Installing Odoo from source on Ubuntu

System packages, PostgreSQL, a dedicated user, the source checkout, a virtual environment, wkhtmltopdf, the config file and systemd.

In this lesson

System packages, PostgreSQL and users
Source, venv, wkhtmltopdf and config
First start, database creation and updates

Key points

Python 3.12+, PostgreSQL 16+, libraries, dedicated odoo user
git clone -b 20.0 community (+ enterprise if licensed)
venv + requirements.txt; wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6 patched Qt or paper-muncher (20)
Foreground first run, then systemd; list_db = False; documented updates

Real-world example

A consultant's first on-premise install printed blank PDFs. The server had Ubuntu's wkhtmltopdf without patched Qt, so headers and footers failed. Installing the 0.12.6 patched build fixed every report; the install script now pins it.

Questions and answers

Where do enterprise addons go?

In their own folder listed in addons_path (for example /opt/odoo/enterprise).

Which command creates a database with base installed from the CLI?

odoo-bin -c odoo.conf -d prod -i base --stop-after-init

Read the full lesson, worked example and quiz