How To Install OpenProject on Debian 12 (Bookworm)

In this article we shall cover the process of installing, configuring and using OpenProject on Debian 12 (Bookworm). OpenProject is free to use and open source project collaboration software that fulfils highest standards in data security and privacy according to German law. The company has invested heavily in security of the services and the protection of customer’s data. Here is a overview of some OpenProject great features.

• Project planning and scheduling
• Product roadmap and release planning
• Task management and team collaboration
• Agile and Scrum
• Time tracking, cost reporting, and budgeting
• Bug tracking
• Wikis – Built in documentation support
• Forums – Let people engage
• Meeting agendas and meeting minutes

Follow the steps provided in the following section to install and configure OpenProject on Debian 12 (Bookworm). We’ll give a separate link on how to secure the installation with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.

Step 1: Update Debian system

Let’s begin our installation by ensuring our system is updated. Login to the server and upgrade your OS.

sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade

If a reboot is required after the upgrade, consider performing it.

[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

Set FQDN hostname on the server. Replace projects.example.com with your valid DNS name.

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname projects.example.com

Also update timezone. The value Africa/Nairobi should be substituted accordingly.

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Africa/Nairobi

Step 2: Configure OpenProject APT repository

The latest packages of OpenProject are available in the project’s AppStream repository.

Import GPG key used in signing OpenProject packages.

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install gnupg2 wget apt-transport-https curl wget
curl -fsSL https://dl.packager.io/srv/opf/openproject/key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/openproject.gpg

After successful importation of repository GPG keys, proceed to add the repository.

sudo wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openproject.list https://dl.packager.io/srv/opf/openproject/stable/12/installer/debian/11.repo

Step 3: Install OpenProject packages

Let’s now update repository list before we do the installation.

$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease
Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates InRelease
Get:4 https://dl.packager.io/srv/deb/opf/openproject/stable/12/debian 11 InRelease [1,849 B]
Get:5 https://dl.packager.io/srv/deb/opf/openproject/stable/12/debian 11/main amd64 Packages [5,474 B]
Fetched 7,323 B in 10s (744 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

If it doesn’t give error proceed to install openproject on Debian 12.

sudo apt -y install openproject

Step 4: Configure OpenProject

After installation perform initial configuration by running openproject configure commands.

sudo openproject configure

You can choose to install PostgreSQL database server on your local system if no existing remote database server available.

Configure Apache2 web server.

Confirm or change your server FQDN to be used by OpenProject.

Set project path prefix. If you leave it blank the installation will be on the root of your domain.

If you have SSL already in the server, e.g Let’s Encrypt configure it.

You can skip svn and use Git in the next page for your repositories.

Accept installation of Git version control.

Provide a path to Git repositories. You can use default path.

Click Okay to proceed with the installation.

Choose application to use for emails sending.

Provide admin email account.

Enable installation of Memcache server.

if you get the error “LoadError: libssl.so.1.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory“. Solve by installing libssl1.1.

wget http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/o/openssl/libssl1.1_1.1.1n-0+deb11u5_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i libssl1.1_1.1.1n-0+deb11u5_amd64.deb

# OR
wget http://nz2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/o/openssl/libssl1.1_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.19_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i libssl1.1_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.19_amd64.deb

Confirm the service is running after installation.

$ systemctl status openproject
● openproject.service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/openproject.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-08-11 06:15:08 EDT; 2min 58s ago
   Main PID: 14177 (sleep)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 9476)
     Memory: 176.0K
        CPU: 1ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/openproject.service
             └─14177 /bin/sleep infinity

If you need to reconfigure at any point in time run:

sudo openproject reconfigure

Step 5: Access OpenProject Dashboard

In your DNS server map domain name to IP address, e.g

192.168.1.52 projects.example.com

Visit the URL of OpenProject Dashboard on;

http://example.com/login

You should see an interface similar to one shown below:

To Login to the web console as admin user:

Username: admin
Password: admin

You’ll be required to change the admin password after the first login.

To access Administration dashboard click on the logo and go to Administration.

An interface with lots of tuning and customizations is presented to you.

Conclusion

In this article we’ve been able to install OpenProject on Debian 12 (Bookworm).

More guides.

• Install OpenProject Community Edition on CentOS 8
• Install OpenProject on Ubuntu Linux
• Install Gitea Git service on Debian
• How To Install Odoo on Debian Linux
• How To Install PostGIS on Ubuntu