Installing an ERP and CRM with Odoo on Raspberry Pi

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Last Updated on 8th March 2023 by peppe8o

Big companies usually spend a lot of money to have complete ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions. These products usually support business and internal tasks to perform correctly complex processes. Small companies usually adopt low-cost solutions (sometimes simple spreadsheets).

In this article, we’ll see a very simple way to setup Odoo on Raspberry Pi computer boards. Please note that Odoo has a resource-intensive installation process, so using a Raspberry PI 4 model B would be better, while the Raspberry PI 3 model B/B+ could result in a timeout error on your browser during the installation process (even this shouldn’t affect your installation, you may need only to reset the admin password as shown in this post).

What is Odoo

Odoo, formerly known as OpenERP, is an open-source enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that offers a suite of business applications to manage and automate various business processes. Odoo provides modules for various business functions, including accounting, inventory management, project management, customer relationship management (CRM), e-commerce, and human resources (HR).

Odoo is built on a modular architecture, which means businesses can choose which modules to use and customize them to suit their specific needs. This makes Odoo highly flexible and adaptable, allowing it to be used by businesses of all sizes and industries.

It has an Open Source basis (Community Edition), but its features can be easily expanded by adding modules and third-party apps and integrations. Odoo has also Customer Support and Commercial features to support the needs of all companies.

What We Need

Raspberry PI 3 Model B+ image

As usual, I suggest adding from now to your favourite e-commerce shopping cart all the needed hardware, so that at the end you will be able to evaluate overall costs and decide if to continue with the project or remove them from the shopping cart. So, hardware will be only:

Step-by-Step Guide

Preparing the Operating System

Start preparing the operating system for your computer board. I suggest to install Raspberry PI OS Lite, as it doesn’t include a desktop environment, so resulting in a more performing solution. If your need, you can also install it on a Raspberry PI OS Desktop.

It is strongly recommended that you have updated your installation before starting:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install PostgreSQL

Our Odoo installation will keep data into a PostgreSQL database, also this residing in our Raspberry PI computer. Installing the database is as simple as running a single command:

sudo apt install postgresql -y

Installing Odoo

Also installing our Odoo instance is simple, but requires adding a new key:

wget -O - https://nightly.odoo.com/odoo.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/odoo-archive-keyring.gpg

and apt source:

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/odoo-archive-keyring.gpg] https://nightly.odoo.com/16.0/nightly/deb/ ./' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/odoo.list

Issuing a new “sudo apt update” will now get packages also from the odoo repository and will allow us to install Odoo with the aptitude (apt) package manager:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt install odoo -y

… and wait… The installation will require a while. Once finished, connect with your browser to the following URL (substitute <<YourRaspberryIpAddress>> with the required IP address):

http://<<YourRaspberryIpAddress>>:8069

You will see the following initialization page:

odoo-raspberry-pi-install-credentials-page

Complete the required fields (at your choice) and click “Create Database”:

odoo-raspberry-pi-install-credentials-page-filled

Again, wait a while to complete the database configuration. Because of the heavy setup process, the page could result in a timeout. In this case, launch again in your browser the URL:

http://<<YourRaspberryIpAddress>>:8069

The login page will appear:

odoo-raspberry-pi-login

You should use your email/username and password. If everything is ok, you will be logged on:

odoo-raspberry-pi-dashboard_2

If something went wrong because of the heavy installation, don’t give it up! You can use the admin password recovery procedure.

Admin Password Recover Procedure

Type the following terminal command:

sudo nano /etc/odoo/odoo.conf

Change the “admin_passwd = xxxxx” line, by setting your new password for the admin user. So, your odoo.conf should appear similar to the following:

[options]
db_host = False
db_port = False
db_user = odoo
db_password = False
default_productivity_apps = True
admin_passwd = my_supersecret_password

Edit the admin password with whatever you want, save and exit. Restart Odoo:

sudo systemctl restart odoo

Re-launch the default URL (http://<<YourRaspberryIpAddress>>:8069) in your browser and login using “admin” as Email and what you set in odoo.conf as password. If left as mine above, it will be:

Email: admin

Password: my_supersecret_password (the one you edited above)

You should now be able to use your Odoo installation.

Getting Started with Odoo on Raspberry PI

As seen, by default Odoo shows you the App list screen. At the top-right of your Odoo dashboard, you will find the menu button that enables you to switch between apps and settings. The Apps page is the one we’re coming from. When we’ll install new apps, we’ll find their shortcuts in the menù on top, near the menu button

odoo-raspberry-pi-dashboard-menu

The settings page lets you manage your users and companies. By default, only 1 user is available and you can add more with the “New” button, according to your needs:

odoo-raspberry-pi-settings-users

Installing an App on Odoo

Odoo is like an empty box. You must add apps in order to get features and functionalities. There are free and paid apps available from the Odoo marketplace (the Apps page). Usually, the free ones have an “Upgrade” button in their widget, while the free ones have an “Activate” button. Let’s try, for example, to activate the Calendar App.

Back to the App dashboard, identify the Calendar widget:

odoo-raspberry-pi-apps-calendar-widget

Click the “Activate” button available from Calendar Widget. After the Calendar installation, the button will turn to “Installed”:

odoo-raspberry-pi-apps-calendar-installed

Within the same Calendar Widget, the menu on the top right corner will make it possible for to you uninstall the module.

Once installed, you can find the new app from the main menu button:

odoo-raspberry-pi-apps-calendar-installed-menu

Here you can note that the Calendar app has also installed a number of additional Apps not required… It’s not a clear behaviour, but till they are free I can remove them one by one.

Now, going to the Calendar app, we’ll finally get our calendar page:

odoo-raspberry-pi-calendar-page

Odoo Documentation

The complete Odoo documentation can be found at the official Odoo docs.

Next Steps

Interested in more projects with your RPI? Take a look at peppe8o Raspberry PI computers tutorials pages.

Enjoy!

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