs, etc)

sudo apt-get install xvfb libfontconfig wkhtmltopdf
sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

:three: CONFIGURE MYSQL SERVER

3.1 Setup the server

sudo mysql_secure_installation

During the setup process, the server will prompt you with a few questions as given below. Follow the instructions to continue the setup;

  • Enter current password for root: (Enter your SSH root user password)
  • Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n]: Y
  • Change the root password? [Y/n]: Y
    It will ask you to set new MySQL root password at this step. This can be different from the SSH root user password.
  • Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
  • Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: N
    This is set as N because we might want to access the database from a remote server for using business analytics software like Metabase / PowerBI / Tableau, etc.
  • Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
  • Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

3.2 Edit the MySQL default config file

sudo vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Add the below code block at the bottom of the file;

[mysqld]
character-set-client-handshake = FALSE
character-set-server = utf8mb4
collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci

[mysql]
default-character-set = utf8mb4

If you don’t know how to use VI:

  • Once the file is open, scroll to the last letter of the last word on the last sentence, hit “a” and then start editing the file.
  • After you’re done editing the file hit “Esc + :wq + Enter” to save the file

3.3 Restart the MySQL server (for the config to take effect)

sudo service mysql restart

:four: Instal CURL, Node, NPM and Yarn

4.1 Install CURL

sudo apt install curl

4.2 Install Node

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | bash

source ~/.profile

nvm install 16.15.0

4.3 Install NPM

sudo apt-get install npm

4.4 Install Yarn

sudo npm install -g yarn

Check if Node is correctly installed by running node --version

:five: INSTALL FRAPPE BENCH

5.1 Install Frappe Bench

I encountered the following error when trying to install frappe-bench using pip3.

error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.
...

I was able to resolve it by running the following command and then going ahead with the installation

sudo mv /usr/lib/python3.11/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED /usr/lib/python3.11/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED.old

Install frappe-bench pip3

sudo pip3 install frappe-bench

Check if Frappe Bench is correctly installed by running bench --version

5.2 Initialize Frappe Bench

bench init --frappe-branch version-14 frappe-bench

5.3 Go to Frappe Bench directory
This will be the main directory from where we will be running all the commands.
The full path of this directory will be: /home/[frappe-user]/frappe-bench/

cd frappe-bench/

5.4 Change user directory permissions
This will allow execution permission to the home directory of the frappe user we created in step 1.4

chmod -R o+rx /home/[frappe-user]/

5.5 Create a New Site
We will use this as the default site where ERPNext and other apps will be installed.

bench new-site site1.local

:six: Install ERPNext and other Apps

Finally, we’re at the last stage of the installation process!

6.1 Download the necessary apps to our server
Download the payments apps . This app is required during ERPNext installation

bench get-app payments

Download the main ERPNext app

bench get-app --branch version-14 erpnext

Download the HR & Payroll app (optional)

bench get-app hrms

Download the ecommerce integrations apps (optional)

bench get-app ecommerce_integrations --branch main

Check if all the apps are correctly downloaded by running bench version --format table

6.2 Install all the Apps

Install the main ERPNext app

bench --site site1.local install-app erpnext

Install the HR & Payroll app (optional)

When installing this app I encountered the following error,

Installation for Frappe HR app failed due to an error. Please try re-installing the app or report the issue on https://github.com/frappe/hrms/issues/new if not resolved.
An error occurred while installing hrms: Error 111 connecting to localhost:13000. Connection refused.

So I edited the file /home/erpnext/frappe-bench/sites/common_site_config.json and changed the redis port (labelled “redis_socketio”) from 13000 to 6379 or to whatever port number your redis server is running. Save file and proceed to install hrms.

bench --site site1.local install-app hrms

Install the ecommerce integrations apps (optional)

bench --site site1.local install-app ecommerce_integrations

:seven: SETUP PRODUCTION SERVER

7.1 Enable scheduler service

bench --site site1.local enable-scheduler

7.2 Disable maintenance mode

bench --site site1.local set-maintenance-mode off

7.3 Setup production config

sudo bench setup production [frappe-user]

7.4 Setup NGINX web server

bench setup nginx

7.5 Final server setup

sudo supervisorctl restart all
sudo bench setup production [frappe-user]

When prompted to save new/existing config files, hit “Y”

:tada: Ready to Go!

You can now go to your server [IP-address]:80 and you will have a fresh new installation of ERPNext ready to be configured!

For initial login use the username “administrator” and the password you setup for [frappe-user]

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2

what about the performance? is it good?