How to Install Kimai on Linux Mint

Kimai is a free and open-source time-tracking application that can be used for personal and business purposes. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Kimai on Linux Mint Latest.

Prerequisites

  • A Linux Mint OS system with sudo access
  • Apache server installed and running on the system
  • MySQL database installed and configured on the system
  • PHP installed and configured on the system

Step 1: Install Required PHP Extensions

Kimai requires several PHP extensions to function. Install the following packages using the apt package manager:

sudo apt install -y php-curl php-zip php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-gd

Step 2: Download and Install Kimai

  1. Visit https://www.kimai.org/download.html to download the latest version of Kimai.

  2. Extract the downloaded file using the following command:

    tar -xvzf kimai-2.2.2.zip

Step 3: Configure the Apache Web Server

  1. Create a new Apache configuration file for Kimai:

    sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/kimai.conf

  2. Add the following content to the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/kimai/public

    <Directory /var/www/kimai/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

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

Make sure to replace example.com with your domain name.

  1. Enable the Apache virtual host configuration and restart the service:

    sudo a2ensite kimai.conf 
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4: Create a MySQL Database

  1. Log in to the MySQL server:

    sudo mysql -u root -p

  2. Create a new database for Kimai:

    CREATE DATABASE kimai;

    Replace "kimai" with your desired database name.

  3. Create a new MySQL user for Kimai:

    CREATE USER 'kimai'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

    Replace "password" with a strong password.

  4. Grant privileges to the new user for the Kimai database:

    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON kimai.* TO 'kimai'@'localhost';

  5. Flush the privileges and exit the MySQL shell:

    FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;

Step 5: Configure Kimai

  1. Rename the ".env.dist" file to ".env":

    cd kimai-2.2.2 mv .env.dist .env

  2. Edit the ".env" file and update the following values:

APP_ENV=prod
APP_SECRET=some-secret-string
DATABASE_URL=mysql://kimai:password@localhost/kimai

Replace "some-secret-string", "kimai", and "password" with your desired values.

Step 6: Install Dependencies and Run Kimai

  1. Change the ownership of the Kimai folder:

    sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/kimai

  2. Change the directory to the Kimai folder and install dependencies:

    cd /var/www/kimai composer install --no-dev -o

  3. Run the database migration command:

    php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate

  4. Finally, open your web browser and enter the URL http://example.com (replace "example.com" with your own domain name). The Kimai installation wizard will guide you through the setup process.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Kimai on your Linux Mint system.