How to install request tracker on Ubuntu 12.04 Server?

Addressing your error message, as @ObsessiveSSOℲ pointed out in his comment "You should use sudo apt-get install <packagename> to install, and sudo apt-get update" to update your package index.

Installation Guidelines for installing Request Tracker(RT)

Request Tracker(rt) has a large number of dependencies required before it will work properly. What follows is a rough outline of the package requirements and steps required to complete the installation.

A complete step-by-step installation guide is beyond the scope of this question.

Request Tracker pre-requisites

The installation can be accomplished in a number of ways.

You will need to install and configure a number of applications before RT will run. I have tried to provide some preliminary sources to assist in getting started. I would strongly recommend reading over this install guide as a reference to get you started.

You will need to refer back to this guide to make additional changes to your Apache, mail, and RT services to complete the installation.

1. LAMP server
   • This can be done by running sudo tasksel install lamp-server from the command line.
   • See also the Ubuntu LAMP help page.

2. Mail server

   • Basic Postfix setup

   • dovecot configuration - for IMAP and POP3 mail deployment.

   • fetchmail is used for pulling mail into the RT ticket queue.

3. SQL server (MySQL)

   • MySQL server guide - RT does not require much manual configuration of its database beyond assigning a root user, their password, and dB name, but this might be useful for familiarity with your system.

   My system preferences are noted above, but there are other backend email and database solutions available that RT could run with as well(i.e. exim, SQlite):

Once the above applications have been installed and configured, the packages specific to request-tracker can now be installed. To begin, use the following command from the terminal (Ctrl-Alt-t):

sudo apt-get install rt4-apache2 rt4-clients rt4-db-mysql request-tracker4 rt4-extension-assettracker fetchmail

Note that I have updated the package references to reflect the latest RT packages in the 12.04 repository. If you choose to install request-tracker4 via Synaptic, most of the dependencies will be picked up, but you will need to specifically select rt4-db-mysql as the package dependencies install sqlite and exim by default.

Expect to be prompted to also install a large number(approximately 80-90) of additional packages. During installation the request-tracker4 package will bring up a menu and prompt you on personalizing your initial setup(Web URLs, default email accounts, etc.).

After the apt-get process completes, you will need to refer to the already referenced install guide to modify your apache2 and email configurations for RT-specific requirements.

Request Tracker has a very good documentation and wiki support system. There are also quite a few Q&As over on Server Fault that I have found useful for tips on customization.

Best of Luck!