Using Open Dental

This page helps you using Open Dental on Linux.

Directory layout

It is recommended you create a directory structure like this:

/home/user/opendental/data
/home/user/opendental/data/A
/home/user/opendental/data/...
/home/user/opendental/data/Z
/home/user/opendental/export
/home/user/opendental/letter

MySQL Server

Get MySQL from your distribution. You can get the database creation script from http://www.open-dent.com/opendental.sql.

You'll need to modify the script a little. Remove this:

/*
MySQL Backup
Source Host:           localhost
Source Server Version: 4.1.10-nt
Source Database:       opendental
Date:                  2005/03/29 07:56:53
*/

and replace it with

create database opendental

Then, run

mysql -h localhost -u root < opendental.sql

Running Open Dental for the first time

The first time you run Open Dental, you'll be asked to upgrade your database. Accept to do so. For the data directories, enter the directories you created above. Remember to include a trailing "/" after the directory name. If not, Open Dental will complain.