How to Install Redmine on Debian 9 (Stretch)¶

Installing from Debian packages¶

Official Redmine packages are available for Debian. As of July 2018, stable version 3.3.1 is supported in Debian 9.

If you will be using Redmine in a production environment requiring long term support and stability using official packages is recommended. You will be receiving automatic feature and security updates.

See the Redmine documentation on the Debian Wiki for detailed instructions.

Installing from sources¶

If you want the very latest Redmine version and are comfortable doing manual upgrades and system administration, the following steps will guide you through installing Redmine from sources.

1. Install the pre-requisites for Redmine and all its packages.

sudo apt install gcc build-essential zlib1g zlib1g-dev zlibc ruby-zip libssl-dev libyaml-dev \
libcurl4-openssl-dev ruby gem libapache2-mod-passenger apache2 apache2-dev libapr1-dev \
libxslt1-dev checkinstall libxml2-dev ruby-dev vim libmagickwand-dev imagemagick sudo rails

2. Install your database of choice.

apt install postgresql

3. If installing Postgres, install dev.

apt install postgresql-server-dev-9.6

4. Choose a directory where to install Redmine. In this example /opt used. You can use another location, but you will need to update the following steps as necessary based on your choice.

Install Redmine in /opt

cd /opt
mkdir redmine
cd redmine

Get Redmine - use the download page and review the functionality that you need to determine the right version for you.

wget http://www.redmine.org/releases/redmine-3.4.6.tar.gz

Unpack

tar xzf ./redmine-3.4.6.tar.gz

5. Login as the default postgres user and create a new role and database. Use your own password.

sudo -u postgres psql postgres
CREATE ROLE redmine LOGIN ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'your_password' NOINHERIT VALID UNTIL 'infinity';
CREATE DATABASE redmine WITH ENCODING='UTF8' OWNER=redmine;

then press CTRL-D to escape the shell.

edit /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/pg_hba.conf and set Postgres to trust :

"local all postgres trust " 
sudo service postgresql reload 

6. Create the /opt/redmine/redmine-3.4.6/config/database.yml file with the following contents…

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: redmine
  host: localhost
  username: redmine
  password: your_password

Note that the spacing is important in this file. Under the “Production” line, each other line must be indented by two spaces, not tabs. Replace your_password with the password specified above. Remember to save. Keep in mind Postgresql passwords can't start with @ character (or other non alpha numerics).

7. Next, set up the database schema and load the initial database.

bundle install
bundle exec rake generate_secret_token
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake redmine:load_default_data

8.Do a quick test to verify that redmine is working using webrick.

bundle exec ruby /usr/bin/rails server -b your_ip webrick -e production

Now try to connect via browser to http://your_ip:3000. Webrick is not for production systems. It is a good way to check things before getting started with Apache, though.

9. Next, let’s set up Apache.

cd /opt/
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/redmine
cd /opt/redmine/redmine-3.4.6
sudo chmod -R 755 files log tmp public/plugin_assets
sudo chown www-data:www-data Gemfile.lock

9.1 Create a symbolic link which points from the Apache working directory to the Redmine public folder

sudo ln -s /opt/redmine/redmine-3.4.6/public/ /var/www/html/redmine

9.2 Create a new vhost configuration

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/master.conf

and paste in:

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerAdmin admin@example.com
Servername hostname
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/

<Location /redmine>
RailsEnv production
RackBaseURI /redmine
Options -MultiViews
</Location>

</VirtualHost>

Then, run:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo a2ensite master.conf

9.3 add this line to /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.conf in the body of the document- not just the 1st line.

PassengerUser www-data

Restart the Apache web server:

sudo service apache2 restart

10. Open your browser and navigate to: http://your-ip-address/redmine.

And hopefully, you're up and running.

Sources:

• Redmine with Apache and MySQL on Debian 8 jessie