How to install freetds in Linux?

Question

I am trying to connect to MSSQL server from Ubuntu. I have installed freetds like suggested here.

However, when I try to configure /etc/odbc.ini and enter a driver path I have no driver at location /usr/local/freetds/lib/libtdsodbc.so.

Can someone help me to install freetds and to configure odbc to use it? *edit1: I have found libtdsodbc.so in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc. Should I use that driver/path?

Perrin

check my the steps I followed here, hope that help you: #34726023 – Brevet

Answer 1

I've created a Vagrant box which has a full installation example here: https://github.com/FlipperPA/django-python3-vagrant/

...but here are the basic steps.

(NOTE: change dbserver.domain.com to your server hostname or IP)

# Install pre-requesite packages
sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev freetds-dev freetds-bin tdsodbc

Point odbcinst.ini to the driver in /etc/odbcinst.ini:

[FreeTDS]
Description = v0.91 with protocol v7.2
Driver = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so

Create your DSNs in /etc/odbc.ini:

[dbserverdsn]
Driver = FreeTDS
Server = dbserver.domain.com
Port = 1433
TDS_Version = 7.2

...and your DSNs in /etc/freetds.conf:

[global]
    # TDS protocol version, use:
    # 7.3 for SQL Server 2008 or greater (tested through 2014)
    # 7.2 for SQL Server 2005
    # 7.1 for SQL Server 2000
    # 7.0 for SQL Server 7
    tds version = 7.2
    port = 1433

    # Whether to write a TDSDUMP file for diagnostic purposes
    # (setting this to /tmp is insecure on a multi-user system)
;   dump file = /tmp/freetds.log
;   debug flags = 0xffff

    # Command and connection timeouts
;   timeout = 10
;   connect timeout = 10
    
    # If you get out-of-memory errors, it may mean that your client
    # is trying to allocate a huge buffer for a TEXT field.  
    # Try setting 'text size' to a more reasonable limit 
    text size = 64512

# A typical Microsoft server
[dbserverdsn]
    host = dbserver.domain.com
    port = 1433
    tds version = 7.2

After completing this, you can test your connection by attempting to connect with tsql (to test the FreeTDS layer) and isql (for the unixODBC through FreeTDS stack).

Catechism

I'm new in this. I suppose I shoud change Server = dbserver.domain.com with IP of my server? Is this how I use tsql tsql -S dbserverdsn or should I write IP there? When I use tsql -S dbserverdsn I get Error 100 (severity 11): unrecognized msgno Error 20009 (severity 9):Unable to connect: Adaptive Server is unavailable or does not exist OS error 111, "Connection refused" There was a problem connecting to the server – Perrin

there should be tsql -S dbserverdsn <userid> <password> – Mourning

I checked the tds version with tsql -C and saw it was 4.2. I replaced the 7.2's above with 4.2 and that seemed to remove the msgno error – Eady

@Catechism - wow thank you for this solution - I am able to connect QGIS Destop to MS SQL Server on a Linux Mint desktop, which I haven't been able to figure out for nearly a decade! – Unreeve

Answer 2

The version available via apt-get is a really old version. To get a newer version:

sudo apt-get install wget
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev

# find latest version of FreeTDS ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/stable/

wget ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/stable/freetds-1.2.tar.gz
tar -xzf freetds-1.2.tar.gz
cd freetds-1.2
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-tdsver=7.3
sudo make
sudo make install

Roselani

Just FYI: Current stable release version is 1.12 (2019/07). – Legalese

Very useful, thanks! – Sauna

Working on Ubuntu 22.10! Thank you wery much! – Durkheim

Answer 3

in freedts.conf

[Server80]
        host = example.com
        port = 1433
        tds version = 8.0
        client charset = UTF-8

in odbc.ini

[MSSQL8]
Driver          = FreeTDS
Description     = Sybase JDBC Server
Trace           = No
Servername      = Server80
Database        = DBNAME
UID             = sa
ClientCharset   = UTF-8

in odbcinst.ini

[FreeTDS]
Description=v0.63 with protocol v8.0
Driver=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
UsageCount=2

Appointment

It seems working with sudo apt install -y freetds-bin (!) – Hibbert