How to Install PostgreSQL with pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint 21/20

Winnie OndaraLast Updated: August 16, 2023 Linux Mint, PostgreSQL 43 Comments

pgAdmin is an open-source feature-rich, frontend management tool that allows you to easily administer and manage your PostgreSQL relational database from a web browser.

It provides an easy-to-use user interface that simplifies the creation and monitoring of databases and database objects. PgAdmin 4 is an improvement of the earlier pgAdmin tool and is available for Linux, Windows, macOS systems, and even a Docker container.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install PostgreSQL with pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint 21 and Linux Mint 20.

Step 1: Install PostgreSQL Database on Linux Mint

1. To start off, launch your terminal and update your packages using the apt package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt update -y

Once the update is complete, proceed to the next step.

Since pgAdmin4 provides a frontend interface for the management of PostgreSQL database objects, it’s essential to have PostgreSQL installed first.

2. To do this, we are going to install the postgresql package and postgresql-contrib which offers extended features that extend the functionality of PostgreSQL.

$ sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib

3. Usually, PostgreSQL starts automatically on boot up. You can confirm this using the command given below:

$ sudo systemctl status postgresql

4. To log in to your PostgreSQL instance, first switch to the postgres user. The Postgres user comes included by default with the installation of PostgreSQL. Then run the psql command as shown.

$ sudo -i -u postgres
$ psql
# \q

5. Additionally, you can check if the database server is accepting incoming connections as shown.

$ sudo pg_isready

Check PostgreSQL Accepting Incoming Connections

Step 2: Install pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint

pgAdmin4 is available for Ubuntu 16.04 and later versions and can easily be installed using the APT package manager. The same cannot support Linux Mint and Pgadmi4 developers are yet to include support that allows users to easily install the frontend management tool using the APT package manager.

6. The only viable option is to install pgAdmin4 from a virtual environment. So first, we will install the prerequisite packages as shown.

$ sudo apt install libgmp3-dev build-essential libssl-dev

7. Next, install the Python virtual environment and associated dependencies.

$ sudo apt install python3-virtualenv python3-dev libpq-dev

8. Next, create a directory where you will create a virtual environment.

$ mkdir pgadmin4 && cd pgadmin4

9. Then create the virtual environment as shown. Here, pgadmin4env is the name of the virtual environment.

$ virtualenv pgadmin4env

10. Once the virtual environment is in place, activate it as shown.

$ source pgadmin4env/bin/activate

11. Then use the pip tool to install pgadmin4 as shown.

$ pip install https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/v7.5/pip/pgadmin4-7.5-py3-none-any.whl

12. Next, create a configuration file config_local.py.

-------- On Linux Mint 20 --------
$ sudo nano pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/config_local.py

-------- On Linux Mint 21 --------
$ sudo nano pgadmin4env/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pgadmin4/config_local.py

and add the lines below.

import os
DATA_DIR = os.path.realpath(os.path.expanduser(u'~/.pgadmin/'))
LOG_FILE = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, 'pgadmin4.log')
SQLITE_PATH = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, 'pgadmin4.db')
SESSION_DB_PATH = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, 'sessions')
STORAGE_DIR = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, 'storage')
SERVER_MODE = False
AZURE_CREDENTIAL_CACHE_DIR = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, 'azurecredentialcache')

13. To start the pgAdmin4 management tool, invoke the command:

-------- On Linux Mint 20 -------- 
$ python pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py

-------- On Linux Mint 21 --------
$ python pgadmin4env/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py

14. Finally, head over to your browser and browse the address shown.

http://127.0.0.1:5050

You will be prompted to set the master password, so proceed and set a strong password and click the ‘Ok’ button.

15. To make things easier, you can create an alias in the ~/.bashrc file as shown.

-------- On Linux Mint 20 -------- 
$ echo "alias startPg='~/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/bin/python pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py'" >> ~/.bashrc

-------- On Linux Mint 21 -------- 
$ echo "alias startPg='~/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/bin/python pgadmin4env/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py'" >> ~/.bashrc

16. Next, update the bashrc file.

$ source ~/.bashrc

17. Finally, you can start the pgAdmin4 management tool by simply invoking the startPg command.

$ startPg &

Once again head over to your browser and log in to the PgAdmin4 interface. And this concludes the installation of PostgreSQL with pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint 21 and Linux Mint 20.

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Winnie Ondara

My name is Winnie, a Linux enthusiast and passionate tech writer in Linux and DevOPs topics. I enjoy keeping abreast with the latest technologies in the Linux ecosystem and trying out new tools provided by the FOSS community.

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43 thoughts on “How to Install PostgreSQL with pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint 21/20”

Odilon Ferreira

December 1, 2022 at 11:08 pm

Hey, Guys!

I had this problem when running explain the analysis.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

:ERROR: unrecognized EXPLAIN option "summary" SQL state: 42601
Reply
Steve

November 28, 2022 at 5:39 am

Hi, Thanks for the guide.

I am stuck on steps 12 and 13 of installing pgadmin. Do I open up a separate terminal tab to add the step 13 command?
Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  November 28, 2022 at 9:13 am
  
  @Steve,
  
  Why are you stuck, I mean any errors you getting while running the command on step 12?
  Reply
  - Steve
    
    December 2, 2022 at 10:11 pm
    
    Hi Ravi,
    
    Thanks for the reply. I am very new to linux. My confusion is after I copy and paste the code in Step 12 and hit enter, do I open up a new terminal tab to enter the Step 13 instructions? Because after entering the Step 12 instruction, I don’t get a prompt to enter a new instruction.
    
    Thanks,
    Steve
    Reply
    - Ravi Saive
      
      December 3, 2022 at 1:26 pm
      
      @Steve,
      
      As explained in step #12, have you added the given code to the file config_local.py?
      Reply
Carlos Israel

November 15, 2022 at 12:48 am

I am getting the below error while installing pgadmin4 in Linux Mint.

aceback (most recent call last): File "pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py", line 35, in import config File "/home/carlos/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/config.py", line 25, in from pgadmin.utils import env, IS_WIN, fs_short_path File "/home/carlos/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgadmin/__init__.py", line 21, in from flask import Flask, abort, request, current_app, session, url_for File "/home/carlos/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/flask/__init__.py", line 19, in from jinja2 import Markup, escape ImportError: cannot import name 'Markup' from 'jinja2' (/home/carlos/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/jinja2/__init__.py)
Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  November 15, 2022 at 12:29 pm
  
  @Carlos,
  
  I have updated the pgadmin4 installation instructions for Linux Mint 21 and Linux Mint 20. I hope it will fix your pgadmin4 installation errors…
  Reply
Pedro Bezunartea López

May 1, 2022 at 5:17 pm
As suggested by @Thomas Tschoepke, there’s an easier way: adding the sources to your APT. Linux Mint follows Ubuntu 20, which in turn is based on Debian “bullseye”, so Thomas’s instructions just need to be adjusted:
```
$ sudo curl https://www.pgadmin.org/static/packages_pgadmin_org.pub | sudo apt-key add
$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/apt/bullseye pgadmin4 main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgadmin4.list'
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install pgadmin4-desktop #for desktop
OR
$ sudo apt install pgadmin4-web #for web
```
```
If web version:
```
```
$ sudo /usr/pgadmin4/bin/setup-web.sh
```
HTH
Reply
- Ludwig
  
  July 29, 2022 at 5:30 pm
  Tried this approach on Linux Mint 20.3 Una (base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal), the installation ran without problems, but starting pgAdmin4 failed with the message “The pgadmin 4 server could not be contacted”.
  
  Reason in my case:
  the symbolic python-links under /usr/pgadmin4/venv/bin/were dead because of missing python3.9
  
  Workaround:
```
$ sudo apt install python3.9
```
  Reply
- Peterj
  
  November 29, 2022 at 7:07 pm
  
  I think that the suggested scripts for adding a repo to APT are for Mint 20. Is there an alteration needed for use with Mint 21?
  Reply
- peterj
  
  December 8, 2022 at 11:36 pm
  
  Trying this in Mint 21. When I try
  
  $ sudo /usr/pgadmin4/bin/setup-web.sh
  
  I get
  
  Setting up pgAdmin 4 in web mode on a Debian-based platform…
  Creating configuration database…
  /usr/pgadmin4/bin/setup-web.sh: line 75: /usr/pgadmin4/venv/bin/python3: No such file or directory
  Error setting up server mode. Please examine the output above.
  
  Looking in /usr/pgadmin4/venv/bin/ the symbolic links to python, python3 and python3.9 are showing as broken.
  
  I have Python3.10 installed as default. Trying to install 3.9 as well (which I guess is probably a bad idea anyway?) results in
  
  bio@bio-LIFEBOOK-S752:~$ sudo apt install python3.9
  Reading package lists… Done
  Building dependency tree… Done
  Reading state information… Done
  E: Unable to locate package python3.9
  E: Couldn’t find any package by glob ‘python3.9’
  
  Any suggestions are gratefully received.
  Reply
Thomas Tschoepke

December 2, 2021 at 12:23 am

This tutorial does not work anymore… Back to version 3 :-(
Reply
- Thomas Tschoepke
  
  December 2, 2021 at 12:32 am
  $ sudo curl https://www.pgadmin.org/static/packages_pgadmin_org.pub | sudo apt-key add $ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/apt/focal pgadmin4 main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgadmin4.list && apt update' $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install pgadmin4-desktop #for desktop OR $ sudo apt install pgadmin4-web #for web
  If web version:
```
$ sudo /usr/pgadmin4/bin/setup-web.sh
```
  Reply
  - Ami
    
    February 27, 2022 at 7:29 am
    
    With these steps I get:
    
    E: The repository 'https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/apt/focal pgadmin4 Release' does not have a Release file. E: The repository 'http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt ulyssa-pgdg Release' does not have a Release file.
    Reply
    - Pedro Bezunartea López
      
      May 1, 2022 at 5:11 pm
      
      Hi Ami,
      
      If you’re using Linux Mint 20, you just need to change the line:
      
      deb https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/apt/focal pgadmin4 main
      
      with
      
      deb https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/apt/bullseye pgadmin4 main
      
      in the file “/etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgadmin4.list”
      
      Then continue with the step “sudo apt update”, and so on.
      
      HTH
      Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  December 2, 2021 at 11:26 am
  
  @Thomas,
  
  I have tried it on my Linux Mint 20, and it worked well. What error are you getting on your side?
  Reply
  - Thomas Tschoepke
    
    December 3, 2021 at 4:35 pm
    
    Can’t remember the error. But with the steps, I posted above one does not need virtual environments and stuff…
    
    The install is straight forward as any other package.
    Reply
Jesus Reina

August 17, 2021 at 9:24 pm

pgadmin4env) root@usuario-Intel-powered-classmate-PC:~/pgadmin4# python pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py
NOTE: Configuring authentication for DESKTOP mode.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/root/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py”, line 1771, in _execute_context
self.dialect.do_execute(
File “/root/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py”, line 717, in do_execute
cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
sqlite3.OperationalError: table version already exists
Reply
Aga

June 20, 2021 at 12:28 am

Got the same issue, does anyone know how to uninstall all of this?
Reply
Agung Setiawan

June 9, 2021 at 12:19 am

Same issue
Reply
Uğur Volkan Göl

June 7, 2021 at 4:46 pm

Same issue for me too
Reply

Step 11: The package is no longer available, currently you can use Version 4.30:
pip install https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/v4.30/pip/pgadmin4-4.30-py3-none-any.whl

Step 13: Meanwhile in Version 4.30 there is a binary to start the server:
./pgadmin4env/bin/pgadmin4&

@Sven,

Thanks, corrected in the article as suggested by you…

Can I ask that want version of python you used, because I got error like this:

(pgadmin4env) lj@lj-Aspire-V3-471G:~/pgadmin4$ ./pgadmin4env/bin/pgadmin4&
[1] 38587
(pgadmin4env) lj@lj-Aspire-V3-471G:~/pgadmin4$ NOTE: Configuring authentication for DESKTOP mode.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", 
line 1705, in _execute_context
    self.dialect.do_execute(
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py", 
line 691, in do_execute
    cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
sqlite3.OperationalError: table version already exists

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./pgadmin4env/bin/pgadmin4", line 5, in 
    from pgadmin4.pgAdmin4 import main
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py", line 94, in 
    app = create_app()
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgadmin/__init__.py", line 351, in create_app
    db_upgrade(app)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgadmin/setup/db_upgrade.py", line 25, in db_upgrade
    flask_migrate.upgrade(migration_folder)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/flask_migrate/__init__.py", line 95, in wrapped
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/flask_migrate/__init__.py", line 280, in upgrade
    command.upgrade(config, revision, sql=sql, tag=tag)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/command.py", line 294, in upgrade
    script.run_env()
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/script/base.py", line 490, in run_env
    util.load_python_file(self.dir, "env.py")
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/util/pyfiles.py", line 97, in load_python_file
    module = load_module_py(module_id, path)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/util/compat.py", line 182, in load_module_py
    spec.loader.exec_module(module)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgadmin/setup/../../migrations/env.py", line 93, in 
    run_migrations_online()
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgadmin/setup/../../migrations/env.py", line 86, in run_migrations_online
    context.run_migrations()
  File "", line 8, in run_migrations
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/runtime/environment.py", line 813, in run_migrations
    self.get_context().run_migrations(**kw)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/runtime/migration.py", line 560, in run_migrations
    step.migration_fn(**kw)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/migrations/versions/fdc58d9bd449_.py", line 45, in upgrade
    op.create_table('version',
  File "", line 8, in create_table
  File "", line 3, in create_table
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/operations/ops.py", line 1109, in create_table
    return operations.invoke(op)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/operations/base.py", line 354, in invoke
    return fn(self, operation)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/operations/toimpl.py", line 101, in create_table
    operations.impl.create_table(table)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/ddl/impl.py", line 277, in create_table
    self._exec(schema.CreateTable(table))
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/alembic/ddl/impl.py", line 146, in _exec
    return conn.execute(construct, multiparams)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1200, in execute
    return meth(self, multiparams, params, _EMPTY_EXECUTION_OPTS)
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/sql/ddl.py", line 77, in _execute_on_connection
    return connection._execute_ddl(
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1290, in _execute_ddl
    ret = self._execute_context(
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1748, in _execute_context
    self._handle_dbapi_exception(
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1929, in _handle_dbapi_exception
    util.raise_(
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/util/compat.py", line 211, in raise_
    raise exception
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1705, in _execute_context
    self.dialect.do_execute(
  File "/home/lj/pgadmin4/pgadmin4env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py", line 691, in do_execute
    cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError: (sqlite3.OperationalError) table version already exists
[SQL: 
CREATE TABLE version (
	name VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL, 
	value INTEGER NOT NULL, 
	PRIMARY KEY (name)
)

]
(Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/14/e3q8)
^C
[1]+  Exit 1                  ./pgadmin4env/bin/pgadmin4

Danny Hamshananth

April 16, 2021 at 12:07 pm

Hi LJ,

Got the same error as yours…

Tried to fix it by myself. But it didn’t worked.

My Linux Mint is 20.1 Ulyssa and the Python version is 3.8.5 (The default one available with the OS).

I was managed to install and connect Postgres with Ravi Saive’s guidelines (Author of this article).

But, I managed to connect PGAdmin3 (the version currently available in Mint’s Software Manager) with the Postgres server.

But with one change..

1) Login to Server as Super User – sudo -u postgres psql postgres

2) Reset the super user’s password using – postgres=# ALTER USER postgres PASSWORD 'root';

(https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7695962/postgresql-password-authentication-failed-for-user-postgres)

Please share if you find out a solution for PGAdmin4
Reply
Ahmad

May 11, 2021 at 3:04 am

I have the same issue…
Reply
- Aditya Saxena
  
  June 6, 2021 at 2:00 pm
  
  Same issue for me too

Step 1: Install PostgreSQL Database on Linux Mint

Step 2: Install pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint

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43 thoughts on “How to Install PostgreSQL with pgAdmin4 on Linux Mint 21/20”

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