Installation Manual for 2.16 on Ubuntu

This article is under construction. Use the information herein with caution until this message is removed.

These instructions are a work in progress.

These instructions cover the installation of WeBWorK 2.16 for Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS, XXX and XXX. Specific OS instruction are embedded within this document

If you are just upgrading WeBWorK, especially if you already have existing WeBWorK courses, see Upgrading_WeBWorK_with_Github.

Also, it is assumed that you have an operating system installed. You can visit for instructions on installing the operating system or google how to install your favorite linux flavor. Also make sure the OS is upgraded to all patches within the version you are running.

Notation

First some short comments on notation we will be using. We will use <key> to indicate that you should press a specific key (e.g. <Enter>, <Tab>, <F12>, etc.). Sometimes we will also use e.g. <wwadmin password> to indicate you have to enter the wwadmin password.

^ will indicate the <Ctrl> key so e.g. ^X is really shorthand for <Ctrl> <X>, i.e. press the Ctrl key and hit the X key.

Install Software Packages

Ubuntu Software Packages

On Ubuntu and other Debian linuxes, the following instructions will get needed software packages installed.

Here is the list of Ubuntu packages that need to be installed.

1. apache2
2. cpanminus
3. curl
4. dvipng
5. gcc
6. git
7. libapache2-request-perl
8. libarray-utils-perl
9. libcrypt-ssleay-perl
10. libdatetime-perl
11. libdata-dump-perl
12. libemail-address-xs-perl
13. libemail-sender-perl
14. libexception-class-perl
15. libextutils-xsbuilder-perl
16. libfile-find-rule-perl-perl
17. libgd-perl
18. libhtml-scrubber-perl
19. libiterator-perl
20. libiterator-util-perl
21. libjson-perl
22. liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl
23. libmime-tools-perl
24. libmoox-options-perl
25. libnet-ip-perl
26. libnet-ldap-perl
27. libnet-oauth-perl
28. libossp-uuid-perl
29. libpadwalker-perl
30. libpath-class-perl
31. libphp-serialization-perl
32. libpod-wsdl-perl
33. libsoap-lite-perl
34. libsql-abstract-perl
35. libstring-shellquote-perl
36. libtemplate-perl
37. libtext-csv-perl
38. libtimedate-perl
39. libuuid-tiny-perl
40. libxml-parser-easytree-perl
41. libxml-parser-perl
42. libxml-writer-perl
43. make
44. netpbm
45. preview-latex-style
46. texlive
47. texlive-latex-extra
48. unzip

To install all of these packages in one fell swoop, first become root:

$ sudo su
[sudo] password for wwadmin: <wwadmin password>

and then run the command (obviously you want to use cut and paste)

# apt install apache2 cpanminus curl dvipng gcc git libapache2-request-perl \
libarray-utils-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdancer-perl libdancer-plugin-database-perl \
libdata-dump-perl libdatetime-perl libemail-address-xs-perl libemail-sender-perl \
libexception-class-perl libextutils-xsbuilder-perl libfile-find-rule-perl-perl \
libgd-perl libhtml-scrubber-perl libiterator-perl libiterator-util-perl libjson-perl \
liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl libmime-tools-perl libmoox-options-perl libnet-ip-perl libnet-ldap-perl \
libnet-oauth-perl libossp-uuid-perl libpadwalker-perl libpath-class-perl \
libphp-serialization-perl libpod-wsdl-perl \
libsoap-lite-perl libsql-abstract-perl libstring-shellquote-perl libtemplate-perl \
libtext-csv-perl libtimedate-perl libuuid-tiny-perl libxml-parser-easytree-perl \
libxml-parser-perl libxml-writer-perl make netpbm \
preview-latex-style texlive texlive-latex-extra unzip

If prompted, you can always accept the default (hit <Enter>). When the process finishes, enter

# exit

to return to a regular user.

Installation of Other Perl Modules

We will use cpanm to install other perl modules.