Installing ERPNext version 16 on Ubuntu 24+ or 25+

ERPGulf Team
ERPGulf Team
Dec 17, 2025
Installing ERPNext version 16 on Ubuntu 24+ or 25+

( If Ubuntu version of your instance is 20+, most probably your Python is 3.8 and node is 12. For Frappe and ERPNext version 14, it is mandatory to have Python 3.10 and Node 16+. We have explained the upgrading procedures in this document ( https://cloud.erpgulf.com/blog/support-forum/erpnext-upgrade-from-version-13-to-version-14-ubnutu . Use that document to prepare server. Please do that and come back here to continue. If you are not sure about Ubuntu version please type this command cat /etc/os-release )

Number 16 Generic color fill icon | Freepik

If you are upgrading from 15 , use the commands below

bench switch-to-branch version-16-beta frappe erpnext hrms

bench update --patch

bench migrate

bench build

bench restart

**A video version we previously uploaded for Version 14 can tremendously help on ERPNext version 16 also. Please watch it here. ( https://youtu.be/RU9lXV1sTlI )

( commands are in blue letters )

apt-get update -y

init 6  ( will restart )

Create swap disk

sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

sudo mkswap /swapfile

sudo swapon /swapfile

Add /swapfile none swap sw 0 0 to /etc/fstab 

  ( vim /etc/fstab 

   add /swapfile none swap sw 0 0 on top )

free -h

sudo apt-get install python3-dev python3.12-dev python3-setuptools python3-pip software-properties-common xvfb libfontconfig wkhtmltopdf libmysqlclient-dev -y

( Often your Ubuntu repos doesn't have all above packages, in that case follow this steps https://cloud.erpgulf.com/blog/blogs/ubuntu-repo-issues-in-oracle-cloud-riyadh-region )

sudo apt-get install python3.12-venv -y

sudo apt install python-is-python3 -y

Test python installation and version at this stage

python3 -V ( result Python 3.12.X )

python -V ( resulat Python 3.12.X )

--------------Node 22 installation ---------

sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_22.x nodistro main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install nodejs -y

node --version

v22.1.0

--------------------------------------------

apt-get install nodejs redis-server -y

apt-get install cron git -y

Test NODE version at this stage, to make sure you have properly installed Node-16

node --version ( result must be above : v22.XXX )

npm install -g yarn

npm install -g npm@latest ( this may vary, check the output of previous command )

Check NPM version at this statem and make sure you installed npm properly

npm --version ( result must be above : 10.XX.X )

Install Mariadb

apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client -y

check MariaDB version here

mariadb --version ( result must be mariadb Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.6.7-MariaDB, )

Set Mariadb security features correct

mysql_secure_installation

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Press your [Enter] key, there is no password set by default

Switch to unix_socket authentication N

Set root password? [Y/n] Y

New password:

Re-enter new password:

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y

Set Mariadb formats.

vim /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/erpnext.cnf

Add these lines

[mysqld]

innodb-file-format=barracuda

innodb-file-per-table=1

innodb-large-prefix=1

character-set-client-handshake = FALSE

character-set-server = utf8mb4

collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci

[mysql]

default-character-set = utf8mb4

systemctl restart mariadb

Next, we are going to create a user called "erpgulf" . Set its password, usermod, and sudo prvilege.

useradd -m -s /bin/bash erpgulf

passwd erpgulf

usermod -aG sudo erpgulf

su - erpgulf

Now you are inside the new user. Now let us set it's path.

vim ~/.bashrc

add this line

PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin/

source ~/.bashrc

su - erpgulf

sudo mkdir /opt/bench

sudo chown -R erpgulf:erpgulf /opt/bench

cd /opt/bench

yarn add node-sass

Check yarn and node-sass at this point

yarn --version ( result must be:1.22.19 )

/opt/bench/node_modules/.bin/node-sass -v ( result must be: node-sass 9.0.1 (Wrapper) [JavaScript]

libsass 3.5.5 (Sass Compiler) [C/C++] )

npm node-sass -v ( Result must be: 8.19.1 )

Check pip3 version

pip3 -V ( Result must be pip 23.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.10) )

pip -V ( Result must be pip 23.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.10) )

Now we are entering to Frappe installation. Before that finish all the following tests ( in violet letters ) . Otherwise installation will fail

****************************************************

python -V ( result Python 3.11.4 )

node --version ( result must be : v20.17.0 )

npm --version ( result must be : 9.8.1 )

mariadb --version ( result must be mariadb Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.6.7-MariaDB, )

yarn --version ( result must be:1.22.19 )

/opt/bench/node_modules/.bin/node-sass -v ( result must be: node-sass 9.0.1 (Wrapper) [JavaScript] libsass 3.5.5 (Sass Compiler) [C/C++] )

npm node-sass -v ( Result must be: 9.8.1 )

pip3 --version ( Result must be pip 23.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.10) )

pip --version ( Result must be pip 23.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.10) )

redis-server --version (Redis server v=7.0.16 sha=00000000:0 malloc=jemalloc-5.2.1 bits=64 build=a3fdef44459b3ad6)

wkhtmltopdf -V ( wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6 )

git -v (git version 2.39.1)

***************************************************

Once you start using pip , you may get error "This environment is externally managed" in that case, either use following command, or use pipx

  1. remove file /usr/lib/python3.x/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED,

  2. rm /usr/lib/python3.12/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED

sudo apt install pipx

pip3 install frappe-bench ( or pipx install frappe-bench , if you havent removed EXTERNALLY-MANAGED )

sudo apt install python3.12-venv

bench init frappe-bench --frappe-branch version-16-beta

cd frappe-bench

 sed -i '/web:/ s/$/ --noreload/' Procfile

pip3 install honcho

 bench start &

While you are running the above command , you can see below

* Running on http://127.0.0.1:8000

14:29:30 web.1      | * Running on http://45.56.78.183:8000 (Press CTRL+C to quit)

Also, you can telnet to port 8000 to this server from outside.

telnet v14.erpgulf.com 8000 ( port will show open )

Press CTRL+C to return to CLI

bench new-site yourhost.erpgulf.com --db-name site01

At this point we have a frappe site running - bench start and you will get the website on port 8000. But ERPNext not yet installed. Let's continue

bench get-app erpnext --branch version-15-beta

 bench --site yourhost.erpgulf.com install-app erpnext

Now you have ERPNext on port 8000. ( http://yourhost.example.com:8000 )

You can run the setup-wizard on the browser.

----- NOW deploy it in production mode - on nginx server -------

Continues in this article ( https://cloud.erpgulf.com/blog/blogs/erpnext-version-14-install-in-production-mode-nginx-supervirso-gunicorn )

ERPGulf Team
Written by ERPGulf Team
The team behind ERPGulf blogs here, expresses their thoughts, shares the experience, often show the frustrations. Contact us on support@ERPGulf.com