Introduction
OutKafe is a powerful and complex application with several parts. Thus a bit of careful planning is required before starting the installation.
This short guide will help you download and install the various components and set up your internet cafe.
OutKafe comprises everything needed to run an internet cafe.
Step one: Setting up the database
Before you can install the OutKafe components, you need to set up a database server. Currently only postgresql is supported. Most Linux distributions come with postgresql, or you could even use an off-site server on the internet.
You need to set up a database for OutKafe, as well as a username and password with complete administrative access to this database. It is very important also to configure postegresql to allow network connections.
Finally you need to install the OutKafe database schema into the database. This schema is available as an SQL script.
Download the database schema
For actually installing it, I highly recommend using a proper postegresql administration tool such as pgadminIII or phppgadmin
Once you have the database schema properly installed, there are two things you need to make sure of:
1) Your pg_hba.conf needs to allow all machines on your lan to do tcp/ip connections using plaintext passwords.
2) Your postgresql.conf file needs to be set up to listen on all addresses. testing
Step two: The OutKafe unified installer
All the Linux components of OutKafe is distributed as a single unified installer package. Please note that clients for other platforms are distributed (and documented) separately.
Download the OutKafe Installer
Once the file is saved, uncompress it (with bunzip2) give it execute permissions and run it as root – be sure that root has access to your X display (running it through a tool like kdesu or gksu should automate this).
The script will open up a fully documented graphical wizard which will let you install the various components. When it starts out, the installer will check that all required dependencies are there. If the installer fails, you lack one of it’s own dependencies which are:
GTK 2
bash
Now, the installation process support the GTK 2.x libraries as well.
Step three: The OutKafe Daemon
One long-time feature of OutKafe is that time-countdowns are not handled by the clients but rather by a centralized tool. This is significantly more secure. Older versions used a command that ran once-per-minute from a cron-job but this introduced a number of issues and several limitations.
OutKafe therefore uses it’s own daemon designed for it’s specific needs. This daemon needs to be installed on one and only one machine in your cybercafe. If you are using an offsite server, it can also be installed on the server itself.
Start the OutKafe installer, then select the Daemon installer from the menu on the welcome screen.
Most likely you will now be asked to configure the access details to reach your database. This will need to be done on any machine where any OutKafe components are installed.
Answer the questions with the values you set up when you installed your database server.
The daemon setup itself is highly automated and should happen correctly on almost any distribution – but you can verify the results at the end when you will be shown a list of commands and their status.
DON’T FORGET: If you want the admin and client tools really countdown the time for the client machine, this outkafed daemon MUST be running.
Step four: The admin console
The OutKafe administration console is the primary tool you will use to set-up and manage your cybercafe. You can install this on as many machines as you need, including machines that are normally customer machines. The installation is entirely automated except for database setups where needed.
Note: Currently the administration console will not create any menu entries for itself, you will need to do so yourself using your distributions default tools if you want any.