For the forseeable future we are only supporting deployment on Ubuntu Linux (currently, the Gutsy and Hardy releases).  Jump down for a further discussion of this policy.

1) Add SchoolTool's Launchpad PPA to your Software Sources.

Either manually edit /etc/apt/sources.list or go to the System menu, select Software Sources and select the Third-Party Software tab.

Add these lines:

If you're running gutsy:

    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy main
    deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy main

If you're running hardy:

    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy main
    deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy main

2) Update your software list.

Either type sudo apt-get update in a Terminal or, if you've got the Synaptic package manager installed, go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, launch it, and click "Reload."

3) Install schooltool-2008

Either type sudo apt-get install schooltool-2008 in a terminal (and answer "y" to the subsequent questions), or in Synaptic search for "schooltool-2008", select it for installation, and hit "Apply."

If all goes well, many, many small Zope components will be installed and you'll have a SchoolTool server running on http://localhost:7080.  The login is "manager" and the default password is "schooltool".

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Discussion:  Since we aim to support installation by non-technical school personnel, we need to require a relatively controlled environment that we understand intimately.  In the past, we've created and people have kindly contributed packages for other operating systems and distributions.  This obviously gives people more options, but here's the problem: we don't have the resources to support multiple operating systems and distributions, especially once schools go into production with SchoolTool, especially with non-technical users.  Being able to run SchoolTool on a different operating system is a false economy if nobody can fix it when it breaks.

Today, it is usually easier to install Ubuntu on a server or virual machine than to manually install and maintain the host of libraries required by SchoolTool on a system where they aren't under package management.  SchoolTool is built on the Zope 3 framework, which is made up of dozens of separate packages.  If you aren't using the same versions of all of them that we provide, your application could break in unexpected ways.

Developers who want to check out the (unpackaged) source tree and set up a development environment can find instructions here.