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This guide is intended to help users install and configure “R”, a great, free alternative to SPSS. The instructions that I outline here are tailored to Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), but can be alternated to fit any Linux distribution.
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Howdy,
I’d like to take a moment to let anybody who cares know that I’ve gotten a website setup at http://www.derekhildreth.com and/or http://www.sendderek.com. There, you’ll have a chance to get to learn about me and my hobbies. One of the reasons I wanted the website was to get all of my links into one place so that my friends and family could find my pictures, videos, music, etc easier. Also, I thought it was valuable to me to have a website in my own name that potential employers could have a place to download my resume and parts of my portfolio.
On the technical side, I registered the domain name through godaddy.com and it’s hosted by justfree.com. I don’t have as much time as I used to, so I used a template I found through openwebdesign.com called Busy City by JJenZz. My website utilizes a java program called LightBox2 which adds a touch of Web 2.0 to the site and I customized it to my liking with the BlueFish editor. So, basically, I have found my own little piece of the internet for $7 a year. My hosting and design was totally free and in the mindset of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software).
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new resource as much as I do. Be sure to bookmark it as it will be the one bookmark to rule everything that is Derek Hildreth.
Thanks for listening,
Derek
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This tutorial is intended to help guide new web masters (like myself) in getting their own totally free, self-hosted phpBB3 forum up and running. I’m using Fedora 8 to accomplish this, but your distribution of Linux is probably very similar. I try to write my tutorials so that anybody with any distribution can accomplish the task. It may not be identical, but the principles are usually the same.
Let’s get started.
First, it’s important that you’ve already gotten a self-hosted web server up and running. I have written a guide on how to accomplish this here:
Now, if you have a web server up and running, we’ll get down to the fun stuff.
1.) Install all of the required software for phpBB3 forums:
sudo yum install mysql-server mysql-administrator mysql mysql-gui-common php-mysql
2.) Download, extract, and place the phpBB3 files:
The last step of the following commands will determine what address your guests type to get to your forums. I chose to use “forums” because it’s easier to remember than phpBB3. So, for example when you type http://yoursite.dyndns.org/forums, it will take you to the phpBB forums. You can change this to whatever you want.
wget http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/phpbb/phpBB-3.0.0.tar.bz2
tar -xjf phpBB-3.0.0.tar.bz2
mv phpBB3/ /var/www/html/
mv phpBB3 forums
3.) Setup the mySQL Server:
First, setup a password for the root account:
mysqladmin -u root password 'passwordyouwant'
Login to mySQL
mysql -u root -p
Create the new phpbb database:
create database phpbb;
Create new user and password for database:
grant all privileges on phpbb.* to username identified by ‘password‘;
Flush the privileges:
flush privileges;
Test the mySQL Setup:
exit
mysql -u username -p
enter password here
show databases;
The result should look similar to this:
+——————–+
| Database |
+——————–+
| information_schema |
| mysql |
| test |
| phpbb |
+——————–+
4 rows in set (0.29 sec)
4.) Install the phpBB3 forums:
To install the forums, you’ll need to navigate to the install directory in your browser (ie. Firefox). So, goto http://yoursite.dyndns.org/forums/install/index.php. This will walk you through the setup for the forums. Point phpBB to your mySQL database by filling in the following fields with this information:
Database type: mySQL with mySQLi Extention
Database server hostname or DSN: leave blank
Database server port: leave blank
Database name: phpbb
Database username: username
Database password: password
Prefix for tables in database: phpbb_
Click on the “Proceed to next step” button. You should get a “successful connection” message. If not, there is a problem with the database you created. Check to make sure that you’re not misspelling it.
From here, everything is pretty self explanatory. It will ask you to setup an administrator account and then it will try to automatically configure the config.php file. If you run into permission problems (like I did), you’ll have to open the file permissions by typing this command into the terminal:
su -
chmod 777 /var/www/html/forums/config.php
When you have completed the install, phpBB will remind you to delete or rename the installation directory. I suggest you delete it by using this command:
rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /var/www/html/forums/install/
5.) Enjoy!
If everything went as it should, you should now be able to view and administer your own phpBB3 forums! If you encountered any problems, I would like to hear about them so that I can update the tutorial if needed. Also, you may refer to the official phpBB3 documentation here.
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This tutorial is intended to help guide new web masters (like myself) in getting their own totally free, self-hosted WordPress.org blog up and running. I’m using Fedora 8 to accomplish this, but your distribution of Linux is probably very similar. In fact, a great guide for Ubuntu is located here on their wiki. I try to write my tutorials so that anybody with any distribution can accomplish the task. It may not be identical, but the principles are usually the same. By the way, the setup instructions for Fedora 8 are located in the directory usr/share/doc/wordpress.2.3.2 after installing the wordpress package.
Let’s get started.
First, it’s important that you’ve already gotten a self-hosted webserver up and running. I have written a guide on how to accomplish this here:
Now, if you have a webserver up and running, we’ll get down to the fun stuff.
1.) Install all of the required software for WordPress.org:
sudo yum install mysql-server mysql-administrator mysql mysql-gui-common php-mysql wordpress
2.) Setup the mySQL Server:
First, setup a password for the root account:
mysqladmin -u root password 'passwordyouwant'
Login to mySQL
mysql -u root -p
Create the new WordPress database:
create database wordpress;
Create new user and password for database:
grant all privileges on wordpress.* to username identified by ‘password‘;
Flush the privileges:
flush privileges;
Test the mySQL Setup:
exit
mysql -u username -p
enter password here
show databases;
The result should look similar to this:
+——————–+
| Database |
+——————–+
| information_schema |
| mysql |
| test |
| wordpress |
+——————–+
4 rows in set (0.29 sec)
3.) Configure the etc/wordpress/wp-config.php wordpress.org file:
Now that the mySQL WordPress database is setup, the WordPress config file must be updated. Open it either in your favorite text editor or your favorite php editor (like bluefish). If I were to choose gedit, the command to open it would be:
su -
gedit /etc/wordpress/wp-config.php
Highlighted in RED is what needs to be changed in order to reflect the new WordPress database:
// ** MySQL settings ** //
define(’DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress‘); // The name of the database
define(’DB_USER’, ‘username‘); // Your MySQL username
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password‘); // …and password
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
4.) Finish WordPress.org setup:
You’ll need to setup a symbolic link here to point your http server to the wordpress blog. Set this up by using this command:
ln -s /usr/share/wordpress/ /var/www/html/wordpress
Once the wp-config.php file has been updated and the database server and web server have been started,
open a web browser to http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php and
follow the instructions given to you on the pages you see to set up the
database tables and begin publishing your blog.
(To start the database server and the web server, goto System->Administration->Services, then find and start the httpd service and the mysql service.)
5.) Setup the WordPress.org blog with your dyndns.org account (or domain):
Sign into your WordPress.org blog through http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin and navigate to the “Options” link. There, you’ll see these two options: WordPress address (URL) and Blog address (URL). Delete the default address and put in your dyndns.org account address that connects your webserver. For example:
WordPress address (URL): http://mywebsite.dyndns.org/wordpress
Blog address (URL): http://mywebsite.dyndns.org/wordpress
The address depends on where you want you want your visitors to go. If your webserver’s single purpose is to host your WordPress blog, then you’ll probably want http://mywebsite.dyndns.org. If your webserver is doing other things and you want to separate them (like forums, blog, website) then you’ll want to use http://mywebsite.dyndns.org/wordpress. For example, I have had my WordPress.org blog located at http://sendderek.dyndns.org/wordpress.
Optional: Give WordPress.org access to the content directory:
As stated, this step is optional, but if you want to be able to load new themes or plugins, WordPress will have to have access to this folder. Otherwise, you’ll get an error stating something similar to “WordPress does not have access to the wp-content folder”.
cd /usr/share/wordpress/
su -
chmod 777 wp-content/
Sources: Fedora Forums (by firewing1)
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This is my attempt at guiding new webmasters (like myself) through the setup process of setting up a simple web server for friends and family (and possibly, with a little bit of creativity on your side, a full-blown web host like those you usually pay for). I will provide commands to execute in the Linux terminal, the programs needed, and some programs that I would highly suggest.
As a prelude , I want to make sure that this tutorial is something that you feel that is right for you. The following are the steps that I personally took to get my “Hildreth Server” up and running (no longer active). Now, the Hildreth Server is just a very simple website with two pages: 1.) a main page with links to various locations of mine (including the actual files on my computer), and 2.) a home page that serves as an “About” page. This is essentially what I will be walking you through how to do. Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about:
So, let’s get started. It may initially appear to be daunting and hard, but stick with it… it’s not bad at all. Also, another caveat to consider is that this was done in Fedora 8 Linux, so your flavor of Linux may be just a little different but the principle is the same.
Equipment Needed:
1.) Install the software:
The following command will install the programs needed for HTTPD (PHP enabled) called Apache and PHP. These programs are the heart of the web server. Just type or copy/paste them into the terminal.
yum install php httpd system-config-httpd mod_ssl
chkconfig httpd on
service httpd restart
The configuration of the web server by default will be fine for most users, but if you’d like to make it your own, the files are located here:
/etc/php.ini
/etc/httpd/conf/*
/etc/httpd/conf.d/*
2.) Setup port forwarding in router:
This step is probably the most important. Basically, it will route all incoming web server requests to the correct computer by forwarding port 80 using both TCP and UDP protocols to the IP address of your computer (web server). I’m not going to explicitly list all instructions in this tutorial, but I will lead you to a great guide for the popular routers:
All Other Routers (with some modems)
If you choose this link, you’ll have to first select your router model number from the list, and then choose “HTTP” from the list that follows.
3.) Setup firewall to allow HTTP (Port 80) traffic:
In Fedora 8 Linux, this port is blocked by default and needs to be opened. Goto System -> Administration -> Firewall. You will be asked for you password to run as a privileged user (root). Once you’re here, scroll down and find the HTTP entry and put a check mark next to it to allow HTTP traffic through (as show below).
4.) Test to see if port forwarding has worked:
This is an important step as well. Goto the “CanYouSeeMe” port checker by going to http://www.canyouseeme.org and in the “What Port” box, type in “80″, and click “Check”. You should see a message that states
“Success: I can see your service on <your ip address> on port (80)”.
If you don’t, go back and check that 1.) you have the HTTP service enabled and running in the background by going to System -> Administration -> Services and look for “httpd”, 2.) the correct ports are forwarded to the correct IP address of your computer and they are enabled, and finally, 3.) make sure your firewall has allowed HTTP traffic.
5.) Test the server (Apache) by visiting your external IP address:
Goto www.whatismyip.org and get your IP address. Then copy/paste it into your browser (Firefox) and see if you get the default Apache test page. If you see something similar to the following screenshot, then you’ve gotten your web server setup properly!
6.) Setup a dyndns.org account:
Your internet connection is probably setup with a dynamic IP address, meaning it’s going to change eventually. When it changes, there is no way to get to your web page without knowing what your IP address is (unless you’re really good a guessing IP addresses). So, a service that will track your IP address and give your website a domain name is very handy. This is where dyndns.org comes into play.
Goto http://www.dyndns.org and register for a new account. Once you have created an account and you’ve signed in, you’ll want to click on the “My Services” link on the left followed by the “Host Services” link. This is where you’re going to add services, so add one by clicking on “Add New Hostname”. You’ll see something similar to this:
This is the fun part because you get to choose what your web address (URL) is. I chose sendderek.dyndns.org because it’s easy for me to remember. Choose what you like in the “Hostname” field. The only other thing you need to change is the “IP Address” field by clicking on blue link that states “Use auto detected IP address xx.xx.xx.xxx“. That’s it for that part. For the next part, you’ll want to setup your router with dyndns.org (may not be supported on all routers).
The reason you want to get dyndns.org setup with your router is that when your IP address changes, your router will notify the dyndns.org service of the new IP address so that dyndns.org can change it. On a Linksys router, the option is under “Setup -> DDNS”. Choose the DynDNS.org service and then enter in your account information. Pretty simple.
7.) Setup the web pages:
Congratulations! If you’ve gotten this far, you officially have a self-hosted website! Now, to add some content and some fancy HTML pages! Maybe even a wordpress.org blog of your own or an e-commerce business selling stuff. If you’re going to be trying to sell some stuff though, I would recommend you purchase a domain name that people can associate with. Either way, the folder to put your content into is located on your file system at /var/www/html/. Just be sure to name the main page “index.html” and then add pages from there.
And if you don’t have any experience with HTML programming or website design, I would suggest grabbing a nice template from somewhere of your choosing. I highly suggest using Open Source Web Design for such a purpose. I used the template called “Deep” by Vacant for the Hildreth Server.
If you’re going to use a template, you’ll have to make it your own somehow with links that actually lead to places on your website. So, use an HTML editor to do just that. I used bluefish which is an excellent editor for several web development languages. Unfortunately, it’s not a “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editor. If you’re just starting, you’ll probably want something like that. I suggest NVU or Kompozer (both of which are very closely related) for just that. Personally, I like Kompozer better because it’s easier to install for Fedora 8.
Have fun with it! It’s your website… do what you want to do with it! You website address is whatever you created in your dyndns.org account, so visit it in Firefox (or your browser) to see what your site looks like.
8.) Optional: Setup a symbolic link to local directories:
On the Hildreth Server, I allow my family and friends direct download access to my pictures and music directories. In order to do this, I created a symbolic link in my /var/www/html/ directory by using this command in the terminal:
ln -s [source] [destination]
For example:
ln -s ~/pictures /var/www/html/pictures
9.) Optional: Install the AutoIndex script code:
I found AutoIndex (by Justin Hagstrom) when Google searching for a way to present my pictures directory in a more user friendly manner with thumbnails and a way to download an entire folder rather than just a picture at a time. This script does more than just thumbnails and folder downloads though. Explore it and find out what it’s capable of. Just install it into the directory that you want to share. Here’s the link:
http://autoindex.sourceforge.net/
10.) Optional: Setup a password for your directories:
I chose to use this step for personal reasons. You may or may not want to use a password to lock people out, but I suggest it. There are two files that control the password. One is called httpd.conf and the other is .htpasswd. The file httpd.conf has already been created and is located in the /etc/httpd/conf/ directory. The other file needs to be created by you and placed into the directory you want to protect. An easy way to do this is to type these commands into the terminal:
touch .htpasswd
Give it a password by using the htpasswd command where “guest” is the username you would like:
htpasswd -c .htpasswd guest
You can add more users as well by using the same code.
Then, you’ll need to setup the httpd.conf file. Open the httpd.conf file by using the command
sudo gedit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
and then add these lines to the bottom of the document after the last line (replacing the text in red with the directories and description according to your directory structure):
<Directory “/var/www/html/pictures“>
AllowOverride AuthConfig
AuthName “Are you privledged for pictures?“
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /var/www/html/pictures/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
require valid-user
</Directory>
11.)
11.) Enjoy!
That’s it! You’re finished. Try it out on a computer outside of your network and see that it works! Also, if you like to tinker, there are some good guides about optimizing your new Apache server through this link and this other link.
I have also written a couple of other tutorials on how to take advantage of the new web server:
Sources: Fedora Forums (by firewing1)
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