Tested with Ubuntu 12.04 and Debian Squeeze.

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    Tested with Windows 7 (64 bit)

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1. Download and run the Plone Unified Installer

https://launchpad.net/plone/4.2/4.2/+download/setup-plone42-4.2.0-5363-win32.exe

2. Install Gnuplot

Visit http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/, download the Windows installer and run it using the default install parameters

3. Install Bika LIMS

Edit c:\Plone4\buildout.cfg and add "bika.lims" to the eggs section:

If you installed Plone to a different directory, eg c:\Plone42, 
please substitute in the above.

    eggs =

         ...

         bika.lims

4. Run buildout

First, start an administrator command prompt:

Click Start

Locate the "Command Prompt" entry

Right-click on it, and select "Run as Administrator" from the dropdown menu

Then type the following commands , substituting your own Plone directory, e.g. c:\Plone42, if necessary:

C:\> cd \Plone4

C:\Plone4> bin\buildout.exe

NB. It is important that the buildout.cfg is in the Plone directory when you run this command.

The buildout downloads all dependencies and if interrupted, will resume downloading when bin\buildout is run again.

Ignore SyntaxErrors and Warnings like: "Return outside function".

When successfully completed you'll see a list of 'PICKED VERSIONS'.

5. Start Plone

Plone is configured to start two Windows Services, the ZEO server, Plone 4.2 Zeo, and a Plone instance, Plone 4.2. Both should already be running at this point.

If you want to run Plone in debug mode (foreground), then you need to stop the Plone service first. Then, run: C:\Plone> bin\plonectl fg

6. Add a new site

Visit http://localhost:8080 and add a new site. Default admin credentials are admin/admin.

"bika" And "plone" are reserved words, and cannot be used for a site id (Path identifier). For this example, please use the default 'Plone'.

Be sure to select the checkbox for the Bika LIMS Add-on. If the Bika LIMS option is not available, it could mean that you had an earlier Plone server running already when the buildout was excuted, restart Plone from the Control panel at http://localhost:8080/manage and repeat adding a Bika site from http://localhost:8080.

No other add-ons need to be installed - dependencies are installed automatically.

7. Test

Visit http://localhost:8080/Plone and view your site.

8. Trouble shooting

If the Zope/Plone instance fails to start (you get a message saying "Please stop the service first"):

1. Find the running process id by opening the .pid file within your instance's var/ directory.
2. Open the Windows Task Manager and stop the running process with the above identifier.
3. Delete all .pid and .lock files in your instance's var/ directory.
4. Start your instance.

9. Debug performance enhancement

Running in foreground will by default set debug mode to be on for resource registries. This is tragically slow; Turn off registry debugging in ZMI at /portal_css and at /portal_javascripts. It must be done after every server start.

To boost Windows debug performance: In the file Products/CMFCore.DirectoryView, function DirectoryInformation._changed(), comment out the whole whole block that begins with: if platform == 'win32'