Technical Solution

Installing OpenMeeting in Ubuntu 14.04

Alfred.paul | | 4 min read

OpenMeeting is an open-source project from Apache. It is a web application suitable for video conferencing, instant messaging, whiteboard, collaborative document editing, etc. The main requirement of an open meeting is Oracle Java. OpenMeeting uses a Red5 streaming server for remoting and streaming. The open meeting is an open-source solution for institutions/organizations that want to keep the conferences private and within their parameter.

Features of OpenMeeting

  • Video/Audio conferencing
  • Instant messaging
  • Calendar, for scheduling meetings
  • Whiteboard
  • File explorer to share files between members
  • Contacts and messaging
  • Recording of the conference for future reference
  • Can create polls and votes
  • Invite nonmembers to attend the conference using invitation hash
  • User management
  • Conference management
  • Public and private conferences
  • A large number of users can attend the conference
  • Moderator can control each and everyone's permission who is attending the conference
  • Provides SOAP API to integrate with other platforms
  • OAuth authentication to log in using Facebook or other OAuth providers

Open meeting can be installed by entering the following commands in the terminal.


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Then we need to install the dependencies from the repository using the following command.

sudo apt-get install unzip imagemagick ghostscript jodconverter libjpeg-dev libgif-dev libfreetype6-dev libfreetype6-dev libreoffice sox build-essential git-core checkinstall yasm texi2html libvorbis-dev libx11-dev libvpx-dev libxfixes-dev zlib1g-dev pkg-config netcat libmp3lame-dev libx264-dev

There are also packages that need to be compiled to run on Ubuntu.

1. pdf2swf

The swftools version for Ubuntu 14.04 doesn't include pdf2swf, so https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/+package/swftools has to be compiled. For this enter the below commands in terminal.

cd /opt/
sudo mkdir swftools;cd swftools
sudo wget http://www.swftools.org/swftools-0.9.2.tar.gz
sudo tar zvxf swftools-0.9.2.tar.gz
cd swftools-0.9.2
sudo ./configure
sudo make

swftools 0.9.2 gives an error on a makefile which includes an option for rm. See : https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/swftools-common/2013-02/msg00009.html

So edit the makefile in /opt/swftools/swftools-0.9.2/swfs, just change:

rm -f $(pkgdatadir)/swfs/default_viewer.swf -o -L $(pkgdatadir)/swfs/default_viewer.swf
rm -f $(pkgdatadir)/swfs/default_loader.swf -o -L $(pkgdatadir)/swfs/default_loader.swf

to

rm -f $(pkgdatadir)/swfs/default_viewer.swf
rm -f $(pkgdatadir)/swfs/default_loader.swf

Then install,

sudo make install

2. ffmpeg with mp3lame

Now create install-ffmpeg.sh and add the following commands. Note that the configure options should be double dash –

FFMPEG_VERSION=2.4.2
cd /usr/local/src
if [ ! -d /usr/local/src/ffmpeg-$FFMPEG_VERSION ]; then
sudo wget http://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-$FFMPEG_VERSION.tar.bz2
sudo tar -xjf ffmpeg-$FFMPEG_VERSION.tar.bz2
fi
cd ffmpeg-$FFMPEG_VERSION
sudo ./configure –enable-gpl –enable-version3 –enable-postproc –enable-libvorbis –enable-libvpx –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libx264 –enable-nonfree
sudo make
sudo checkinstall

Next we have to make the script executable and run the installer.

chmod +x install-ffmpeg.sh
./install-ffmpeg.sh

Confirm that all the below components are working by entering the following commands in the terminal.

  • pdf2swf : This command should output the switch options.
  • sox : This command should output the switch options.
  • identify : This (ImageMagick) should output the switch options.
  • ghostscript : This should drop to the GS (ghostscript) command prompt, quit to exit.
  • jodconverter : This should output the switch options.
  • libreoffice –version : libreoffice version confirm.
  • ffmpeg : This will output the compiled options.

Download and run the openmeetings installer, the latest version is 3.0.6 using the following commands:

cd /opt/
sudo mkdir openmeetings; cd openmeetings
sudo wget http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/rsync.apache.org/openmeetings/3.0.6/bin/apache-openmeetings-3.0.6.zip
sudo unzip apache-openmeetings-3.0.6.zip
sudo ./red5.sh

Now open the web installer http://SERVERIP:5080/openmeetings/install and set the following initial configurations.

Userdata/Organisation(Domain)
Username = Administrator name
Userpass = Administrator password
Email = Administrator email
User Time Zone = Time zone for OpenMeetings
Organisation(Domains) = Domain name

Configuration

Set the following configurations:

  • Allow self-registering (allow_frontend_register) : No
  • Send Email to new registered Users (sendEmailAtRegister) : Yes
  • New Users need to verify their EMail (sendEmailWithVerficationCode) : No
  • Default Rooms of all types will be created : Yes
  • Mail-Referer (system_email_addr) : Admin email or noreply
  • SMTP-Server (smtp_server) : SMTP server
  • SMTP-Server Port(default Smtp-Server Port is 25) (smtp_port) : SMTP Port
  • SMTP-Username (email_username) : SMTP user
  • SMTP-Userpass (email_userpass) : SMTP pass
  • Enable TLS in Mail Server Auth : Enable TLS for SMTP
  • Set inviter’s email address as ReplyTo in email invitations (inviter.email.as.replyto) : Reply to inviter
  • Default Language : Language for Openmeetings
  • Default Font for Export [default_export_font] : Font used

Converters

swftools zoom 100
swftools jpeg quality 85

All other paths for the components can be left blank or /opt/jod/lib for JOD if all the above ones are worked, otherwise enter the following paths for jodconverter.

SWFTools Path
ImageMagick Path
FFMPEG Path
SoX Path
JOD Path /opt/jod/lib
OpenOffice/LibreOffice Path

Crypt Type

leave default crypt type (org.apache.openmeetings.util.crypt.MD5Implementation)
red5SIP Configuration
Enable SIP No
SIP rooms prefix 400
SIP extensions context rooms

Click the “Finish” button to start installation! Wait until installation complete, then click “Enter the Application” and login as Admin created. Also cancel the session in the console,

sudo /opt/openmeetings/red5-shutdown.sh
sudo /opt/openmeetings/red5.sh &

Now go back to the web interface, enjoy the openmeetings http://SERVERIP:5080/openmeetings. You might need to run this script as background using utilities like screen.

References

[1]. http://openmeetings.apache.org/

[2]. https://adminramblings.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/install-openmeetings-ubuntu-14-04/

 

 

 

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