Manual:Running MediaWiki on Debian GNU/Linux

MediaWiki instalation for Debian Sarge GNU/Linux

This is the easyes way of installing MediaWiki on Debian Sarge. Remember that this installation may not be secure and redy for production purpose.

Core Packages
Make sure you have the following packages installed >apt-get install apache mysql-server php4 php4-gd2
 * apache
 * mysql-server
 * php4
 * php4-gd2

Configure MySQL
Most of all you need to aplly mysql root password. Remember not to use same password for system root and mysql root

>mysql -u root

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('xxx');

Now check if the password works:

>mysql -u root

If you see:

ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: NO)

Than mysql root account is now on password protected.

Configure PHP
Make sure your php configuration file (/etc/php4/apache/php.ini) have this line:

memory_limit = 20M

restart apache

apachectl restart

Get lates MediaWiki
Get the latest MediaWiki form MediaWiki SourceForge page

>wget http://aleron.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/wikipedia/mediawiki-1.3.0beta5.tar.gz

Copy it and extract in apache root directory:

cp mediawiki-1.3.0beta5.tar.gz /var/www cd /var/www tar vxfz mediawiki-1.3.0beta5.tar.gz

rename the extracted directory name to wiki mv mediawiki-1.3.0beta5 wiki

In order to configure the wiki you have to make the config subdirectory writable by the web server.

To make the directory writable on a Unix/Linux system:

cd /var/www/wiki chmod a+w config

Navigate your browser to http://localhost/wiki and continue with installation.

Pay good attention for "Checking environment..." in MediaWiki installation script. This can solve alot of problems for your MediaWiki sucessfull instalation. Fill out the configuration form and continue.

Once configuration is done you'll need to move the created LocalSettings.php to the parent directory, and for added safety you can then remove the config subdirectory entirely.

cd /var/www/wiki/config/ cp LocalSettings.php ..

And navigate your browser to http://localhost/wiki to see your new wiki. Done!