📜 Introduction

This guide will walk you through setting up Database 4 Everything (Db4E) on your system, from installing dependencies to launching the application.

📝 Prerequisites

✅ Debian Linux

Db4E is certified for Debian 12 “Bookworm” and works best on a clean, minimal installation.
We recommend the NetInst ISO with only the following option selected during setup:

Standard system utilities

Db4E should also run on other modern Linux distributions with minimal changes.

📥 Required Packages

Before installing Db4E, make sure the following packages are installed:

sudo apt-get install gnupg curl libhwloc15 python3.11-venv libzmq5 pip

📦 Why they’re needed

gnupg, curl — for installing MongoDB
libhwloc15 — required by XMRig
python3.11-venv, pip — for Python virtual environment and installing Db4E
libzmq5 — required by P2Pool

🕵️ Dedicated db4e Account (Optional)

Pro Tip: For security and isolation, we recommend creating a dedicated Linux user for Db4E (e.g., db4e). This step is optional, but considered a best practice.

🔧 Set Up a Python Virtual Environment

Db4E is distributed as a PyPI package. It’s recommended to install it inside a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv db4e
. db4e/bin/activate

✅ Install Db4E

Once your virtual environment is activated:

pip install db4e

🧩 Initial Install & Setup

Launch Db4E from your virtual environment:

db4e

On first launch, you’ll be guided through the Initial Install screen.

You’ll be asked to provide:

Your Monero wallet address (for mining payouts)
A deployment directory (used to store binaries, configuration files, logs etc.)

Once you click Proceed, Db4E will perform an environment setup using elevated privileges via sudo.

⚙️ What the Installer Does

The db4e-initial-setup.sh script performs the following:

Creates a custom sudoers entry (/etc/sudoers.d/db4e) to allow system control of Monero, P2Pool, and XMRig without prompting for a password
Installs systemd service definitions for all Db4E-managed components under /etc/systemd/system/
Sets XMRig ownership to root and sets the suid bit so it can access CPU MSRs (model-specific registers) for optimized performance

🔐 Sudo Configuration (Temporary)

For the Initial Install to complete successfully, your user must be able to execute sudo commands without being prompted for a password.

If you’re using the default Debian sudo configuration:

%sudo    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

You must temporarily change it to:

%sudo    ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

⚠️ Important: After completing the Initial Install, you can safely revert this change.

🚧 Coming Soon 🚧: Security architecture that will not require this (re)configuration of the sudo subsystem.

🚀 Launch Db4E

To launch the application from your virtual environment:

db4e

Db4E will start in terminal UI (TUI) mode. If setup was successful, you’ll see the main dashboard interface.