BiblioViva Documentation
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Installation path

PC with Linux and Tailscale

This path installs BiblioViva on a PC with Debian or Ubuntu and makes it reachable with Tailscale (the full way: secure address, camera, phones, use from outside the school too). The steps are carried out in order: each ends with a check to pass before going on to the next.

Steps

  1. Prepare the computer

    This step prepares the computer BiblioViva will run on: a PC with Linux, or a Raspberry Pi with its microSD card. It takes about 20 minutes for a PC that already has Debian or Ubuntu (if the system has to be installed, the time depends on the PC) and about 30 minutes with the Raspberry Pi. It is the first of the steps of every installation path.

  2. Connect to the computer

    This step explains how to open the terminal of the BiblioViva computer, the window in which the commands of the following steps are typed. It takes about 10 minutes. A terminal is a text window in which a command is written and the computer's answer is read.

  3. Prepare the network

    This step prepares what is needed outside the BiblioViva computer so that the school's other devices can reach it: with Tailscale a school account and an access key, with the local network an address that does not change. It takes about 15 minutes with Tailscale and about 10 minutes with the local network, plus the wait for whoever manages the school's network. The choice between the two ways is explained in Choose the network.

  4. Install BiblioViva

    This step installs BiblioViva on the computer prepared in the previous steps, with a single command to copy into the terminal. The setup.sh program checks the computer, installs Docker if it is missing, asks a few questions, starts BiblioViva and writes the address to open in the browser. It takes 5 to 15 minutes, mostly waiting for BiblioViva to download [VERIFY: times to measure on a Raspberry Pi 4 with an SD card].

  5. First run

    The first run is the guided setup that BiblioViva offers in the browser as soon as it is installed: language, colours, school, barcodes and the passwords of the shared accounts. This page is for whoever has finished the step Install BiblioViva and has in front of them the address that setup.sh printed. The step takes about 10 minutes.

  6. Connect the devices

    This step, to be done after the first run in the browser (step 5), connects to BiblioViva the circulation desk computer and, if needed, the other computers, tablets and phones, and gives the staff the accounts to sign in. The circulation desk computer takes about 10 minutes; every other device about 5 minutes.

  7. Test the scanner and the printer

    This step connects the USB barcode scanner to the circulation desk computer and checks that BiblioViva prints cards and labels in the right sizes. It is for whoever has completed the first run and signed in as admin. The step takes about 30 minutes, test printing included.

  8. Backups

    BiblioViva makes a backup of the database by itself every night. This page explains what is saved, where the backups are, how to make one at once and how to take a copy of one outside the BiblioViva computer, on a USB drive or on a NAS. It is for whoever has finished the first run and keeps the library's data. The step takes about 20 minutes.

Choose the computer
Choose the network
Requirements
Installation

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