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Difference between revisions of "System Administrator's Guide/Installing Mahara/How to install Mahara in Ubuntu"

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< System Administrator's Guide‎ | Installing Mahara
(Complete rewrite to suggest Postgres rather than the evils of MySQL)
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This guide is just for installing a development site of Mahara as a localhost. For a production site, you would read the complete "[https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/index.html Ubuntu Server Guide]"  documentation.
 
This guide is just for installing a development site of Mahara as a localhost. For a production site, you would read the complete "[https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/index.html Ubuntu Server Guide]"  documentation.
  
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During the installation process of Ubuntu 9.04, you should have had the option of installing a lamp server for local web development, but if not, the instructions are pretty simple. From the console, just type:
+
These instructions assume that you're running a fresh installation of Ubuntu 11.10 or similar.
  
−
   sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 mysql-server-5.0 phpmyadmin
+
== Install Required Packages ==
 +
 
 +
<code>
 +
   sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 postgresql-9.1 php5-gd php5-pgsql php5-xmlrpc php5-curl
 +
</code>
 
   
 
   
 +
This should install all the dependencies we need.
 +
 +
After installing the packages, just follow the instructions provided in the "[[System Administrator's Guide/Installing Mahara|Installing Mahara]]" main document to unzip and install the Mahara folders.
 +
 +
== Download and unpack Mahara ==
 +
 +
In this example, we install mahara to /srv/www/[hostname], and store our data in /srv/data/[hostname].
 +
 +
<code>
 +
cd /srv/
 +
mkdir data www
 +
cd www
 +
wget http://launchpad.net/mahara/1.4/1.4.0/+download/mahara-1.4.0.zip
 +
unzip mahara-1.4.0.zip
 +
rm mahara-1.4.0.zip
 +
mv mahara-1.4.0 [hostname]
 +
</code>
 +
 +
== Configure the Database ==
 +
 +
The easiest way to create the database is to switch to the postgres user.
 +
 +
We'll create a new user (mahara), and also a new database (also mahara).
  
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Hopefully, this will install all the dependencies we need. Phpmyadmin is not strictly needed to run your Mahara development site, but will allow you to check the database structure of Mahara. you can launch phpmyadmin by typing in your browser: localhost/phpmyadmin.
+
<code>
 +
sudo su - postgres
 +
createuser -SRDP mahara
 +
[password]
 +
[confirm password]
 +
createdb -O mahara -EUTF8 mahara
 +
exit
 +
</code>
  
−
After we are sure that we have a lamp server platform installed, just follow the instructions provided in the "[[System Administrator's Guide/Installing Mahara|Installing Mahara]]" main document to unzip and install the Mahara folders.  As we are using MySQL as database, you can create the Mahara database directly in phpmyadmin. Remember to choose "utf8_general_ci" as a codification standard.
+
== Configure Apache2 ==
  
−
The next step is to add your Mahara site as a new virtual hosts. There are many ways of doing so. This way will allow you to practice some Ubuntu commands (but if you are really desperate for time, there is a fastest way at the end of the explanation):
+
The next step is to add your Mahara site as a new virtual hosts. There are many ways of doing so but this is the most straight forward:
  
 
# Create a new file called "mahara.conf" (for instance) at /etc/apache2/sites-available.
 
# Create a new file called "mahara.conf" (for instance) at /etc/apache2/sites-available.
Line 21: Line 55:
 
(or alternatively "sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available").
 
(or alternatively "sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available").
  
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3.It is in this file where we are going to copy and paste the "Virtual Host" bit in the main instructions that you don't know what to do with. You need to customize that file with the values for your installation, in my case:
+
The following is a very basic example of an Apache configuration for Mahara. You'll need to put this into the mahara.conf file you just opened
 +
 
 +
<code>
 +
&lt;VirtualHost [hostname]&gt;
 +
  ServerName [hostname]
 +
  DocumentRoot /srv/www/[hostname/htdocs
 +
 
 +
    &lt;Directory /&gt;
 +
      Options FollowSymLinks
 +
      AllowOverride None
 +
    &lt;/Directory&gt;
 +
    &lt;Directory /srv/www/[hostname]/htdocs/&gt;
 +
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
 +
      AllowOverride None
 +
      Order allow,deny
 +
      allow from all
 +
    &lt;/Directory&gt;
 +
 
  
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<br />         ServerName mahara.es <br />         DocumentRoot /home/mcgarcia/mahara<br /><br />         ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/mahara-1-2-alpha.error.log<br />         CustomLog /var/log/apache2/mahara-1-2-alpha.access.log combined<br />
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  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
 +
  CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
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&lt;/VirtualHost&gt;
 +
</code>
  
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One we have added a this new virtual host, we need to link it with the ''repertoir'' of  virtualhost that Apache looks, which is in the folder "sites-enabled". So we go to that folder and create the link to the new host:
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We'll then need to enable the site. On Ubuntu, Apache comes with a suite of commands for doing this kind of thing. We'll use the Apache2 Enable Site command:
  
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$cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
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<code>
 +
  sudo a2ensite mahara.conf
 +
</code>
 
   
 
   
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  $sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/mahara.conf mahara conf
 
  
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And here comes the fastest way of enabling a new virtual host, just typing:
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== DNS/Friendly Name ==
  
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sudo a2ensite mahara.conf
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Depending on what you chose as your host name, you may need to add a DNS entry, or a line to the /etc/hosts file.
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4. You need to add the domain that you have choosen for your servername as a localhost domain, by editing the /etc/hosts file:
+
In this example, I'm running mahara on my local system for development/demonstration purposes. I don't have proper DNS available so I'm adding my mahara.local domain.
  
 +
<code>
 
   sudo gedit /etc/hosts
 
   sudo gedit /etc/hosts
 +
</code>
 +
 +
And add:
 +
<code>
 +
127.0.0.1 [hostname]
 +
</code>
  
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In that file, make sure that you got the line:
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== Mahara Configuration ==
  
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127.0.0.1  localhost  yourmaharadomain (in my case: mahara.es)
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The next step is to create the config.php from the config-dist.php. This step is pretty well explain at the "[[System Administrator's Guide/Installing Mahara|Mahara Configuration]]", but essentialy we'll
  
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which, hopefully, will tell Ubuntu: don't go online everytime that I type that domain in my browser, as it corresponds to a localhost address).
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<code>
 +
cd /srv/data/[hostname]/htdocs
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sudo cp config-dist.php config.php
 +
sudo gedit config.php
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</code>
  
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5.  Then,  restart (or reload) Apache:
+
The key items to set are:
 +
* $cfg-&gt;wwwroot
 +
* $cfg-&gt;dataroot
 +
* $cfg-&gt;dbname
 +
* $cfg-&gt;dbuser
 +
* $cfg-&gt;dbpass
  
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sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
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If you've followed the steps so far, the following should work
 +
<code>
 +
&lt;?php
  
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The next step is to create the config.php from the config-dist.php. This step is pretty well explain at the "[[System Administrator's Guide/Installing Mahara|Mahara Configuration]]" secction of the installation guide, so we are not going to repeat it here. If it is of any help, here is how I configured my paths to the wwwroot and the dataroot:
+
$cfg = new stdClass();
 +
$cfg-&gt;wwwroot = 'http://[hostname]';
 +
$cfg-&gt;dataroot = '/srv/data/[hostname]';
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$cfg-&gt;dbname = 'mahara';
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$cfg-&gt;dbuser = 'mahara';
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$cfg-&gt;dbpass = '[password]';
  
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$cfg-&gt;wwwroot = 'http://mahara.es/';
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</code>
  
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$cfg-&gt;dataroot = '/home/mcgarcia/maharadata';
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We'll need to make sure that the web server can write to the data directory (dataroot). To do this, we'll change who owns the directory with the chown command.
 +
Apache2 typically runs as the user 'www-data' on Debian and Ubuntu:
  
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Even for a development site, you need to make sure that the dataroot folder-maharadata-is writable for webserver user. If not, Mahara will tell you.
+
<code>
 +
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/data/[hostname]
 +
</code>
  
 
There is a very good-and short-[http://catcode.com/teachmod/  tutorial ] about how to change permissions and groups of users in Ubuntu by using the chmod command. It only takes 10 minutes to read it and it really gives you a good insight.
 
There is a very good-and short-[http://catcode.com/teachmod/  tutorial ] about how to change permissions and groups of users in Ubuntu by using the chmod command. It only takes 10 minutes to read it and it really gives you a good insight.
  
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Once the dataroot folder permissions have been set up correctly, we are going to launch the installer by going to the web browser and typing the url of virtual host.
+
== Install Mahara ==
−
 
 
−
It looks like... it is working? Then, Mahara tells you that you need to install some php extensions. In may case, they were the gd and curl extensions, so I typed from console:
 
−
 
 
−
  sudo apt-get install php5-gd
 
−
 
−
  sudo apt-get install php5-curl
 
  
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and don't forget to reload apache after that.
+
You should now be ready to actually install Mahara. Open your browser of choice, and visit the site (e.g. http://[hostname])
  
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Once all the required extensions have been installed, Mahara will start installing the core components.
+
After checking you're ready to proceed, Mahara will install and ask for an e-mail address and password for your admin user.

Revision as of 03:38, 22 October 2011

If you are unfamiliar with Linux in general, and Debian-based distributions in particular, this guide will show you how to proceed, in addition to the "Installing Mahara" document.

This guide is just for installing a development site of Mahara as a localhost. For a production site, you would read the complete "Ubuntu Server Guide"  documentation.

These instructions assume that you're running a fresh installation of Ubuntu 11.10 or similar.

Install Required Packages

  sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 postgresql-9.1 php5-gd php5-pgsql php5-xmlrpc php5-curl

This should install all the dependencies we need.

After installing the packages, just follow the instructions provided in the "Installing Mahara" main document to unzip and install the Mahara folders.

Download and unpack Mahara

In this example, we install mahara to /srv/www/[hostname], and store our data in /srv/data/[hostname].

cd /srv/ mkdir data www cd www wget http://launchpad.net/mahara/1.4/1.4.0/+download/mahara-1.4.0.zip unzip mahara-1.4.0.zip rm mahara-1.4.0.zip mv mahara-1.4.0 [hostname]

Configure the Database

The easiest way to create the database is to switch to the postgres user.

We'll create a new user (mahara), and also a new database (also mahara).

sudo su - postgres createuser -SRDP mahara [password] [confirm password] createdb -O mahara -EUTF8 mahara exit

Configure Apache2

The next step is to add your Mahara site as a new virtual hosts. There are many ways of doing so but this is the most straight forward:

  1. Create a new file called "mahara.conf" (for instance) at /etc/apache2/sites-available.
  2. You need to edit that file by typing from the console:
  sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/mahara.conf

(or alternatively "sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available").

The following is a very basic example of an Apache configuration for Mahara. You'll need to put this into the mahara.conf file you just opened

<VirtualHost [hostname]> 

 ServerName [hostname]
 DocumentRoot /srv/www/[hostname/htdocs

   <Directory />
     Options FollowSymLinks
     AllowOverride None
   </Directory>
   <Directory /srv/www/[hostname]/htdocs/>
     Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
     AllowOverride None
     Order allow,deny
     allow from all
   </Directory>



 ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
 CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

We'll then need to enable the site. On Ubuntu, Apache comes with a suite of commands for doing this kind of thing. We'll use the Apache2 Enable Site command: 

 sudo a2ensite mahara.conf


DNS/Friendly Name

Depending on what you chose as your host name, you may need to add a DNS entry, or a line to the /etc/hosts file.

In this example, I'm running mahara on my local system for development/demonstration purposes. I don't have proper DNS available so I'm adding my mahara.local domain. 

 sudo gedit /etc/hosts

And add: 127.0.0.1 [hostname]

Mahara Configuration

The next step is to create the config.php from the config-dist.php. This step is pretty well explain at the "Mahara Configuration", but essentialy we'll

cd /srv/data/[hostname]/htdocs sudo cp config-dist.php config.php sudo gedit config.php

The key items to set are:

  • $cfg->wwwroot
  • $cfg->dataroot
  • $cfg->dbname
  • $cfg->dbuser
  • $cfg->dbpass

If you've followed the steps so far, the following should work <?php

$cfg = new stdClass(); $cfg->wwwroot = 'http://[hostname]'; $cfg->dataroot = '/srv/data/[hostname]'; $cfg->dbname = 'mahara'; $cfg->dbuser = 'mahara'; $cfg->dbpass = '[password]';

We'll need to make sure that the web server can write to the data directory (dataroot). To do this, we'll change who owns the directory with the chown command. Apache2 typically runs as the user 'www-data' on Debian and Ubuntu:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/data/[hostname]

There is a very good-and short-tutorial  about how to change permissions and groups of users in Ubuntu by using the chmod command. It only takes 10 minutes to read it and it really gives you a good insight.

Install Mahara

You should now be ready to actually install Mahara. Open your browser of choice, and visit the site (e.g. http://[hostname])

After checking you're ready to proceed, Mahara will install and ask for an e-mail address and password for your admin user.

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