Installing FrontlineSMS on Linux Ubuntu

[Amanda Atwood]

Hello All

I've seen a few posts about this - and I think the installer recently mentioned is a great idea. Whilst that is still in the works, I thought I'd add my few hints to the forum - compiled by drawing on a few other forum posts and also following my nose, as a very non-Linux user trying to install FrontlineSMS on an Ubuntu machine.

Feel free to add / edit / correct if you see things I've missed.

To get FrontlineSMS to work -

Follow the install instructions in the text file it comes with.

You will then need to do a few things:

1. Change the properties of FrontlineSMS.sh to make it executable (you'll need to use cd /... to get to the directory FrontlineSMS.sh is in):

# chown root:root FrontlineSMS.sh

# chmod a+x FrontlineSMS.sh

Having done this you want the properties of FrontlineSMS.sh to be:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 142 2009-03-11 21:19 FrontlineSMS.sh

You can check this by typing:

# ls -al

in the directory that FrontlineSMS.sh is in.

2. Check on Java

Use java -version to make sure java is installed nicely and check on your version.

You'll need to make sure the java libraries for FrontlineSMS are in the right folder. If they're not there, you can manually move them from the FrontlineSMS folder. Use these commands to make sure things are in the right place:

librxtxSerial.so:

# locate librxtxSerial.so

/opt/frontlinesms/librxtxSerial.so

/usr/lib/librxtxSerial.so

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-cacao/jre/lib/i386/librxtxSerial.so

It needs to be in the i386 folder for the version of java you're running (this may or may not be java-6-cacao) so explore your filing system first to know where it needs to be.

then use mv to get it to the right place, e.g.

mv /home/dur/Desktop/Frontline_SMS_Linux/1.5.8/librxtxSerial.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-cacao/jre/lib/i386/librxtxSerial.so

Then do the same thing for the file libsqlitejdbc.so



# locate libsqlitejdbc.so

/opt/frontlinesms/libsqlitejdbc.so

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-cacao/jre/lib/i386/libsqlitejdbc.so

if it's not in the i386 folder, move it there:

mv /home/dur/Desktop/Frontline_SMS_Linux/1.5.8/libsqlitejdbc.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-cacao/jre/lib/i386/libsqlitejdbc.so

Having done steps 1 and 2 you should now be able to run FrontlineSMS.sh and have the FrontlineSMS GUI apppear and function properly for you.

--use this link for more help: http://frontlinesms.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2052630%3ATopic%3A...

3. You need to make sure your modem is connecting to FrontlineSMS.

Get to the folder /dev/ and use # ls to view the files in that folder. Having plugged the modem into your computer, you should see something like ttyACM0 as a port. This is great, it means the computer is seeing your modem. If you're using the Falcom GSM Samba 75 modem, this will happen automatically - you don't have to load the drivers or anything.

FrontlineSMS will be looking for it on ports /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1

But your modem may be on port ports /dev/ttyACM0, for example.

So create a symbolic link to make the one look like the other:

# sudo ln -sf /dev/ttyACM0 /dev/ttyS0

Then use wvdial (a ppp connection manager) to reconfigure all tty com device with this command line :

# sudo wvdialconf

This should give you several lines of output - including the max baud rate for the device.

Then close FronlineSMS (if it's still open) and restart. On restart, you should find your modem is automatically detected and voila!

use this link for more help: http://frontlinesms.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2052630%3ATopic%3A...

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Amanda,

This is great info, thanks!

For anyone who wants to know about the installer Amanda mentioned, Aaron's looking to build a proper Ubuntu/Debian installer, and there is info in this forum post: http://frontlinesms.ning.com/forum/topics/2052630:Topic:17185

Best wishes,

Alex