Getting Started with Open Dental on Ubuntu Linux

This page explains how you can install Open Dental on Ubuntu Linux with a minimal effort.

Using the Open Dental repository

You'll need to tell Ubuntu where it can find Open Dental. Currently, the Ubuntu packages for Open Dental are hosted on this site, opendental.carlier-online.be. That is done by creating a repository, a collection of programs that Ubuntu can install.

To get started, you need to add the opendental.carlier-online.be repository to the list of repositories you use on Ubuntu. You can do this as such:
  1. Click System, Administration and then Synaptic Package Manager.
  2. If requested to do so, enter your administrative password.
  3. Click Settings and then Repositories.
  4. In the Software Preferences window, click the Add button. (screen shot)
  5. In the Add Channel window, click the Custom. (screen shot)
  6. In the Apt text box, type deb http://opendental.carlier-online.be/apt dapper main and click Add Channel. (screen shot)
  7. Click Close to close the Software Preferences Window.
  8. If you get a message saying that you should reload for your changes to take effect, click Close. (screen shot)
  9. Finally, click the Reload button.
Alternatively, you can also type
sudo echo deb http://opendental.carlier-online.be/apt dapper main >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
in a bash shell.

Installing Open Dental

Now you're all set to install Open Dental
  1. If Synaptic is not open already, open it by clicking System, Administration and then Synaptic Package Manager and entering your password if required.
  2. In the left lest, scroll down to and click on Unknown.
  3. In the right list, click on opendental. Verify that the version is 4.7-0opendental4. (screen shot)
  4. Click the check box and select Mark for installation.
  5. You can, for now, ignore any warnings about installing software that can't be authenticated. We plan to fix this in the future (screen shot)
  6. Click Mark to install other, but required, packages. (screen shot)
  7. In Synaptic, click the Apply button.
  8. In the Summary window, click again Apply. (screen shot)
  9. Ubuntu will now download (screen shot) and install (screen shot) Open Dental 4.7 for you. Please wait.
  10. Once the installation has finished, click Done. (screen shot)
Alternatively, you can also type
sudo apt-get install opendental

in a bash shell.

Using Open Dental

See Using Open Dental for more information.

Installing Mono

Open Dental makes heavy usage of Mono. Unfortunately, when we started the work to make Open Dental run on Linux, we discovered some bugs in Mono which prevented Open Dental to run. That means that no officially released version can run Open Dental.

That's why we provide our own version of Mono, which does support Open Dental. It is simply a snapshot of the development version of Mono (version 1.2.3.50, if you are into numbers).

When you install Open Dental, our version of Mono will be installed by default. However, you may want to install only Mono. Then these steps are for you.

There is no need to follow these steps if you already installed Open Dental!
  1. If Synaptic is not open already, open it by clicking System, Administration and then Synaptic Package Manager and entering your password if required.
  2. In the left list, scroll down to and click on Interpreted Languages.
  3. In the right list, scroll down to and click mono. Verify that the version is 1.2.3.50-0opendental4. (screen shot)
  4. Click the check box at the left of mono and select Mark for installation.
  5. If presented, click Mark in the Mark additional required changes? window. (screen shot)
[TO DO]

Note about Free Software

Open Dental is Free Software, just like Mono and any other piece of the GNU/Linux stack. Some people may notice that the repository doesn't include the source code. That's just a temporary transition, however, and we'll try to get it fixed as soon as possible. The current repository is here to aid us in developing Open Dental!

All the source code for the software contained in the repository is available, by public download. You can get the mono source at http://mono.ximian.com/daily/mono-latest.tar.gz or by public svn at http://svn.myrealbox.com/. The Open Dental code is at https://70.90.133.65:23793/svn/opendental/opendental4.7/. The packaging scripts are in a subdirectory, see https://70.90.133.65:23793/svn/opendental/opendental4.7/packaging/.