Installing on Windows

Before you begin

• Windows 10 (version 2004 or later) or Windows 11
• An account that can run PowerShell as administrator
• Sufficient disk space to store service data and files you'll upload in the future

Installing WSL and Ubuntu

If WSL is already installed, skip this step and go to Installing SpaceBuilder.

1. Run PowerShell as administrator.
   Search for PowerShell in Windows Search, right-click it, and select Run as administrator.
   
2. A terminal window opens, as shown below.
   
   Enter the following command.

   wsl --install
   

   
   This command installs WSL2 together with Ubuntu, the default distribution.
3. When the installation finishes, restart your computer.
4. After the restart, when the Ubuntu terminal opens automatically, enter the username and password you want to use to create your Ubuntu account.
   The terminal displays the following.

   Installing, this may take a few minutes...
   Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
   For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
   Enter new UNIX username:
   

   
   Enter a username and press Enter. The terminal then asks for a password (New password:) and its confirmation (Retype new password:) in turn. When this is complete, the Installation successful! message appears together with the Ubuntu shell prompt (username@pcname:~$).
   Congratulations. You can now use Linux on Windows. Keep the Ubuntu terminal open for now.

Checking Linux

You can also confirm in File Explorer that the installation succeeded. When you open File Explorer, a Linux item has been added toward the bottom of the left sidebar.

Click Linux to see the Ubuntu folder. Go into home inside it, and a folder named after the username you just entered appears.

Downloading and moving the installer

1. Download the Linux installer (setfn-spacebuilder) from the download page.
2. In File Explorer, go to the Linux → Ubuntu → home → (the username you entered earlier) folder you checked above, then move the downloaded file into this folder.
   

Installing SpaceBuilder

The Ubuntu environment in WSL works the same way as a regular Linux environment. Because you have already moved the installer, start by granting execute permission with the following command in the Ubuntu terminal.

chmod +x ~/setfn-spacebuilder

Installing required libraries

SpaceBuilder also uses programs (libraries) installed on the computer for image analysis and preview generation. On Ubuntu 24.04 and later, install the following packages first.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
  libvips42t64 libvips-tools \
  libheif1 libheif-plugin-libde265 \
  libglib2.0-0

Installing recommended feature packages

The SpaceBuilder server also handles OCR, PDF analysis, document previews, and format conversion for uploaded files by itself. The basic server features run without the following packages, but some features are limited or fewer conversion engines are available when related files are processed.

To use all OCR and document conversion features, we recommend installing the following packages together.

sudo apt install -y \
  tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-kor tesseract-ocr-jpn \
  poppler-utils \
  libreoffice pandoc

You can check the installation status with the following commands.

vips --version
vips list classes | grep -i heif
tesseract --version
tesseract --list-langs
pdftotext -v
libreoffice --version
pandoc --version

Running the installer

Run the installer file.

./setfn-spacebuilder

By default, the installer opens the initial setup page on port 18510. If another program is already using that port, the next available port is selected automatically, so always connect using the address printed in the terminal.

Accessing it from a Windows browser

WSL2 shares its network with Windows, so even while SpaceBuilder is running inside Ubuntu, you can open it directly at http://localhost:18510 from a Windows browser such as Chrome or Edge. If the port is different, use the address printed in the Ubuntu terminal as is.

When the initial setup page opens, review and agree to the terms of service, then go to Initial Setup to configure the administrator account and service environment.

Good to Know

• Closing the Ubuntu terminal also stops SpaceBuilder. To keep it running after you close the terminal, see Starting automatically and set up systemd auto-start. To use systemd in WSL, you first need the systemd=true setting under [boot] in /etc/wsl.conf.
• Shutting down or restarting Windows also shuts down WSL. Even if you have set up systemd auto-start, Windows does not turn WSL back on automatically, so after a restart you need to open the Ubuntu terminal yourself for SpaceBuilder to start again.
• To connect from another device on the same network, you also need to check the WSL network settings and the Windows firewall rules.

Starting WSL automatically after a Windows restart

If you register a task in Task Scheduler that runs WSL automatically at Windows logon, SpaceBuilder starts again after a restart without you opening the Ubuntu terminal yourself. systemd auto-start must already be set up.

1. Search for taskschd.msc (or Task Scheduler) in Windows Search and run it.
2. Select Create Task (you must use Create Task, not Create Basic Task, to set the detailed options).
3. On the Triggers tab, select New, set Begin the task to At log on, and then select the user account to use.
4. On the Actions tab, select New, enter wsl.exe in Program/script, and enter the following in Add arguments.

-d Ubuntu -u <username> -- true

Replace <username> with the username you set when you created the Ubuntu account. This command only boots WSL so that systemd runs. The SpaceBuilder service you enabled then starts automatically.

Related Documents

• Installing on Linux
• Initial Setup