1.3 Installation on Linux

Instructions written by SidSkiba. Thanks!

For installing LaserWeb on Linux, the following process should work (tested with Linux Mint V21.2 Cinnamon Edition):

Open the terminal window and enter:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install npm

You can verify that npm and node are installed then by entering the following:

npm -v 
node -v 

The following were the version numbers returned at the time of this writing:

npm - 8.5.1
node - 12.22.9

Then install Chromium by entering:

sudo apt install chromium

Install git:

sudo apt install git

Clone and build the latest lw.comm-server:

cd /usr/local
sudo git clone https://github.com/LaserWeb/lw.comm-server.git
cd lw.comm-server
sudo npm audit fix
sudo npm install 

You can then test that the sever is working with:

node server

Type CTRL-C to stop the server:

Then create a bash script for launchng the server and the browser:

sudo nano startlw.sh

Copy and paste or type the following into the nano editor. Note that this script can be used with Chromium (recommended) or Firefox by uncommenting the correct line:

#!/bin/bash

# Start the Node.js server in the background
node /usr/local/lw.comm-server/server &

# Store the PID of the last background command (Node.js server)
server_pid=$!

#ONLY UNCOMMENT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING BROWSERS
# Uncomment the next line to launch Chromium browser pointing to localhost:8000
chromium --app=http://localhost:8000/ --start-maximized
# Uncomment the next line to launch Firefox browser pointing to localhost:8000
#firefox -new-window http://localhost:8000/

# Terminate the Node.js server
kill $server_pid

Type CTRL-O then CTRL-X to save the script and exit nano editor.

Then make the script executable and change the owner to your username (replace all the "doug" below with your own Linux username):

sudo chmod u+x startlw.sh
sudo chown doug:doug startlw.sh
sudo usermod -a -G dialout doug

You should be able to launch LaserWeb fro the terminal then by entering:

./startlw.sh

You are ok to close the terminal if everything worked.

You then can add an icon to your desktop by right clicking on the desktop and picking "Create a new launcher here" from the context menu.

For name use: LaserWeb4 For command use: /usr/local/lw.comm-server/startlw.sh

If you want to change the desktop icon there is one included in usr/local/lw.comm-server/build/ folder.