How to install Kanboard on Ubuntu 18.04?

In many organizations and working groups, a key word is required: organization. This is the key to start any project. Whether it is the development of a new application or the achievement of a goal. For this, different methodologies have been used and open source technology also has its contribution. Therefore, in this post, you will learn how to install Kanboard on Ubuntu 18.04.

In a few words, Kanboard is a free and open-source Kanban project management software.

This is a web-based application with which you can plan together with a team, the project to develop. Some of the things you can do with this application are the following:

• Visualize your work.
• Limit your work in progress to focus on your goal.
• Drag and drop tasks to manage your project.
• Self-hosted.
• Super simple installation.

The application is quite flexible and allows the use of plugins. With these, you will be able to extend Kanboard’s wide functionality.

So, let us begin.

Install Kanboard on Ubuntu 18.04

Kanboard is a web-based application. Therefore we must deploy a web server. In addition to this, in the installation, we will be asked to have a database management system like MariaDB. So the installation does not become complicated.

On the other hand, you have to have some knowledge about the Linux terminal. Although the guide will be step by step, it is convenient to have solid knowledge.

1) Install LAMP on Ubuntu 18.04

First of all, you have to have a web server with Apache running on our Ubuntu 18.04. For that, we made a pretty explicit post about it.

Please, read How to install LAMP on Ubuntu 18.04?

Be sure to install some required PHP modules: php-curl php-json php-gd php-mysql php-intl and php-xmlrpc

After everything is in order with Apache, PHP and MariaDB you can move on.

2) Create a new MariaDB user for Kanboard

Once MariaDB is correctly installed, you need to create a new database for the application. However, it is also recommended to create a new different user for it.

:~$ sudo mysql -u root -p
> CREATE DATABASE kanboard;
> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON kanboard.* TO 'kanboarduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'kanboardpss';
> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
> Exit;

With this, the application will be a little safer.

3) Install Composer and some required packages

To install Kanboard on Ubuntu 18.04, we need to install Composer. For this, we have a well-explained tutorial.

Read, How to install Composer on Linux?

Then, you need to install these necessary packages:

:~$ sudo apt install curl git

However, if you want to get the latest version of Git, I invite you to read our tutorial about it.

How to install GIT on Ubuntu 18.04?

So, we can continue.

4) Download and install Kanboard on Ubuntu 18.04

Now we can start downloading and installing Kanboard.

For it, we will use curl.

:~$ cd /tmp
:~$ git clone https://github.com/kanboard/kanboard.git

Once the download is complete, move it to the Apache directory. Then, proceed to install it, with these commands:

:~$ sudo mv kanboard /var/www/kanboard
:~$ cd /var/www/kanboard
:~$ sudo mv config.default.php config.php
:~$ sudo composer install

After that, you have to modify the Kanboard configuration file to incorporate the MariaDB credentials you just created.

:~$ sudo nano /var/www/kanboard/config.php

Edit the following lines:

define('DB_DRIVER', 'mysql');
define('DB_USERNAME', 'kanboarduser');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'kanboardpss');
define('DB_NAME', 'kanboard');

Save the changes and close the file.

Now, change the permission to the Kanboard folder.

:~$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/kanboard/
:~$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/kanboard/

In order for Kanboard to run correctly in the web browser, a new dedicated Virtualhost has to be created.

:~$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/kanboard.conf

And add the following:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin [email protected]
     DocumentRoot /var/www/kanboard
     ServerName kanboard.osradar.lan

     <Directory /var/www/kanboard/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Again, save the changes and close the file.

Now, enable the new Virtualhost:

:~$ sudo a2ensite kanboard.conf
:~$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Now, you can go to your server. You will see this screen:

So, log in using the username admin and the password admin.

So, enjoy it.

Conclusion

The organization is the success of a project. And there is an open-source application that helps us to work in an organized team. This is the case of Kanboard. In this post, you have noticed how its installation in a Ubuntu 18.04 server.

If you use CentOS 7, you can read our tutorial on how to install Kanboard on CentOS 7?.

Soon we will make some for CentOS 8, RHEL 8 and Oracle Linux 8.

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