[Koha-win32] Koha on Windows

Rob Weir robweir at alum.drexel.edu
Fri Dec 26 21:02:16 CET 2008


Hi Ed,
I don't think anyone has been successful at getting Koha V3 to run on 
windows. Koha V3 requires quite a few more perl modules to run correctly 
than did V2. And I don't think anyone has been able to find a windows 
version of Perl that supports all of the perl modules necessary to run 
Koha V3.

We used ActiveState perl when creating the install packages for Koha V2. 
Historically, ActiveState has not supported the CPAN repository of perl 
modules, and instead has maintained their own repository and method for 
installing modules. Their support for various modules was ok a few years 
ago, but seriously declined until about a year ago, I saw a post 
estimating that they only supported about 35% of the modules that were 
available on Linux in the CPAN repository (link to post 
<http://use.perl.org/%7EAlias/journal/35219>). This meant that when 
version 3 of Koha came out, that the modules necessary to run it simply 
weren't available from ActiveState for the windows platform.

About a year ago, when Koha V3 first came out, Chris Nighswonger 
suggested using Strawberry Perl, a fairly new perl package for windows. 
Unlike ActiveState perl, strawberry perl is written to directly use 
modules from the CPAN repository. However, many of the modules don't 
build properly on windows. He made a valiant effort to compile all the 
modules needed for Koha V3, and got it down to just one or two modules 
that would not compile (see koha wiki link 
<http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:installation:win32:koha_3_win32_installer_project>). 
That is basically where progress now stands for trying to get Koha V3 to 
run on windows.

In the last year, Strawberry Perl development has continued, and their 
support for various perl modules has continued to improve. Their last 
release was in October, and I think another release is due out in a 
month or two. I played around with the latest release a couple weeks 
ago, and many of the modules that Chris struggled to install, now 
compile nicely without any extra effort. There were still several that 
did not compile immediately, and I haven't had time to dig deeper and 
see if I can get them to work.

In the interim, I think ActiveState may also have improved their method 
of installing modules, and the number of modules that they support. But 
I haven't researched this to see if all the modules needed for Koha are 
available.

All that to say, there may one day be an install package or directions 
for Koha 3 on windows, but it there is no such thing now. If you simply 
want to evaluate Koha, my suggestion would be to do it using a virtual 
machine image. Have you used VmWare Server at all? It is available as a 
free package that runs on windows. (I still prefer v1.0.8 over the 
latest 2.0 release that seems to have some bugs in it). A complete 
virtual image of Koha 3.0 is available from 
http://contribs.koha.org/revision_view.php?rid=14. The image download is 
several hundred megabytes, but it runs fine with very little 
configuration, and in my opinion, this would by far be the easiest way 
to evaluate Koha.

BTW, I am only about 60 miles from you in Hanover, York County.

Rob

Roche III, Edward wrote:
>
> Happy Holiday All
>
>  
>
> I am trying to install Koha on Windows XP to evaluate it. I found the 
> Installation instructions for a Windows install but they are a couple 
> years old. Does anyone have an updated version or a copy of your own 
> steps you took to install and get it working fully?
>
>  
>
> Thanks
>
> Ed
>
>  
>
> "At the End of the Day, Did You Play to Win or Not to Lose?"
>
>  
>
>  
>
>  
>
> _______________________________________________
> Koha-win32 mailing list
> Koha-win32 at listes.koha-fr.org
> http://listes.koha-fr.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-win32
>   
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