HOWTO: Setup easy web development environment (XAMPP)

[PaulWhipp]

syed.rakib.al.hasan, you really don't need XAMPP on Ubuntu these days. It was great when apache, mysql and php needed lots of configuration and fiddling to get working but that has not been the case, at least since 8.04.

I develop using Joomla all the time and I've just installed apache2, mysql etc. straight from the repositories as per the instructions on the Ubuntu help guides (or elsewhere on this thread). It works out of the box and you can have as many joomla sites as you like in subfolders of your web root (either by copying the files, creating the database and user and editing the configuration.php appropriately or by doing the standard joomla installation).

[walt11]

syed.rakib.al.hasan, I did use XAMPP, because it was so easy to install, and before I saw PaulWhipp's forum post. I've finally got Joomla working on it - after considerable effort (and much help from forums). Here's what worked for me.

I had to modify the php.ini file, and it's best to do that to begin with. You can find it in /opt/lampp/etc. I changed the line

error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT

to

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_STRICT

I also changed the line

display_errors = On

to

display_errors = Off

(You have to call your editor from the command line using sudo to modify this file.)

Next, with the Joomla web install I ran into some serious errors, so I used the manual install. You can find a very good set of instructions for that at http://help.joomla.org/content/view/1944/302/. Be sure to install it WITHOUT filling in the $ftp_ variables in the configuration.php file (except set $ftp_enable = '0'). I tried using the ftp layer, and ran into innumerable problems. It works without it.

Once you complete the installation and have logged in as admin, choose Help > System Info > Directory Permissions. All the directories will probably show their status in red as Unwritable. At command level using sudo, you will need to change the owner of each of those directories to nobody. E.g.,

sudo chown -v nobody directoryname

making sure you're located in the proper containing directory when you issue the command. After changing them, reload the current page in your browser, and they should now all show the status Writable in green. In the same way, change the owner of the file configuration.php to nobody. It's located in the directory in which you installed Joomla.

Hope that works for you.

[suzenon]

does anybody know, how to make it psosible to create database? i've just installed xampp on my 10.4
but when i want to login as root in phpmyadmin i get

 #1045 - Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

i've set up password in config.inc.php file
and if i log in with pma i can't create database, it says i have no privilege

any help please?

UPDATE

ok after struggling with this damn problem i've managed to get privileges to create mysql database
here's what i did

after failures with changing config files and so on i've just reinstalled xampp
just tar xzvf xampp* -C /opt
above replaced all previous files with default ones

after this i've started xamp for first time with lampp start

now what worked out
BEFORE using any "lampp security" script and BEFORE changing any passwords i've opened localhost, and clicked phpmyadmin
by default you can login with root without any password, just open phpmyadmin login page, make sure user is root and click GO without any password
then i went to privileges tab, i've added EVERYTHING to pma user

closed all webpages that had anything to do with xampp including phpmyadmin panel
now started xampp secruity script, wrote passwords
logged in as pma with my previously set password to phpmyadmin
privileges tab
and CREATED NEW user with privileges as pma
it can be done by clicking edit icon for account pma, scrolling down the page and using create new user option and just leave old one

now finally after i log in with new user i can create mysql databases...

what a hell...

[LinLou]

okay.. all this is really good.. especially the first time i used it..

BUT, i cant make it work now.. the only way i have made it work is by running nautilus..

i have tried this "sudo ln -s ~/public_html /opt/lampp/htdocs/$USER" but the link that it creates is broken..

Can some one help me on this?

Thanks in advance.

PS: Once i make the link and i try to see the page ive made on firefox, i get an "Access Forbiden" warning..

what is that?

[LinLou]

okay.. all this is really good.. especially the first time i used it..

BUT, i cant make it work now.. the only way i have made it work is by running nautilus..

i have tried this "sudo ln -s ~/public_html /opt/lampp/htdocs/$USER" but the link that it creates is broken..

Can some one help me on this?

Thanks in advance.

PS: Once i make the link and i try to see the page ive made on firefox, i get an "Access Forbiden" warning..

what is that?

Ok my fault..

If you guys want to link any file, where your html or php files are located, you have to do it like this..

" ln -s /home/$USER/foldername/ /opt/lampp/htdocs/$USER "

it worked prefect for me..

+ you do not have to create a new file.. you simply use the one you already have..

[berlinblue]

If anyone keeps having trouble, maybe this tutorial could help you further.

It worked for me, with the following version code:

tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.3a.tar.gz -C /opt

Good luck!

[PaulWhipp]

And remember that xampp is really pretty redundant considering how easily you can now install the stack directly to make a 'real' server (see earlier posts in this thread).

[baffodoro]

So far this post has just under 200 views, So great. If you read this and use it could you leave a reply saying if it was useful/useless? I'd like to keep improving this how-to, so feedback would be good.

Plus, replies bump it up the list.

Hello,
I am just a newbie and I will make a newbie question: to start, how do I make sure i am in the right directory? (this is what you wrote at the veru beginning).
This because I downloaded xampp and entered terminal but the system said it couldn't find any such file in the directory.

Thank you

ps

sorry for my english

[killboymota]

hey, thanks for your tutorial but this is not working for me.

Starting XAMPP for Linux 1.5.3a...
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5)...
XAMPP: Starting MySQL...
/opt/lampp/bin/mysql.server: 84: source: not found
XAMPP: Another FTP daemon is already running.
XAMPP for Linux started.
motz@motz-Aspire-5735:~$ /opt/lampp/bin/mysql.server: 334: log_success_msg: not found

cya

[Godspell]

Hi there,

I followed your instructions using Xampp 1.7.3a on two of my laptops.

On one of my laptops, I cannot access the folder (where I keep ALL my html, php files) from Firefox address bar i.e. http://localhost/USER

I've already uninstalled and reinstalled everything but it still doesn't work.
It keeps saying

Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested object. It is either read-protected or not readable by the server.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.

It's even more frustrating that on the other laptop, it works straight away after creating the shortcut.

So, any idea on how to get around this???

Thank you.

Regards,
GS