So apparently installing Wordpress is a bit tricky. I tend to agree with some that the ‘famous 5-minute installation’ is really nothing more than a marketing tool. If you don’t know how to create a MySQL database, or how to set the folder permission on your root folder, create your wp-content/uploads folder and set the permission so that Wordpress can upload all your fantastic flashy images then you are going to be spending a lot more time then 5 minutes trying to figure these things out.

Now don’t get me wrong I love Wordpress and how it works (and installs) but 5 minutes only applies to those who know what they are doing.

So – What can you do? Someone over at 9 Miles Media has created an install script to do all the work for you. Now I haven’t tried it as I don’t have any use for it what so ever, but I did think it was an interesting concept that some might find useful.

If you check it out, please come back here and leave a comment

Today I’ve run into a bit of an issue with one of the MySQL databases from one of the sites that I manage. I’m used to going about my merry way with phpMyAdmin and it’s trusty (?) export table feature but that is no longer an option with this Database.

It’s a Wordpress Mu (Multi-user) site that has well over 5,000 MySQL Database tables in it. PhpMyAdmin just could not handle an export of that size and timed out on me over and over again.

It’s time for some command line action!

So I loged into my server via SSH and entered in the mysqldump command only to be greeted by

mysqldump: Got error: 1016: Can't open file: './databasename/table.frm' (errno: 24) when using LOCK TABLES

Great!

So after some searching I found that this is a bug in MySQL and to get around it and dump (not Drop!) a large database I needed to use the following in my mysqldump command : –lock-tables=false.

So my final MySQL command looked like this

# mysqldump --add-drop-table -h 127.0.0.1 -u MyUsername -pMyPassword MyDatabase --lock-tables=false | gzip > backup.bak.sql.gz

I hope this helps someone else.

If there is a problem with the way I’m going about this please let me know of a better solution!

How secure is your website? Ben Charnock has put together a great article on Nettuts that focuses on security aspects of modern websites. His section on the % (like) operator in SQL and the limits of mysql_real_escape_string(); have made me re-think some of my coding practices.

Hit up the below link and start protecting your scripts!

NETTUTS – Can You Hack Your Own Site? A Look at Some Essential Security Considerations.

I also had this problem with Plesk servers. Upgrading the default MySQL4 instal to version 5 always gave me issues with the Privilege Tables and i could never get the command, mysql_fix_privilege_tables, to run – it would never accept my password.

I little bit of searching and i came across a page entitles ‘Upgrade to PHP5 and MySQL 4.1x on (dv) 2.0 Dedicated Virtual Servers‘ and it worked like a charm for me!

Here is the bit i needed

/usr/bin/mysql_fix_privilege_tables --user=admin --password=`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow`

All done :)

I’m not interested in using Linux for my desktop, Gnome and KDE really don’t do it for me and Windows XP is doing me fine – though I am looking forward to moving my studio onto a Mac Pro. Another big reason Linux as a desktop isn’t for me is that Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 does not, and won’t by the looks of things, support any flavor of Linux.

I’m after a new Server environment. I’m in the process of switching from Classic ASP (ASP3) over to PHP5. I’ve been using MySQL religiously for my dev work. But what I really want access to is the speed and reliability of Apache and PHP running on Linux. Also the chmod in ftp will save SO MUCH TIME when setting up blogs or any other site that requires permission changes.

So it’s time to learn – and by learning I mean command lines. Back to the good ‘ol DOS days.

I found Ubuntu 7.10 Server to be the solution for me. Why? Because a) It’s built on Debian and 2) they are the best at marking their flavor of Linux and bringing it to the attention of us Windows users.

Also a great feature that I found is that in around 15 minutes you can have a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server up and ready to go! You just select it during installation!

The LAMP option means you don’t have to install and integrate each of the four separate LAMP components, a process which can take hours and requires someone who is skilled in the installation and configuration of the individual applications. Instead, you get increased security, reduced time-to-install, and reduced risk of misconfiguration, all of which results in a lower cost of ownership. New pre-configured installation options have been added to the Ubuntu Server. Mail Server, File Server, Print Server, and Database Server options join existing LAMP and DNS options for pre-configured installations, easing the deployment of common server configurations.

Here’s what will be installed

• Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10
• Apache 2.2.4
• Mysql 5.0.45
• PHP 5.2.3

Installing Ubutnu Server I found to be really simple and once I did it a couple of times (due to errors on my behalf) I quickly found it even easier to install then Windows 2003 Server

You’ll need to first download Ubuntu Server from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download. Burn the ISO or mount it in VMWare if you are installing it on a virtual machine. Insert the CD a make sure you BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive

1. Select “Install to the Hard Disk”
   
2. Select your language
   
   
   
3. Select your location
   
4. Ubuntu Server can try and detect your keyboard layout. For the most people will be using US English. Select No and chose your layout yourself.
   
   
   Go through the options for your keyboard. The installation will then detect your hardware.
5. Enter ubuntuLamp or what ever you want to call your Server
   
6. The installer will detect your Hard Drive. Select “Guided – use entire disk”
   
7. When you receive the screen title “[!!] Partion Disks” select <Yes> and hit enter
   
8. Select <Yes> when presented about the system clock
   
9. Enter in administration for your name
   
   
10. Enter in administrator for your username
    
    
11. Enter in a secure password (here is a great article on coming up with a secure password that you can remember)
    
12. When you are presented with the screen [!] Software selection press the down arrow till the “* is in the “LAMP server” box and press space bar. As were also going to be using SSH I also select “OpenSSH server”
    
    
13. You’ll be presented with the option to change the MySQL root password. This is highly recommended as the standard password is blank
    
    
14. You’re done! Remove the CD from the CD drive and reboot
    
    
15. You server is now installed.
    
    
    

Next I configure a Static IP.

Log into your server using the details you entered during install. I’m using 192.168.0.150 as my example IP)

Type

sudo su

and enter your password again

Then Type

nano /etc/network/interfaces

If you have typed it out correctly you’ll Also you will see the following:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
 
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
 
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Replace the last 3 lines with the following:

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 172.19.0.10
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 172.19.0.0

Try Ctrl+O to write the file and then press enter

Type Ctrl+X to exit

To set your Nameservers, type

nano /etc/resolv.conf

Enter in your nameservers as required “nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx”

Type Ctrl+O to write the file and then press enter

Type Ctrl+X to exit

Now you need to restart your network service. Type the following

/etc/init.d/networking restart

You’ve now configured your network interface.

I also wanted to also install Webmin to manage my server remotely as well as SSH but I found that the install instructions on the above site just didn’t work for me. So here is how I installed Webmin on my Ubuntu Server.

You will need to enable the universe and universe and multiverse repositories in the /etc/apt/sources.list (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AddingRepositoriesCliHowto)

This is also where I started to use Putty and SSH (http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe)

sudo su
mkdir /opt/Webmin
cd /opt/Webmin
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webadmin/Webmin-1.390.tar.gz
gzip -cd Webmin-1.390.tar.gz | tar xvf -
sudo apt-get install libauthen-pam-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libpam-runtime openssl perl perl-modules

Note I had heaps of problems with this command and it was to do with my sources.list file. No matter what I uncommented it just didn’t seam to work. I had to generate a new sources.list file from this site (http://www.ubuntu-nl.org/source-o-matic/) and past that into /etc/apt/sources.list then run sudo apt-get update before the above command would run

 cd Webmin*
./setup.sh

Basically just hit enter and choose SSL and the auto start the service at boot. Use these settings (or change as requried)

Web server port (default 10000): (Feel Free to change this) Login name (default admin): Login password: AReallyGoodONE Password again: AReallyGoodONE Use SSL (y/n): y Start Webmin at boot time (y/n): y

I found that the default instating module for PHP looks for the php.ini file in the Apache directory when it needs to look in the apache2 directory. After instating login into Webmin by visiting https://your-ip:10000 and click on “Other” in the right bar. Then click on “PHP Configureation” You should see that following:

/etc/php5/apache/php.ini=Configuration for mod_php
/etc/php5/cgi/php.ini=Configuration for scripts run via CGI
/etc/php5/cli/php.ini=Configuration for command-line scripts

Change the line /etc/php5/apache/php.ini=Configuration for mod_php to read /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini=Configuration for mod_php and click save

This should have configured the PHP moduble for Webmin for you.

FTP

Now were going to install ProFTPD FTP server.

Login into your Ubuntu Server via SSH, or how ever you wish to access the console, and type:

sudo apt-get install proftpd

When asked if you want to install the server as a inid or standalone, select standalone and continue.

Done! Now if you check back in Webmin under Servers you’ll see ProFTPD Server, if you click on that you should see the ProFTPd options up and running.

Adding a FTP user is done through the “System => Users and Groups” area in Webmin. You just click on “Create a new user” enter in the details and select the home directory to /var/www (make sure you click the check box next to the home directory text box as it stays checked at “Automatic” even once you enter something into the text box.)

Fire up your ftp client and login!

You should now have a working LAMP+F (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and FTP) Ubuntu Server. Next I’ll be looking into securing the server. I’ve read that ProFTPD isn’t the most secure FTP Server to use with Linux, apparently VSFTPD is the way to go there, but for the purpose of simplicity for the first time, and the fact that this is not a live server, rather just a testing box, it’s not such a big deal.

Please post your comments on this, if you find it useful please let me know – anything that needs further clarification tell me – I’m new to Linux as you might be so this is a big change.