path: root/doc/faq.html

<ul>
<p><li><h4>Error on converting from SQL-Ledger: 
ERROR: column "chart_id" contains null values</h4>
SQL-Ledger does not enforce a NOT NULL constraint on the chart_id field in the 
acc_trans table.  Consequently, it is possible in cirtain circumstances to 
insert transactions into the database with invalid information including NULL 
chart_id's.  When this occurs, normally the Chart of Accounts and Trial Balance 
will fail to balance.  So this is a serious problem with data integrity.
LedgerSMB prevents this by adding the NOT NULL constraing but this can cause
prevent people from migrating when they have invalid data in their databases.
<br/><br/>

If you encounter an error like this, the first thing to do is seek
technical support, regardless of whether or not you wish to continue
the migration.  In general the providers of support for LedgerSMB and
SQL-Ledger should all be able to be of some assistance.
Unfortunately, since this problem involves information loss, no
solution can be automated without invalidating your accounting
information.  </li></p>

<p><li><h4>PostgreSQL 8.x</h4>
PostgreSQL added a restriction in v8.x that a sequence cannot be dropped
after if it is referenced by a table. However backups created with
LedgerSMB v2.6.13 and earlier have a DROP SEQUENCE step in the backup
which will fail. To fix this edit the backup before restoring on a 8.x
system.

<p>This typically looks like this:
<pre>
DROP SEQUENCE id ;
CREATE SEQUENCE id START 10579;
--
DROP SEQUENCE invoiceid ;
CREATE SEQUENCE invoiceid START 11096;
--
DROP SEQUENCE orderitemsid ;
CREATE SEQUENCE orderitemsid START 178;
--
DROP SEQUENCE jcitemsid ;
CREATE SEQUENCE jcitemsid START 53;
</pre>

<p>Change it to:
<pre>
CREATE SEQUENCE id;
SELECT SETVAL('id', 10579);
CREATE SEQUENCE invoiceid;
SELECT SETVAL('invoiceid', 11096);
CREATE SEQUENCE orderitemsid;
SELECT SETVAL('orderitemsid', 178);
CREATE SEQUENCE jcitemsid;
SELECT SETVAL('jcitemsid', 53);
</pre>


<p><li><h4>PostgreSQL template1</h4> 

<tt>template1</tt> is a template that new databases are built from, by
default. Anything you put into <tt>template1</tt> will be copied to a
new database.  Thus, when you try to create a new dataset, the tables
are already drawn in from <tt>template1</tt> so that when LedgerSMB
tries to create them, you will receive an error message indicating
that the tables already exist.


<p><li><h4>PostgreSQL 8.0+</h4>

To use LedgerSMB with PostgreSQL 8.0+ you have to modify
<tt>Pg-tables.sql</tt>. This file is in the sql directory.

<pre>
CREATE TABLE orderitems (
  trans_id int,
  parts_id int,
  description text,
  qty float4,
  sellprice float8,
  discount float4,
  unit varchar(5),
  project_id int,
  reqdate date,
  ship float4,
  serialnumber text,
  id int default nextval('orderitemsid')
) WITH OIDS;

CREATE TABLE inventory (
  warehouse_id int,
  parts_id int,
  trans_id int,
  orderitems_id int,
  qty float4,
  shippingdate date,
  employee_id int
) WITH OIDS;

CREATE TABLE assembly (
  id int,
  parts_id int,
  qty float,
  bom bool,
  adj bool
) WITH OIDS;
</pre>

This change is only required for LedgerSMB versions 2.6.3 and below.

<p>If you already built a dataset without this change you will get
an error when you try to save a PO or assembly.

<p>"ERROR: column "oid" does not exist"

<p>Drop the tables and rebuild WITH OIDS.

<p><li><h4>Japanese characters</h4>
modify apache so that EUC_JP is the main additional language.
<br>comment out all unrelated languages except, UTF_8 shift jis, EUC_JP
<br>restart apache
<br>Fire up psql and do the encoding as per the table:-
<br>Table 5-2. Postgres Client/Server Character Set Encodings

<p>Server Encoding Available Client Encodings
<br>EUC_JP EUC_JP, SJIS
<br>EUC_TW EUC_TW, BIG5
<br>LATIN2 LATIN2, WIN1250
<br>LATIN5 LATIN5, WIN, ALT
<br>MULE_INTERNAL EUC_JP, SJIS, EUC_KR, EUC_CN, EUC_TW, BIG5, LATIN1 to LATIN5, WIN, ALT, WIN1250

<p>Create the dataset from admin.pl, now the Japanese shows up in multibyte encoding

<p>Now you can write in Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and English


<p><li><h4>Error posting a check/receipt</h4>
<pre>
DBD::Pg::db do failed: ERROR: syntax error at or near "," at character 114
Error!
INSERT INTO acc_trans (trans_id, chart_id, transdate,amount)
VALUES (13314, , '03-22-2005',1.00 * 1)
ERROR: syntax error at or near "," at character 114 </pre>
This error is caused by a transaction which does not have links to
an AR/AP account.
<br>set up your chart of accounts properly and create at least one
AR and AP account. Then edit all your transactions and repost.


<p><li><h4>SELinux</h4>
<a href=http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq-fc3/index.html>http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq-fc3/index.html</a>

<p>modify <tt>/etc/selinux/conf</tt> and set <tt>SELINUX=permissive</tt>

<p>use <tt>audit2allow</tt>, add the following to
<tt>policy.conf</tt>, then run <tt>make reload</tt>

<p>#line 83
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t port_type:{ tcp_socket udp_socket } { send_msg
recv_msg };
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t sysctl_kernel_t:dir search;
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t sysctl_t:dir search;
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t tmp_t:sock_file write;
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t httpd_sys_content_t:lnk_file read;
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t sysctl_kernel_t:file read;
<br>allow httpd_sys_script_t unconfined_t:unix_stream_socket connectto;


<p><li><h4>session timeouts</h4>
If you get frequent timeouts or can't even log in, synchronize
the clocks between the server and workstation.


<p><li><h4>lineitems not printing</h4>
Templates designed on a UNIX platform don't work on a DOS platform.
To make them work load the template either with the builtin template editor
or a text editor and save. Templates designed on a Windows platform have the
same problem and won't work on a UNIX platform. Once you strip the ^M's
the'll work just fine.


<p><li><h4>UTF-8 character encoding</h4>
Most of the translations are in ISO format. To convert the translations
change directory to locale/cc and convert the files with iconv to UTF-8.
You should also convert the COAs too and make sure you select UTF-8
encoding when you set up a new dataset.


<p><li><h4>characterset problems</h4>
If you have problems displaying the correct characterset try adding
<pre>
AddDefaultCharset On</pre>
in your <tt>httpd.conf</tt> file.

<p><li><h4>About installation</h4>
The easiest is to use the setup.pl script as root.
You don't need to know very much about your system, just login as root,
run 'perl setup.pl' and follow the prompts.
<p>setup.pl does not check for missing software packages and it is your
responsibility to make sure you have the required software
installed either from source or from a package.

<p>Requirements are clearly indicated in the <tt>README</tt> file and
on the download page.


<p><li><h4>cannot create function</h4>
<ol>

<li>either run <tt>createlang plpgsql</tt> to install the plpgsql
language handler or install yourself. For more information how to do
that, visit <a href=http://www.postgresql.org/docs/>PostgreSQL</a> and
read the interactive documentation for procedural languages.

<li>load admin.pl
<li>unlock the system
<li>login
</ol>


<p><li><h4>The requested URL /ledger-smb/admin.pl was not found</h4>
Your webserver doesn't know where to find the script. Most commonly this
results when distributions hide webserver configuration files in unexpected
locations so that <tt>setup.pl</tt> wasn't able to configure the location for
you. Find out which file (<tt>httpd.conf</tt>, <tt>httpdcommon.conf</tt>, ...)
controls your webserver configuration and add
<pre>
  # LedgerSMB
  Include /etc/httpd/ledger-smb-httpd.conf</pre>

Create a file 'ledger-smb-httpd.conf' in /etc/httpd and copy the next part
into the file.

<pre>
  AddHandler cgi-script .pl
  AddDefaultCharset On
  Alias /ledger-smb /var/www/ledger-smb/
  &lt;Directory /var/www/ledger-smb&gt;
    Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymlinks
  &lt;/Directory&gt;

  &lt;Directory /var/www/ledger-smb/users&gt;
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from All
  &lt;/Directory&gt;</pre>
replace '/etc/httpd' and '/var/www' with the appropriate directories.


<p><li><h4>users/members : Permission denied</h4>
Your webserver must have write access to the users directory.
If your server runs as user/group 'apache:apache' then set the
users directory to owner/group apache:apache.
<pre>
  # chown -R apache:apache users</pre>


<p><li><h4>Dataset newer than version</h4>
You are trying to use an older version with a dataset which was
created with a newer version.


<p><li><h4>PDF option not working</h4>
Check if you have latex and pdflatex installed.


<p><li><h4>Apache 2.0 "error 500"</h4>
Some of the early versions of Apache 2.0 (< patchlevel 44) had a rewrite engine
which decoded escaped strings. This created a lot of problems and I worked
around it by escaping strings twice.
If you get a server 500 error 'filename too long' or if collapsed menus
don't expand you may have to adjusted the following code in
SL/Form.pm and change the number (44) on line 84.
<pre>
  # for Apache 2 we escape strings twice
  if (($ENV{SERVER_SIGNATURE} =~ /Apache\/2\.(\d+)\.(\d+)/) && !$beenthere) {
    $str = $self->escape($str, 1) if $2 < 44;
  }</pre>


<p><li><h4>IDENT Authentication failed for user "sledger-smb"</h4>
Edit pg_hba.conf and change authentication to

<pre>
  local           all        all           MD5</pre>

The file is in the 'data' directory of your postgresql installation.
This is different with every distribution so look for it.
<pre>
  # find / -name 'pg_hba.conf'</pre>

<p>Some people can't read and seem to think 'localhost' is just some
fancy word for a local machine.
'localhost' is a host like any other host on a network.
A 'local' entry in pg_hba.conf will allow socket connections ONLY and
not allow a host connection. If you then try to connect to 'localhost',
PostgreSQL will come back with an authentication error.

<p>So, if the database resides on the same server as the web server,
forget you ever heard there is such a thing as 'localhost' and leave
the Host portion blank.

<p><b>WARNING!</b> DO NOT just put a 'host all all trust' in
pg_hba.conf unless you know what you are doing; that can introduce a
pretty huge security hole.

<p><li><h4>DBD-Pg for Mandrake 9.0</h4>
Mandrake did not package a compiled DBD-Pg package again, so install DBD-Pg
from the source package.
Install perl-DBD-Pg-1.01-4mdk.i586.rpm from the 'contrib' area.
(Mandrake / 9.0 / contrib / RPMS)


<p><li><h4>LaTeX error</h4>
If for some reason LaTeX produces an error message check for strange
characters in your account description and parts description
and use \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc} in the preamble.


<p><li><h4>LaTeX templates</h4>
If you don't want to edit tex code by hand,
you could use Lyx, Abiword, or any WYSIWYG editor capable of exporting
latex code.
To do that you must change the tokens for the variables <% and %> to something
like << and >>. % is the comment character in tex. There is also a
pagebreak block which must be commented out.
When you are done with the changes
replace << and >> with <% and %> and uncomment the pagebreak block.

<p>LaTeX is somewhat complex to learn, initially, but offers a much
superior environment to produce professional-looking forms in
postscript and PDF format.

<p><li><h4>W3M</h4>
pass terminal=mozilla when you start w3m
<pre>
  $ w3m -F http://localhost/ledger-smb/login.pl?terminal=mozilla</pre>

To use without frames
<pre>
  $ w3m http://localhost/ledger-smb/login.pl?terminal=lynx</pre>

<p><li><h4>PDF option disappeared</h4>
Edit ledger-smb.conf and set $latex = 1;
<br>ledger-smb.conf is perl code, check if it compiles, if it does not,
the internal defaults are used which turn off $latex, hence no PDF option.

<p><li><h4>Installation on Windows (WIN32)</h4>
<ul>
<li>install Apache, perl,
<a href=http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/InstallingOnWindows>Postgres</a>
or Oracle, DBI and the appropriate DBD
module
<br>if you can't compile DBD-Pg here is a precompiled
<a href=http://http://pgfoundry.org/projects/dbdpgppm/>DBD-Pg module</a>
<li>download the latest version of <a 
    href=http://ledger-smb.sourceforge.net>LedgerSMB</a>
<li>extract the files to c:\apache\ledger-smb
<li>run 'perl shebang' to change the first line of the scripts. If perl
is not in c:\perl\bin' change '#!c:\\perl\\bin\\perl' to the location where
your perl binary is.
<li>edit c:\apache\conf\httpd.conf and add
<pre>
Alias /ledger-smb "c:/apache/ledger-smb/"
&lt;Directory "c:/apache/ledger-smb"&gt;
  AllowOverride All
  AddHandler cgi-script .pl
  AddDefaultCharset On
  Options +ExecCGI
  Order Allow,Deny
  Allow from All
&lt;/Directory&gt;

&lt;Directory "c:/apache/ledger-smb/users"&gt;
  Order Deny,Allow
  Deny from All
&lt;/Directory&gt;
</pre>

<li>start Apache
<li>start Postgres|Oracle|DB2
<li>connect to http://localhost/ledger-smb/admin.pl and set up users
and datasets
<li>connect to http://localhost/ledger-smb/login.pl and login

</ul>

<p><li><h4>What do I enter for the language</h4>
If you use English, nothing, if you want to use a foreign language for
the login screen and admin stuff enter the language code, this is the
directory in the locale directory.


<p><li><h4>printing to a printer</h4>
Printers are defined in ledger-smb.conf

<pre>
%printer = ( 'Default' => 'lpr', 'Color' => 'lpr -PEpson' );</pre>

Check in your /etc/printcap file for the names of available printers.

<p>If you have LaTeX installed set
<pre>
  $latex = 1</pre> in ledger-smb.conf

<p>To send the document to the printer check the "Postscript" or "PDF" format,
enter the number of copies and click on the "Print" button.

<p>The printer you enter in your preferences is the default printer.
You can choose any other available printer. This makes it possible
to print from anywhere on the network to any printer.

<p>Note: html format is for screen preview. Use the "Print" option from your
browser to print to a printer.


<p><li><h4>Using samba to send printjobs to a printer attached to a Windows XP workstation</h4>
The next part applies to roll your own print filters only. If you use CUPS or
LPRng your milage may vary but you can still use this as a guide how it works.
I use the printer 'Epson' as an example which is
attached to a XP workstation called Raven.

<pre>
/etc/printcap entry on the server which runs lpd
 
epson:Epson\
  :sh:\
  :lp=/dev/null:\
  :sd=/var/spool/output/epson:\
  :if=/usr/libexec/lpr/epson/prnfilter:\

# end of entry in /etc/printcap


# prnfilter shell script
#!/bin/sh
# Filter for Epson Stylus

PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin"

#read first_line
read tmp
first_line=`echo $tmp | cut -b1-2 | sed -n '1p'`

first_chr=`expr "$first_line" : '\(.\)'`
first_two=`expr "$first_line" : '\(..\)'`
rewindstdin

if [ "$first_two" = "%!" ]; then # Postscript file
  gs @st640p.upp -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -q -sOutputFile=/tmp/$$ -
else
  # text file
  cat &gt; /tmp/$$
  echo -n "^L" &gt;&gt; /tmp/$$
  smbclient '\\Raven\Epson' "" -c 'printmode text'
fi

smbclient '\\Raven\Epson' "" -P -c "print /tmp/$$"
rm /tmp/$$

# EOF


rewindstdin is a small program to rewind the filehandle for STDIN
save the next part up to EOF to a file rewindstdin.c and compile

#include &lt;sys/types.h&gt;
#include &lt;unistd.h&gt;
extern int errno;
main()
{
  if( lseek(0,0,0) == 0 ){
    errno = 0;
  }
  return( errno );
}

# EOF

compile to an executable

gcc -o /usr/local/bin/rewindstdin rewindstdin.c
</pre>


<p><li><h4>beginning balances</h4>
Add a GL Journal entry and enter the beginning balance for your accounts.
Beginning balances are the balances from your last balance sheet. If you also
add open invoices to account for COGS for inventory, add the invoices
and make the appropriate adjustments.


<p><li><h4>establish a beginning inventory</h4>
add the parts with a vendor invoice. Use the <b>real cost</b> for the items,
not zero. If you use zero cost then the cost of goods will be zero when you
sell the item.


<p><li><h4>Assemblies</h4>
Assemblies are manufactured goods assembled from parts, services and
assemblies.  Because you do not buy assemblies you 'stock assemblies' by
adding assembled units to your inventory. The quantity for individual parts 
is reduced and the quantity for the assembly increased. To disassemble an
assembly you simply return the parts to inventory by entering a negative
quantity for the number of assemblies to stock.


<p><li><h4>DBD-Pg not installed</h4>

Most modern distributions now package DBD-Pg. If it is
not packaged follow this recipe to get it working.

<ul>
  <li>check if you have the header files for PostgreSQL
  <br>$ find / -name 'libpq-fe.h'
  <br>if nothing shows up install the development package for PostgreSQL
  <li>download and untar DBD-Pg
  <li>set the environment variables POSTGRES_LIB and POSTGRES_INCLUDE
  <li>cd to DBD-Pg directory
  <br>as ordinary user
  <br>$ perl Makefile.PL
  <br>$ make
  <br>$ make test
  <br>if all went well su to root
  <br># make install
  <li>remove DBD-Pg
</ul>


<p><li><h4>login.pl has compilation error</h4>

This could be because of a missing configuration file in the users directory

<p>check the permission for the users directory. The directory must be
set writeable for the webserver. If your webserver runs ias user/group
nobody.nogroup set the directory to
<pre>
drwx--x--x   2 nobody   nogroup    1024 May 26 16:49 users

or

drwxrwx--x   2 johndoe  nogroup    1024 May 26 16:49 users</pre>


<p><li><h4>script not executing, shows in browser instead</h4>

Add
<pre>
  AddHandler cgi-script .pl</pre>
in your httpd.conf file.


<p><li><h4>unknown terminal!</h4>
the frontend script couldn't figure out which browser you are using
<p>include the terminal variable on the URL
<pre>
  http://localhost/ledger-smb/login.pl?terminal=lynx</pre>
Valid terminal variables are lynx, mozilla and js


<p><li><h4>permission denied</h4>

Check if your web server has write permission to write to the following
files and directories:
<pre>
  users/
  templates/
  users/members

  # chown nobody:nogroup users templates users/members
</pre>


<p><li><h4>permission denied to access tables</h4>
The user you entered in the "Database section" must be a valid
database user who has rights to access the tables.

<p>If the tables are owned by 'joe' and you enter 'mary' as the dba
you might run into this problem if mary doesn't have the rights to
access tables owned by joe.


<p><li><h4>html and graphics files don't show up on screen</h4>

Enable Includes and FollowSymlinks Options in your httpd.conf file
<pre>
  &lt;Directory /usr/local/ledger-smb&gt;
    Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymlinks
  &lt;/Directory&gt;
</pre>


<p><li><h4>switch display to a foreign language</h4>

Load your preferences and select the language.
<br>Language selection is in accordance to 
<a href=http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/main.htm>
ISO 3166-1</a> standards.


<p><li><h4>Text shows in English when I use a foreign language</h4>

This is because the corresponding hash entry is missing.
Add the missing text in the locale/cc/all or locale/cc/missing
file and run 'perl locales.pl' from the command line to rebuild
the individual files.

<br>cc refers to the country code.


<p><li><h4>switch to a foreign language for the login and admin screen</h4>

Edit ledger-smb.conf and enter the code for the $language variable
<pre>
  $language = "de";</pre>

<p>This is a global change and applies to all logins, individual settings
may be changed by setting the language in your Preferences.


</ul>

<p>
<hr>
<a name=security>
<h1>LedgerSMB security</h1>
</a>

<ul>
<li>The security features built into LedgerSMB provide encrypted passwords
and access control which makes it fairly safe out of the box to run even in
front of a firewall.
Some precautions which are out of our control must be taken though.
It matters where you install SL and how you configure your web server and
SQL server.

<pre>
  Typical setups:
  
  /usr/local/vh/www                   <- DocumentRoot for virtual host
  /usr/local/vh/ledger-smb            <- Alias for ledger-smb
  /usr/local/vh/users                 <- users directory out of reach

<hr width=60% align=left>
  /usr/local/vh/www                   <- DocumentRoot for virtual host
  /usr/local/vh/www/ledger-smb        <- Alias for ledger-smb
  /usr/local/vh/www/ledger-smb/users  <- users configuration files and tmp space

  &lt;Directory /usr/local/vh/www/ledger-smb/users&gt;  <- disable webserver access
    Order Deny,Allow                                 for users directory
    Deny from All
  &lt;/Directory&gt;

</pre>

The location for the users directory can be specified in ledger-smb.conf

<p><li>Set permission for the users and templates directory to 711

<p><li>If you do not want anyone to change the templates with the built-in
editor set the files in templates/directory/ to read only or disable
the menu item to edit the templates.

<p><li>You can set up a read-only environment if you disable the menu items
to add data. i.e 'Add Transaction' if unchecked you will not be able to add
a transaction or repost a transaction. You may look at it but nothing else.

<p><li>There are various settings for audit control and you may disable
reposting entirely or up to a certain date. And with the audit trail enabled
you can keep tab of who is doing what.

<p><li>For PostgreSQL you may also set who has access to the server in the file
pg_hba.conf
<br>Authentication crypt does not work because not all SQL servers
accept encrypted passwords.

<p><li>in addition you can secure the tables from unauthorized access by
setting up a different database user and GRANT rights. For instance,
users without DELETE rights will still be able to use the program, change
customers and vendors, add transactions but will not be able to delete or
repost transactions.
<br>To lock all the tables to create a RO system GRANT SELECT rights only.

<p><li>Other security options include a secure shell, your webserver's
authentication system, SSL, encrypted tunnels, ...

</ul>

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