HowTo: Install Kegbot Server on Windows VM (for dummies)

I have set up Kegbot-server to run on a VM within Windows. Here are the steps I took to do it. It’s free if you already have a Windows box.

One day, I want to see if it’s possible to install kegbot-server directly on the android ARM tablet, maybe with GnuRoot Debian or equivalent. That way the entire suite would be self sufficient on one device. Stay tuned and there may be a future post on it.

  1. Get VMWare Player for Windows. Older 6.0 version works in 32 bit if you don’t have x86-64. https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/7_0
    This would probably work using Oracle VirtualBox as well, if that’s your thing

  2. Get Ubuntu minimal 32 bit x86 (40MB, command line only)
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

  3. Create a new VM in VMWare. 3-5GB of space is plenty. Format the space and install grub. Set your VMWare network to be bridged. Wait for a while for your home router NAT to assign an IP address that’s not the same as the Windows host IP.

  4. Follow the steps in https://kegbot.org/docs/server/install Slight additional notes:
    a) before running virtualenv /data/kb, create the directories (sudo mkdir -P /data/kb), and grant full permissions (chmod 777 -R /data/*)
    b) if your setup-kegbot.py ever fails (due to incorrect mysql password or whatever), you need to remove the install directories (rm -rf ~/.kegbot ~/kegbot-data) before attempting the script again.

  5. Find out your internal ip address (ifconfig) and start up the server using that address e.g. (kegbot runserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8000). Visit this webpage to configure your server first before trying to use it with the android app.

Awesome info. Thanks for posting.

I’ll have to try this distro instead of some of the others I was trying. I also tried a Kegberry for a while, but since my desktop is on all the time anyways acting as my HTPC, I might simplify things and go back to a virtual machine.