User:Revansx/meza/Installing MEZA 35.x on a local Rock Linux 8 VM from scratch

This procedure is meant to show users how to they can test Mediawiki via Meza without actually needing a dedicated physical computer.

= Establish a RL8 VM using VirtualBox =

Prerequisite Downloads

 * 1) Download Oracle VirtualBox 7.0
 * 2) *https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads (Windows users will click the "Windows Hosts" link)
 * 3) Download the DVD ISO image of Rocky Linux 8
 * 4) *https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/isos/x86_64/Rocky-x86_64-dvd1.iso (86x 64 bit installation DVD)

Install Oracle VirtualBox

 * 1) Click the VirtualBox Software Installed you downloaded above
 * 2) *Perform a default installation (all default are fine)

Create a new VM named "RL8"

 * 1) Launch VM VirtualBox Manager
 * 2) Click "New"
 * 3) "Create Virtual Machine" dialogue Box
 * 4) Virtual Machine Name and Operating System
 * 5) Set Name:
 * 6) Set Type:
 * 7) Set Version:
 * 8) Click "Next"
 * 9) Hardware
 * 10) Set Base Memory:
 * 11) Set Processors: 1 CPU
 * 12) Click "Next"
 * 13) Virtual Hard Disk
 * 14) Create a Virtual Hard Disk Now
 * 15) *Set Disk Size: 40.55 GB
 * 16) *Click "Next"
 * 17) Summary
 * 18) *Click "Finish"

Prep new VM for a fresh install of RL8

 * 1) Launch VM VirtualBox Manager
 * 2) Click "RL8" machine on the left menu
 * 3) Click "SETTINGS" in the top menu (big yellow gear)
 * 4) Click "Storage" option on the left menu
 * 5) In the "Storage Devices" menu, click the "Empty" blue disk icon to select the optical drive
 * 6) In the "Attributes" section on the right
 * 7) set Optical Drive:  by clicking the blue disk icon with the little black pulldown arrow on the far right and browsing for the
 * 8) Ensure that the "Live CD/DVD" checkbox is selected
 * 9) Click "OK" to close settings

Start the new VM and install RL8

 * 1) Start the RL8 VM by clicking the "RL8" VM in the left menu and then clicking the "Start" button in the top menu (big green arrow)
 * 2) Short start-up diagnostics
 * 3) Rocky Linux 8 install screens
 * 4) Using your keyboard arrows, select "Install Rocky Linux 8" and press "Enter"
 * 5) watch more loading messages
 * 6) Configure ROCKLINUX8 INSTALLATION SCREEN
 * 7) Choose "English" -> "English (United States)" and click "Continue"
 * 8) In the "INSTALLATION SUMMARY" window:
 * 9) Click "SOFTWARE SELECTION"
 * 10) select "Workstation" (no other options)
 * 11) Click "DONE"
 * 12) Click "INSTALLTION DESTINATION"
 * 13) Click "DONE" (this selects the default option of automatic partitioning of the only available disk)
 * 14) Click "Root Password"
 * 15) set root password to " "
 * 16) click twice to confirm such a simple password (don't worry this is just a VM)
 * 17) Click "NETWORK & HOST NAME"
 * 18) Click the right side toggle button to enable ethernet adapter
 * 19) make sure the network adapter says "Connected"
 * 20) click "DONE"
 * 21) Click "Begin Installation"
 * 22) Screen switches to "Installation Progress"
 * 23) wait while RL8 is installed on the VM from the RL8 DVD iso file
 * 24) when it completes:
 * 25) * (virtually) eject the Rocky Linux 8 DVD.iso disk from the virtual optical drive
 * 26) **Oracle VM Virtual Box top level menu
 * 27) ***Devices
 * 28) ****Optical Drives
 * 29) *****Remove disk from virtual drive
 * 30) ******click "Force Unmount"
 * 31) Click "REBOOT"

Perform updates and other post install configurations on RL8 VM

 * 1) Login to the RL8 VM
 * 2) Short start-up diagnostics
 * 3) Start Rocky Linux 8
 * 4) ROCKY LINUX 8 INITIAL SETUP SCREEN
 * 5) Click "LICENSE INFO", agree to whatever, click Done
 * 6) Click "User Creation"
 * 7) Set Full name:
 * 8) Set User name:
 * 9) Click: Make this user administrator
 * 10) Set Password:
 * 11) Set Confirm password:
 * 12) Click "Done" twice to accept such a simple passord
 * 13) Click FINISH CONFIGURATION
 * 14) RL8 VM Login Screen
 * 15) *Click "userx" to log in as userx
 * 16) *enter password:
 * 17) RL8 VM Welcome Screen
 * 18) Confirm English
 * 19) Click Next
 * 20) Confirm English (US) Typing
 * 21) Click Next
 * 22) Toggle Location Services: Off
 * 23) Click Next
 * 24) Click Skip for Online Accounts
 * 25) Click Start Using Rocky Linux button
 * 26) "X" out of Getting Started window
 * 27) USER DESKTOP
 * 28) Activities --> Show Application --> Settings --> Power --> Power Saving --> set: Blank Screen =
 * 29) Activities --> Terminal
 * 30)  and watch the system update
 * 31)  and reboot the system

Install Guest Additions

 * 1) Login to the RL8 VM as userx (pw: )
 * 2) Short start-up diagnostics
 * 3) Applications --> System Tools --> Terminal
 * 4) Install dependencies for Kernel and perform update
 * 5) Insert Install Guest Additions CD Image
 * 6) *Go to the Virtualbox menu >> Device and then select the “Install Guest Additions CD Image…” option.
 * 7) *Click "Run" to Install VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
 * 1) Insert Install Guest Additions CD Image
 * 2) *Go to the Virtualbox menu >> Device and then select the “Install Guest Additions CD Image…” option.
 * 3) *Click "Run" to Install VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
 * 1) Insert Install Guest Additions CD Image
 * 2) *Go to the Virtualbox menu >> Device and then select the “Install Guest Additions CD Image…” option.
 * 3) *Click "Run" to Install VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Perform Final Tweaks to new RL8 VM

 * Login to the RL8 VM as userx (pw: )
 * Short start-up diagnostics
 * Applications --> System Tools --> Terminal
 * Verify that the guest additions are installed properly
 * to verify that the guest additions are installed (if not, let us know in the talk page)
 * Enable Share Clip and Drag & Drop features
 * Click on the Devices given in the Oracle VirtualBox Host window main menu
 * click Share Clipboard
 * select “Bidirectional”.
 * Applications --> System Tools --> Terminal
 * Disable SELinux
 * verify after reboot with
 * Exclude "ansible", and "python38" from OS specific repos:
 * RL8:
 * RHEL8:
 * RHEL8:

STOP - CONGRATULATIONS
Why? - All of the the preceding steps are rather time consuming and if you ever want to set-up a fresh new VM to test something, you'll appreciate the ability to just start with a clone of this system.
 * 1) congratulations - your Rocky Linux 8 VM is finally set-up
 * 2) Be sure to CLONE this system using VBox before proceeding to install MEZA

=Establish a Clone of your new VM for testing Meza=

Clone the new RH8 system

 * 1) If you haven't already - Turn off the fresh new installed VM
 * 2) From the Orable VBox Manager Application
 * 3) Right-Click on the RL8 VM option in the left side menu
 * 4) click CLONE
 * 5) Name: RL8 Clone
 * 6) click - NEXT
 * 7) choose "Full clone"
 * 8) click CLONE
 * 9) watch the system get cloned

Start the RL8 Clone VM

 * 1) From the Orable VBox Manager Application
 * 2) Click on the RL8 Clone VM option in the left-side menu
 * 3) Click Start in the main section top menu
 * 4) Log in as userx

=Test Meza=

Install Meza
At this point.. you should have a fully installed and fully updated Rocky Linux 8 Linux Workstation with all the VBox Guest Additions installed.

Now its time to install Meza 😎 ..

 Using a fresh clone of a Clean New Rocky Linux 8 VM  (such as the RL8MezaTest1 VM clone you created in the previous step) 

If any of these steps produces warning or errors, please let us know in the talk page so we can address it.
 * 1) Login to the VM as Userx
 * 2) From a Command Shell / Terminal:
 * 3) Install git and watch the package manager install the Git
 * 4) *  (note - git may already be installed, which is fine)
 * 5) Use Git to download Meza from github.com and clone it into the  folder of your VM
 * 6) * where xyz is the name of a meza repo on github.com
 * 7) ** For the official NASA repo, replace xyz with nasa
 * 8) ** For some other fork of meza, replace xyz with  (i.e. revansx)
 * 9) Change to the /opt/meza directory
 * 10) Tell git that the /opt/meza directory is safe
 * 11) *and
 * 12) Switch Meza to the "grc-atf" branch
 * 13) ** OPTIONAL - Change the default meza repo from "nasa" to "xyz" where "XYZ" is the name of a fork of meza (i.e. "revansx")
 * 14) *** Note - only do this if you are a developer testing your own branch. If you are just testing the official nasa branch, then skip this
 * 15) Go back down to the /opt directory
 * 16) Run the "getmeza.sh" initialization script and watch the getmeza.sh shell script perform all the first-time only configurations and install the meza playbooks as ansible commands
 * 17) Perform a package update
 * 18) Deploy Meza
 * 19) *#When prompted enter:  as the target
 * 20) *#When prompted press  to have meza generate a database password for you
 * 21) *#After which Meza will begin an lengthy deployment on to the VM
 * 22) * Enjoy watching Meza install and configure an entire MediaWiki software stack and all dependencies and extensions to the default 'monolith' environment
 * 23)  Wait for Meza to finish and report all tasks completed with no errors
 * 1) Perform a package update
 * 2) Deploy Meza
 * 3) *#When prompted enter:  as the target
 * 4) *#When prompted press  to have meza generate a database password for you
 * 5) *#After which Meza will begin an lengthy deployment on to the VM
 * 6) * Enjoy watching Meza install and configure an entire MediaWiki software stack and all dependencies and extensions to the default 'monolith' environment
 * 7)  Wait for Meza to finish and report all tasks completed with no errors
 * 1) * Enjoy watching Meza install and configure an entire MediaWiki software stack and all dependencies and extensions to the default 'monolith' environment
 * 2)  Wait for Meza to finish and report all tasks completed with no errors

Visit and test your new Meza Demo Site
If anything in the Mediawiki application does not work produces warning or errors, please let us know in the talk page so we can address it.
 * 1) From RL8MezaTest1 Desktop --> Applications --> Internet --> Firefox
 * 2) visit
 * 3) Click on the Demo Wiki
 * 4) Login as  with password
 * 5) Start making and editing pages and storing data and uploading files.
 * 6) Gratz! .. You are done.

If you wish to help us develop MEZA, Click HERE

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