Mailing List Archive

Non-root installation
Greetings!

I would like to install MediaWiki on a remote server to which I do not have
root access. PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.49 are available. Has anyone here done
this before, or know of someone who has? If so, I would like to contact
him/her.

Also, I would like to be able to install MediaWiki by unpacking the files
into the directory of choice, run an installation script in my browser into
which I input my host, directory, database, and software version
information, run a configuration script to setup admin accounts, display
preferences, and the like, and start using the product. Is there any
possibility of this being implemented in the near future?

I hope that I am not asking for too much....

~ James Reed
Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 06:32:29PM -0500, James Reed wrote:
> I would like to install MediaWiki on a remote server to which I do not have
> root access. PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.49 are available. Has anyone here done
> this before, or know of someone who has? If so, I would like to contact
> him/her.

Just FYI, those are _really old_ versions of PHP and MySQL. They will
probably work, but if you have any strange problems please let us know
about any error messages you get.

> Also, I would like to be able to install MediaWiki by unpacking the files
> into the directory of choice, run an installation script in my browser into
> which I input my host, directory, database, and software version
> information, run a configuration script to setup admin accounts, display
> preferences, and the like, and start using the product. Is there any
> possibility of this being implemented in the near future?

This is already implemented in version 1.2. Download MediaWiki 1.2.2:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wikipedia/mediawiki-1.2.2.tar.gz?download

The file INSTALL contains installation instructions.

If you don't have root access to the database, you should first make
sure that you have an empty database and permission to create and
alter tables in it. If you have existing tables in this database, make
sure none of the names conflict with MediaWiki's tables (check the table
definitions in maintenance/tables.sql)

Give your existing MySQL username and password to the config script,
and just leave the root password blank.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
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On Tuesday 30 March 2004 01:32, James Reed wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> I would like to install MediaWiki on a remote server to which I do not have
> root access. PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.49 are available. Has anyone here
> done this before, or know of someone who has? If so, I would like to
> contact him/her.

I have done this on sourceforge.net and it's running quite good. There is only
the login problem but i assume this could be made better or will be gone
after an upgrade (at least form me) but so far we are using this wiki with
success.

Here is a good dokumentation i used:
http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation:Installation

Try section 5, this is what you want.
5 Installing MediaWiki on SourceForge

I recommand that you do some installs on your localhost first to get a basic
feeling for the software ;-)

> Also, I would like to be able to install MediaWiki by unpacking the files
> into the directory of choice, run an installation script in my browser into
> which I input my host, directory, database, and software version
> information, run a configuration script to setup admin accounts, display
> preferences, and the like, and start using the product. Is there any
> possibility of this being implemented in the near future?

Maybe ;-)

> I hope that I am not asking for too much....

*g*
;-)

> ~ James Reed
- --
gruss,
joachim schiele
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Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
> > James Reed: I would like to install MediaWiki on a remote server to
which I do not have
> > root access. PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.49 are available. Has anyone here
done
> > this before, or know of someone who has? If so, I would like to contact
> > him/her.

> Brion Vibber: Just FYI, those are _really old_ versions of PHP and MySQL.
They will
> probably work, but if you have any strange problems please let us know
> about any error messages you get.

I know, but my hosting service is free and friendly (for the next three
years). If I wanted to pay for a root server package, then I could have
anything I wanted, but....

> > James Reed: Also, I would like to be able to install MediaWiki by
unpacking the files
> > into the directory of choice, run an installation script in my browser
into
> > which I input my host, directory, database, and software version
> > information, run a configuration script to setup admin accounts, display
> > preferences, and the like, and start using the product. Is there any
> > possibility of this being implemented in the near future?
>
> Brion Vibber: This is already implemented in version 1.2. Download
MediaWiki 1.2.2:
>
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wikipedia/mediawiki-1.2.2.tar.gz?download
>
> The file INSTALL contains installation instructions.

I previously tried to install 1.1.0. I just downloaded 1.2.2 and will try to
install it sometime tomorrow. (Note to self: You really need to pay more
attention to the list and news releases....)

> Brion Vibber: If you don't have root access to the database, you should
first make
> sure that you have an empty database and permission to create and
> alter tables in it. If you have existing tables in this database, make
> sure none of the names conflict with MediaWiki's tables (check the table
> definitions in maintenance/tables.sql)
>
> Give your existing MySQL username and password to the config script,
> and just leave the root password blank.

When you say "root access to the database", do you mean access to the root
of the server on which the database is run or access to the root of a
particular database? I have access to the root of a particular database. The
database is on a separate server on a different domain from my web hosting
service, but I have the database host server name and database name, which I
access via a database user name and password. I have accessed and used the
database via PHP MySQL calls with other software packages with that
information without any problems.

~

> Joachim Schiele: I have done this on sourceforge.net and it's running
quite good. There is only
> the login problem but i assume this could be made better or will be gone
> after an upgrade (at least form me) but so far we are using this wiki with
> success.
>
> Here is a good dokumentation i used:
> http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation:Installation
>
> Try section 5, this is what you want.
> 5 Installing MediaWiki on SourceForge
>
> I recommand that you do some installs on your localhost first to get a
basic
> feeling for the software ;-)

I don't have a GNU/Linux box to try this on since my hard drive crashed
(thanks to my parents for use of their computer in the mean time).

I'll definitely print off a copy of those pages before beginning.

~

I'll let you know how installation goes.

~ James Reed
Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 07:59:20PM -0500, James Reed wrote:
> When you say "root access to the database", do you mean access to the root
> of the server on which the database is run or access to the root of a
> particular database? I have access to the root of a particular database. The
> database is on a separate server on a different domain from my web hosting
> service, but I have the database host server name and database name, which I
> access via a database user name and password. I have accessed and used the
> database via PHP MySQL calls with other software packages with that
> information without any problems.

MySQL's concept of users is completely separate from the underlying operating
system, which tends to confuse the issue when they've got a main account
called "root". :P The MySQL root user can create and delete databases,
kill running queries by any user, etc.

If you've got sufficient privileges on an existing account, you don't need
MySQL root to install MediaWiki.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
James Reed wrote:
> > When you say "root access to the database", do you mean access to the
root
> > of the server on which the database is run or access to the root of a
> > particular database? I have access to the root of a particular database.

Brion Vibber wrote:
> MySQL's concept of users is completely separate from the underlying
operating
> system, which tends to confuse the issue when they've got a main account
> called "root". :P The MySQL root user can create and delete databases,
> kill running queries by any user, etc.

I understand now. No, I do not have access to the MySQL "root" account, but
my usage of my database is near absolute: I can do anything I want with it
except exceed the 100MB storage limitation.

Brion Vibber wrote:
> If you don't have root access to the database, you should first make
> sure that you have an empty database and permission to create and
> alter tables in it. If you have existing tables in this database, make
> sure none of the names conflict with MediaWiki's tables (check the table
> definitions in maintenance/tables.sql)

Done. I have several other scripts installed that use the database, but the
table prefixes that they use are unique so I do not expect there to be any
problems.

I'll let you know how the install went after I make the time to do it.
Thanks for all the help.

~ James Reed
Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
Brion,

Just a thought - have you considered making the basic requirements for
PHP/MySQL/whatever that of Debian's stable release? I'm running 1.1.0 on it
now faultlessly. I don't recall the exact version numbers off the top of my
head, but it sounds similar to those below. It certainly works, anyway - my
thought being that a lot of folk run stable on their server, and it's about
as far behind as is reasonable.

Cheers,
Calum

On Tuesday 30 March 2004 00:52, brion@zwinger.wikimedia.org wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 06:32:29PM -0500, James Reed wrote:
> > I would like to install MediaWiki on a remote server to which I do not
> > have root access. PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.49 are available. Has anyone
> > here done this before, or know of someone who has? If so, I would like to
> > contact him/her.
>
> Just FYI, those are _really old_ versions of PHP and MySQL. They will
> probably work, but if you have any strange problems please let us know
> about any error messages you get.
Re: Non-root installation [ In reply to ]
On Mar 31, 2004, at 08:20, Calum Galleitch wrote:
> Just a thought - have you considered making the basic requirements for
> PHP/MySQL/whatever that of Debian's stable release? I'm running 1.1.0
> on it
> now faultlessly. I don't recall the exact version numbers off the top
> of my
> head, but it sounds similar to those below. It certainly works,
> anyway - my
> thought being that a lot of folk run stable on their server, and it's
> about
> as far behind as is reasonable.

Actually I've got a Debian Woody setup tucked away precisely for
checking that Debian's _really old_ shipped versions of things don't
explode too horribly. :)

The main remaining failure on Debian is that texvc can't be compiled
with the version of ocaml they ship. I don't know squat about ocaml so
don't have a clue how to fix it...

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)