Installing LAMP Server in Ubuntu 9.04

Install phpMyAdmin - MySQL Administration Aid. phpMyAdmin Website = http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php, more information regarding the installation of phpMyAdmin can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/phpmyadmin.html

1. Open Terminal, then execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

2. After the installation completes, move the phpmyadmin folder into /var/www/ directory with the following command:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/phpmyadmin

3. Restart Apache2 web server with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

4. Direct your web browser to the following address:

http://localhost/phpmyadmin/index.php

Install MySQL - Database. MySQL Website = http://www.mysql.com/, additional information on installing MySQL can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/mysql.html

1. Open Terminal, then type the following command:

sudo apt-get install-mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

** This command installs the MySQL server, MySQL Apache2 module, and the php5-mysql package that enables the use of MySQL with PHP 5

Installing PHP5 - Scripting Language, PHP Website = http://www.php.net/, Additional information about installing PHP5 in Ubuntu 9.04 = https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/php5.html

1. Open Terminal, then type the following command:

sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

--> This command installs PHP5 and the Apache2 PHP5 module.

2. Next, restart Apache2 web server with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

**Make a test PHP file to make sure PHP5 is working properly**

1. At the terminal, open Gedit to create the test file firstphp.php with the following command:

sudo gedit /var/www/firstphp.php

2. Type the following PHP code in the document and save:

<? phpInfo(); ?>

3. Next, direct your browser to the following address:

http://localhost/firstphp.php

**If you see information about the PHP installation, it has been installed successfully**

Installing Apache2 - HTTP Server http://www.apache.org/
==> https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/httpd.html; contains additional information on configuration

1. Open a terminal - Applications > Accessories > Terminal
2. Type the command

sudo apt-get install apache2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received the following error message in terminal:

Setting up apache2-mpm-worker (2.2.11-2ubuntu2.2) ...
* Starting web server apache2
apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName

This site has troubleshooting information that I will repeat here.

1. In Terminal, type the following command:

gksu gedit /etc/apache2/conf.d/fqdn

2. When gedit opens, add "ServerName localhost" to the file and save.
3. Restart Apache2 with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Useful Applications - Graphics Authoring

Inkscape - Vector Graphics Editor
http://www.inkscape.org/

Scribus - Desktop Publishing
http://www.scribus.net/

Both applications can be installed directly through Synaptic Package Manager.

Useful Applications - Web Design

I will be installing a few applications related to web development via Synaptic Package Manager. Synaptic package manager was available immediately after installing Ubuntu 9.04. To locate Synaptic from the desktop, follow this procedure:

1. System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

To install packages via Synaptic, type the name of the software package into the "quick search" box. The table will populate during typing. Next, find the title of the software in the table, left-click in the box next to the name and "mark for installation". Here are the two packages I am going to install:

Screem - HTML/XML Editor
http://www.screem.org/

KompoZer - WYSIWYG Web Authoring
http://kompozer.net/

Useful Applications - Present After Ubuntu 9.04 Install

Open Office 3.0.1
http://www.openoffice.org/

This will be the office productivity suite that I will use - similar functionality to Microsoft Office.

GIMP 2.6 - GNU Image Manipulator
http://www.gimp.org/

This application reminds me of Adobe Photoshop.

Ubuntu 9.04 - Successful Boot

The first time that I booted into Ubuntu 9.04, I updated all of the packages that were just installed by following the procedure below:

1. Left-click "Applications" > "Accessories" > left-click "Terminal": This will open a new terminal window.
2. At the terminal prompt, type the following and then press enter: sudo apt-get update

After all of the packages were updated on my machine, I was surprised that all of my hardware seems to be functioning properly - even my wireless card! Below is a list of the hardware in my computer, this information can be discovered my typing the following command at the terminal prompt: lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
0f:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
0f:06.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
0f:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
0f:06.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller

Knowing the hardware that the computer has will help in discovering solutions to problems that my occur. I can use this information to do a google search for solutions, if a problem does arise in the future.

Install Ubuntu 9.04

Here is a link to the Ubuntu 9.04 installation guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/installation-guide/i386/index.html

1. Place the CD containing the Ubuntu 9.04 .iso file in the cd drive and restart the computer.
2. Interrupt booting by pressing F2 to enter the BIOS menus and rearrange the boot order so that the computer boots from the CD drive.
3. Save the changes and reboot the computer.
4. Follow the interactive installation instructions that are loaded from the CD.

** The most important selection to make during the installation process is the"use the largest continuous free space" option. This option will install Ubuntu 9.04 in the space made available when the 3rd Windows partition was deleted.

Acer Extensa 5620z - Deleting the Third Windows Partition

The Acer Extensa that I am going to use comes from the factory with three partitions on the hard drive: 9.77GB Vista recovery partition; 111.57GB NTFS C: (ACER); and 111.57GB D: (data). Since I currently do not have anything stored in the 111.57GB D: (data) partition, I am going to delete it and use it for the Ubuntu 9.04 installation.

Here are the procedures that I followed:
1. Left-click "Start button" > right-click "Computer" > left-click "manage": This step will open the Computer Management window.
2. In the left pane of the Computer Management Window, left-click "storage" > left-click "disk management": This step will open a visual representation of the partition on the computer hard drive.
3. Right-click on the 111.57GB D: partition, this will open a new menu. In the new menu, right-click on "delete" partition: This will produce unallocated or free space on the hard drive.
4. Close the Computer Management window.

Download Ubuntu 9.04

I am going to download Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Since I am going to install Ubuntu on my Acer Extensa 5620z laptop, I will need to download the 32bit version.

After the download is finished, I will need to burn the .iso to a cd. This will create a bootable cd enabling me to install Ubuntu.

The operating system that came preinstalled on my Acer laptop is Windows Vista. Windows Vista does not come with the ability to burn an image file (.iso) to cd. Instructions on burning the .iso to cd in Windows Vista can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Open Source Tools = New Challenges = Yay!

My plan is to use as many open source tools as possible to complete this project, so I am planning to dual boot my computer and install a Linux distribution. This will be my first dual boot from one hard drive (as I have used BIOS to select between operating systems from two hard drives before). I will document my dual booting progress in a later posting.

I am fairly certain that I will install Ubuntu 9.04 as my Linux distribution. I have done some Internet reading about Linux distros and Ubuntu seems to be an accessible distribution for beginners. Fedora and Debian (Ubuntu is based on Debian) were also thought about. While Debian seemed to provide a solid user base and high security, it mostly appealed to advanced users, which I took to mean step learning curve. On the other side of the coin, Fedora 11 looked visually appealing: sleek and sophisticated with a cool color palate. I have used an older version of fedora on an HP a few years ago without any prblems. However, a friend of mine suggested that I stick with Ubuntu because he had a few problems while updating his system that 'broke' packages. I will probably try Fedora again at a later date, but for now, when I get things to work, I want them to continue to work.

Initial Posting

I hope to use the this blog as a notebook to describe my experiences, impressions, findings, and other curiosities that I stumble across, research, develop, and implement as I work to create a digital microlibrary of the subterranean soundworld of Columbus, Ohio.

As I am beginning a program in Library and Information Science in Fall 2009, I want to establish this project as a way to integrate new learning into an ongoing project that is broad enough in scope to quickly utilize new skills while remaining specific enough to establish relevancy amongst alternative sources of information.

[extremely brief declaration of intent]