How to Install Django on Arch Linux

Django is an open-source web framework used for developing Python-based websites. It is built by experienced developers to make it easier for the rapid development of secure and maintainable websites. It is based on the Model View Template design that reduces a lot of hassles that a developer has to face during the development of a website.

In this post, we will show you how to install Django on Arch Linux.

Step 1 – Configure Repository

By default, the default repository is outdated in Arch Linux, so you will need to modify the default mirror list. You can do it by editing the mirror list configuration file:

nano  /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Remove all lines and add the following lines:

## Score: 0.7, United States
Server = http://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 0.8, United States
Server = http://lug.mtu.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://mirror.nl.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 0.9, United Kingdom
Server = http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 1.5, United Kingdom
Server = http://mirrors.manchester.m247.com/arch-linux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://archlinux.dcc.fc.up.pt/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 6.6, United States
Server = http://mirror.cs.pitt.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 6.7, United States
Server = http://mirrors.acm.wpi.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 6.8, United States
Server = http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 7.1, India
Server = http://mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 10.1, United States
Server = http://mirrors.xmission.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Save and close the file, then update all the package indexes with the following command:

pacman -Syu

Step 2 – Install Python Dependencies

Django is a Python-based application. So you will need to install Python and other dependencies to your server. You can install all of them using the following command.

pacman -S python python-pip

Next, update the PIP package with the following command.

pip3 install --upgrade pip

Next, install the virtualenv package.

pip3 install virtualenv

Next, verify the PIP version using the following command.

pip3 --version

You will get the following output.

pip 23.0 from /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pip (python 3.10)

Step 3 – Install and Configure MySQL Database Server

First, install the MySQL server using the following command.

pacman -S mysql

Next, initialize the MySQL database using the following command.

mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql

Next, start and enable the MySQL service with the following command.

systemctl start mysqld
systemctl enable mysqld

Next, log into the MySQL shell with the following command.

mysql

Once logged in, create a database and user for Django:

CREATE DATABASE django;
CREATE USER 'django'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';

Next, grant all the privileges to the Django database with the following command.

GRANT ALL ON django.* TO 'django'@'localhost';

Now, flush the privileges and exit from the MySQL shell with the following command.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4 – Install Django Arch Linux

First, create a Django project directory and create a virtual environment for Django using the following command.

mkdir django
cd django
python3 -m venv djangoenv

Next, activate the virtual environment with the following command.

source djangoenv/bin/activate

Next, install Django using the following command.

pip install django

You will get the following output.

Collecting django
  Downloading Django-4.1.6-py3-none-any.whl (8.1 MB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 8.1/8.1 MB 29.9 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting asgiref<4,>=3.5.2
  Downloading asgiref-3.6.0-py3-none-any.whl (23 kB)
Collecting sqlparse>=0.2.2
  Using cached sqlparse-0.4.3-py3-none-any.whl (42 kB)
Installing collected packages: sqlparse, asgiref, django
Successfully installed asgiref-3.6.0 django-4.1.6 sqlparse-0.4.3

[notice] A new release of pip available: 22.3.1 -> 23.0
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip

Next, install the MySQL client package.

pip install mysqlclient

Next, create a Django project with the following command.

django-admin startproject djangoproject .

Next, edit the Django configuration file with the following command.

nano djangoproject/settings.py

Add your server IP or domain name as shown below:

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['your_server_ip']

Find the following database section.

DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3',
}
}

And replace them with the following lines.

DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
'NAME': 'django',
'USER': 'django',
'PASSWORD': 'yourpassword',
'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
'PORT' : '3306',
}
}

Next, add/modify the following lines:

import os

STATIC_URL='/static/'
STATIC_ROOT=os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static/')

MEDIA_URL='/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT=os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media/')

Save and close the file when you are done. Then, migrate the database with the following command.

./manage.py makemigrations
./manage.py migrate

You will get the following output.

Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK
  Applying admin.0003_logentry_add_action_flag_choices... OK
  Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
  Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
  Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
  Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
  Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK
  Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0009_alter_user_last_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0010_alter_group_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0011_update_proxy_permissions... OK
  Applying auth.0012_alter_user_first_name_max_length... OK
  Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK

Step 5 – Create a Django Superuser

Next, create an administrative user for Django using the following command.

./manage.py createsuperuser

Define your email address and password as shown below:

Username (leave blank to use 'root'): hiteshj
Email address: [email protected]
Password: 
Password (again): 
Superuser created successfully.

Next, copy all static files with the following command.

./manage.py collectstatic

Step 6 – Start Django Server

At this point, Django is installed and configured. You can now start Django using the following command.

./manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

You should see the following output.

Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
February 06, 2023 - 08:00:46
Django version 4.1.6, using settings 'djangoproject.settings'
Starting development server at http://0.0.0.0:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

Step 7 – Access Django Web UI

Django is now started and listens on port 8000. You can now access it using the URL http://your-server-ip:8000/admin. You should see the Django login page on the following screen.

Provide your admin username and password and click on the Login button. You should see the Django dashboard on the following screen.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Django on Arch Linux. You can now start developing and deploying Python applications using the Django framework. You can set up a Django on a dedicated server hosting from Atlantic.Net!