Manual:Running MediaWiki on Slackware Linux

'Warning: no promises of security are made in this guide. It was intended to be run on an offline workstation.'

System

 * Slackware Linux full install:
 * Apache:
 * MySQL:
 * MediaWiki:
 * Cur dump of the database (20031231_cur_table.sql.bz2):

Slackware's full installation includes Apache, MySQL, and PHP, though some administrative work is still needed to get them up and running.

Settings
For this guide, I will make the following assumptions about names, directories, and the like, but you will want to make some of them different:


 * name - The wiki needs a name; this example is called vicuna.
 * database - It also needs a database, which will also be called vicuna in this example.
 * passwords - There are several passwords involved, most importantly the password for the wiki database, and the initial administrator account you'll create when running the configuration page.
 * directory - The directory where the wiki will be installed. In this example, it's /var/wiki.

Configuration of Apache
At a minimum, the webserver must access your wiki on demand. There are better and more complex ways of setting it up, but this will suffice. In /etc/apache/httpd.conf, in the section, add the following line:

Alias /wiki/ /var/wiki

Replace  with the directory you've chosen.

Apache will not be configured to use PHP by default, so you may need to do the following.


 * 1) Edit   by uncommenting the line
 * 2) Edit   by adding   to the line
 * 3) If Apache isn't running, enter , otherwise, do
 * 4) Initialize the MySQL databases (only necessary once per system, but harmless):
 * 5) Start the MySQL daemon:
 * 6) Set the root password:

You probably want MySQL to start at system boot time. You must edit a couple of init scripts to accomplish this.


 * Place the startup script:
 * Edit  and add the following text near the end:

if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.mysql ]; then . /etc/rc.d/rc.mysql start fi
 * 1) Start the MySQL server


 * Edit  and add the following text above the "Kill all processes" section:

if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.mysql ]; then /etc/rc.d/rc.mysql stop fi
 * 1) Shut down the MySQL server:

Configuration of MediaWiki

 * 1) Go to the directory where you will install Mediawiki, such as , and unpack the package:
 * 2) Rename the directory to something manageable:
 * 3) Make the config directory world-writable:
 * 4) Load the configurating page in your web browser and use it. Go to.
 * 5) Once the configuration has completed successfully, shut off the config directory:
 * 6) And get your LocalSettings.php file installed:
 * 7) Edit LocalSettings.php as desired.

Loading the dump

 * 1) Unzip the dump by typing:   (this will take a while depending on the size of the dump and the speed of your workstation).
 * 2) Import the dump in your database by starting a mysql session as above, if you have not done so, loading the wiki database (the name as you gave above), by typing:   and then importing the data by typing:  . This will also take a long time.

At this point you should have a working install with some data in it. Other things will also need to be set up (classic TODO here).