How to install TrueConf Server on Debian Linux

TrueConf offers you an opportunity to take full advantage of corporate video conferencing on various Linux-based operating systems including Debian. Only 64-bit versions of the OS are supported.

If you want to update TrueConf Server which has already been installed, read this article.

Mandatory preliminary steps

• TrueConf Server contains its own web server. To prevent any possible conflicts or clashes, please deploy TrueConf Server on a computer running on Linux without a pre-installed web server.
• Add the user who will install TrueConf Server and get access to the TrueConf Server control panel to your OS. You can use the account that was created when installing your OS.

  To install TrueConf Server successfully, please make sure that there is no OS user whose login or name is trueconf.

• Fill out all the fields in the registration form.
• Click Submit & Download to receive your registration key on the email address you’ve specified.

The email containing your registration key will be sent within 15 minutes. If you cannot find the email containing your registration key in your inbox, please check the SPAM folder. You can also request the key via live chat or contact us in any other way convenient to you.

Step 1. Install TrueConf Server for Linux

Select the installation option for Debian

Two installation options are possible:

• Install manually from the downloaded file
• Add the TrueConf repository to your system.

Manual installation from the package

Download the file for your OS:

Debian 12

Debian 11

Proceed to the directory with downloaded TrueConf deb-package and start the installation by running the following command in the admin mode:

where trueconf-server-name.deb is the name of the installation package.

During installation you will see the input field for entering the logins of those OS users who will be allowed to access the control panel as administrators. Enter the login of the user created before. It is possible to specify multiple logins (separated by commas) at the same time.

Install from repository

• Run the following command to create the file
  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trueconf.list filled with required content:
  
  echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://mirror.trueconf.com/debian $(lsb_release -cs) non-free" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trueconf.list > /dev/null

  1	echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://mirror.trueconf.com/debian $(lsb_release -cs) non-free" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trueconf.list > /dev/null

• Run the sequence of the following commands in the admin mode:
  
  wget -O- https://mirror.trueconf.com/deb.trueconf.pub | sudo gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring gnupg-ring:/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/trueconf.gpg --import sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/trueconf.gpg sudo apt -y update sudo apt -y install trueconf-server

  1 2 3 4

  wget -O- https://mirror.trueconf.com/deb.trueconf.pub | sudo gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring gnupg-ring:/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/trueconf.gpg --import sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/trueconf.gpg sudo apt -y update sudo apt -y install trueconf-server

Step 2. Add a user to get access to the control panel

The OS user for accessing the control panel (web-based interface) has to be specified when installing the package from a file or repository. When the input window is displayed, just enter the login of the user created before.

If TrueConf Server is installed on the machine which is added to the domain with the pre-existing user group tcadmins, you will not see the window for entering the logins needed for accessing the control panel. However, you need to make sure that the domain group tcadmins includes required users so that you can access the server settings.

Step 3. Installation test

Multiple TrueConf services (called daemons in Linux) will be added to the OS. Two of them are the web server trueconf-web and trueconf-manager, the manager working with the database and settings files. They are supposed to start automatically after installation. Run the following commands to check their status:

If necessary, you can start them manually by running these commands:

The main trueconf service cannot be started until the server is registered. So, at first, one should configure access to the control panel.

Step 4. Access to the control panel

If you are within the local (corporate) network, take these steps:

• Learn the IP address of the computer with Linux by running this command ip a.
• From another computer within the local network, go to the page of the installed server by using its IP and proceed to registration. If the page is unavailable, try changing the access port.

If you are installing TrueConf Server on a remote computer outside the local network, e.g., a cloud-based virtual machine, you will need to edit the settings file to access the control panel. Due to security reasons, the control panel is available only inside the local network. To get access to this virtual machine from your computer, you will need to:

• Learn the external IP address of your PC with the help of any suitable service; for example, you can open this hyperlink in your browser https://whoer.net/
• Open the file below with any text editor (e.g., nano) as an administrator:
  /opt/trueconf/server/etc/webmanager/opt/local_only_admin_24.conf

  1	/opt/trueconf/server/etc/webmanager/opt/local_only_admin_24.conf

• Add this line Require ip x.x.x.x/32 where x.x.x.x is the external IP address. As a result, the file should look like this:
  <Location /admin> Require local Require ip 10.0.0.0/8 Require ip 192.168.0.0/16 Require ip 172.16.0.0/12 Require ip x.x.x.x/32 </Location>

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

  <Location /admin> Require local   Require ip 10.0.0.0/8   Require ip 192.168.0.0/16   Require ip 172.16.0.0/12   Require ip x.x.x.x/32 </Location>

• Restart the TrueConf Server web service with this command:
  systemctl restart trueconf-web

  1	systemctl restart trueconf-web

Step 5. Register your server

• Since TrueConf Server is not registered yet, an admin login page will first be displayed when accessing by IP (check step 4). Sign in with the user account you have previously created:
  
• On the page that opens enter your registration key in the corresponding field and register your server.

If you want to update TrueConf Server to a major version (the first two digits change, e.g., from 4.5 to 4.7 or from 4.7 to 5.0) you will need to re-register your TrueConf Server instance. Contact our technical support in any convenient way and share your server ID for us to reset the binding. After that you can re-register your TrueConf Server instance with your key.

Step 6. Start your server

After you’ve registered your server, it will restart automatically. The corresponding message will be displayed in the Server status field.

You can also view your server status directly in Linux by running the following command:

Step 7. Add users and create conferences

Read the TrueConf Server documentation to take further steps:

• How to add user accounts or import them via LDAP
• How to create conferences

🆘 FAQ

Error with gnupg while installing on Debian

If the operating system does not have the gnupg cryptographic utility pre-installed, the following error will appear:

In this case, install the missing package by running the following command:

Error after entering the administrator login

If you type a non-existing login by mistake when entering the administrator login, the installation on Debian may end with the following error:

In this case you need to run the following command as a superuser:

This command will clear all the data about the package settings from the OS. Please check the official documentation for more details.

Then, start the installation process once again.

Changing the access port for the control panel

By default, the server control panel is available via the standard HTTP 80 port and it does not have to be specified. However, if you cannot access the panel by IP, it means that the port 80 had already been taken at the moment when TrueConf Server was installed, and it is necessary to replace the port with a different one (e.g., 8080 or 8888).

• Go to the /opt/trueconf/server/etc/webmanager/ directory with superuser rights.
• Open the httpd.conf file with any text editor.
• Change the port number in the Listen </port number> parameter (e.g. Listen 8888) and save changes.
• Open the /opt/trueconf/server/etc/manager/manager.toml file with any text editor and specify the same port in the connection parameter:
  
  [web] connection = "http://127.0.0.1:8888"

  1 2	[web] connection = "http://127.0.0.1:8888"

• Please restart trueconf-manager and trueconf-web services using the following commands:
  
  sudo systemctl restart trueconf-manager sudo systemctl restart trueconf-web

  1 2	sudo systemctl restart trueconf-manager sudo systemctl restart trueconf-web

After changing the port and restarting the web service, try again to access the control panel.

How to add users allowed to access the control panel after installation

• Run this command:
  
  adduser [user_login]

  1	adduser [user_login]

  where [user_login] is the login of the user who will be added.

• When a command prompt is displayed, enter and confirm your password.
• If necessary, you can provide additional information about the user, e.g., his/her full name, phone number, etc.

More useful articles

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If you have any questions, please contact us at sales@trueconf.com or reach us by phone at +1 (833) 878-32-63. We are always happy to help!