Manual talk:Running MediaWiki on Gentoo Linux

Badly needs an update
This information is quite outdated and there is a huge amount of info that its simply not required in the slightest (if you are installing this on gentoo you have already been through the mirrorselect process for example as this is part of installing the base system, if you are here you have done that already.)

There is no maths flag now unless im missing something and it certainly doesn't pull anything extra in if you add it, tested this. Installing now from a pure "emerge -av mediawiki" basis and correct the flags it has to be inline with my system (added mysql as i will be using that and imagemagick is base across my system anyway). I will play for a couple of days although im not new to this software and see if anything needs to be added and i will update the wiki properly. So far so much can be removed, guides to installing gentoo should be kept to gentoo and this should be kept to installing THIS software on gentoo and nothing else unless its a dependency.

mediawiki 1.11 is masked for ~x86
For those who were looking to install 1.11 in gentoo but emerge only shows 1.8.5 you need to accept the testing ~x86 keyword by
 * 1) echo "www-apps/mediawiki ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
 * It's masked for a reason, this is an outdated comment but what the person above has done has unmasked a beta version that is not finished testing, if you want stable versions do not start throwing ~x86 or ~amd64 tags around, those are for testing systems or when you fully understand the implications of what you are installing. Running a beta version will likely leave you with no support options as its beta aka RUN AT YOUR OWN RISK; NOT FOR PRODUCTION SYSTEMS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE ADDING IT!! Once its suitable for production systems the tag won't be required and you will be upgraded in the normal way.

Possibility of an ebuild for mediawiki

 * This would seem fairly useless to me. A wiki is more like a document than a program; each installation carries a distinct wiki. --Brion VIBBER 21:14, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * That has not been the philosophy of Gentoo Portage thus far, they have lots of crappy little web-apps there which get dropped into your webroot. --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 15:36, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * If I write it, it will not just get dropped into webroot, it'll be outside of webroot, and have an included config file. I saw some people talking about this problem in gentoo, and I beleive there is going to be some sort of  webapp config toolkit.  If there is not, I'm going to want to do it... If gentoo stops wasting a lot of my time, by automating more stuff... AaronPeterson 06:37, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * There is a toolkit called webapp-config. And it does not just dump the webapp into your webroot, it can dump it in your vhosts and facilitates easy and efficient multi-install management, and other nifty stuff. Please, go for it! It will surely broaden mediawikis userbase. --Dittaeva 16:41, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * It might look like a document to the user, but to the people who run it, it's definately a program -- Shish

I would recommend against an ebuild install of mediawiki. It is very easy to set up. Goatmilk 15:37, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * But an ebuild would make it even easier and with the web-app tool it will facilitate easy multi-install. --Dittaeva 16:25, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Yes, I totally agree. It always helps to provide easier way to do things. --User:kissall
 * Isn't that the -entire- point of portage in the first place - to make installation and dependencies easy, and more importantly, clean? --Someone who'd like the ebuild
 * Gentoo-wiki is great. I installed mediawiki successfully, and would really love to have the categories to the left under navigation as Gentoo-wiki, how would that be done? --Karye
 * I did mine by manually editing templates/xhtml_slim.pt, Its pretty simple.. anyone with some html experience can do it...   What i would actually like to see is the categories.. the real one to be placed on the left hand side much like the languages, I just dont have the time to edit the code that much :) -- Thrasher (Gentoo-Wiki Site Admin)

useless part unpack and some general notes to the howto
the unpack header is pretty well unclear to me. What is the aim of this part? -At least it confused me for a short while. I suggest to remove it since it is not realy needed. If the aim is to show how to install different mediawikis it missed the part please add some some words to make it clear what the unpack part means. (I dont do it since I do notunderstand what that parts is aimed at : Please note. Thanks for the good Howto. It helped me setting all up. legine (26 April 2005)
 * the instalation of php4 on Apache 2 is bugged. Does not find the Configfiles in /etc/apache/conf/moduls.d. The install ebuild drops this in /etc/apache2/conf/moduls.d. The bug is reported as far as I know.
 * some directories change with the Version of Apache 2.1 -> look here: []
 * maybe it should be reworked and all Apache 2 related basics merged into the Apache 2 howto. since that is kept to the development of Apache ...

The Apache PHP4 handler installation isnt done too well: read emerge output, and just add -DPHP4 in the conf.d file.

needs updating
This project looks like it needs to be updated as the latest mediawiki in portage (www-apps/mediawiki-1.5.0_rc4-r1) requires php5 (dev-lang/php) because it requires ceraion use flags on php. In my experience, the current ebuild doesn't require enough of the use flags yet that mediawiki really does need. also, to make the most sense out of webapp-config, you probably need the vhosts flag and to actually set up virtual hosts.

Important information that was cut on grounds of being "spurious"
I've restored a large section of text that was cut several months ago on grounds of being "spurious", but which is important for setting up MediaWiki on Gentoo. This includes details of setting up Apache, which can be found on the Gentoo wiki, but is also relevant here. I agree that some of this information should be updated and edited, but I don't think it should be cut.
 * You also introduced syntax errors in the process, please avoid at least that. Nemo 14:05, 14 February 2016 (UTC)