Installation help: Installation Clarifications

Installation Clarifications

Forum » Wikidot version 1 / Installation help » Installation Clarifications

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Ed Johnson
on: 1201844108|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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I followed the excellent Debian Quickstart and things went fairly well, but...

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Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1201844108|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I followed the excellent Debian Quickstart and things went fairly well, but being a total novice with Linux, I need a bit of help.

In the Configure PostgreSQL section, I believe there is a typo:

psql wd < files/dump.sql
should be
psql wd1 < files/dump.sql
I got a "database does not exist" error and guessed the database name, not the user name, needed to be in that command.

In the Configure Wikidot section, you say to "Edit GlobalProperties to fit desired settings…"
Can you add instructions for a novice on how to launch an editor, make changes, save and exit the editor? As I said, I'm a total novice! ;)

I installed Ubuntu 7.10 server on an extra PC on my home network for testing. When I try to hit the web server with my internal IP address (192.168.0.108) all I get is a "The site does not exist." line in my browser. This is not a "Page Not Found" error. it appears I'm hitting the Apache server, but something is missing or broken in my configuration.

I suspect that my inability to figure out how to edit the GlobalProperties may be contributing to my problem.

Since I blindly followed the guide without having much of a clue of what was really happening, I tried installing the Wikidot version of xdiff to see if that would help (it didn't). I think there is a typo in those instructions as well.

pecl remove xdiff
returned an error for me. I had to use:
pecl uninstall xdiff
to uninstall xdiff.

I think I'm pretty close to having a functioning setup. Can anyone provide a few more details or things I can check to get me over the hump?

Thanks to everyone involved for making this project available!

last edited on 1201844881|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Ed Johnson + show more

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1201986971|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

[Deleted this message for being totally inaccurate!]

I'm >this< close… I can feel it!

Thanks,
Ed

last edited on 1202102809|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Ed Johnson + show more

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1202051862|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'm starting to feel like I'm talking to myself!

For those that read my previous post before I deleted it, you can disregard it. The errors in the Apache log came from my frustration in not getting the Wikidot home page to load and trying different URL combinations.

I'm now thinking the problem is with Wikidot, not my Apache config. I placed a static dummy.html in /var/www/wikidot/web and I can open that page via http://localhost/dummy.html.

When I try to open http://localhost/index.php, I get a page displaying "The site does not exist." After examining index.php, I saw that it checks to see if setup.php has completed its setup. I reset 'WIKIDOT_SETUP_COMPLETED' to false so setup could run again. This time I got this error:

Fatal error: Class 'WikiFlowController' not found in /var/www/wikidot/web/index.php on line 35

I'm trying to get this running on a "clean" Ubuntu 7.10 Server install. I did install the Ubuntu Desktop so I could navigate in more familiar territory and use a GUI editor, etc.

Michal? Anyone?

Thanks,
Ed

last edited on 1202102941|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Ed Johnson + show more

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Re: Installation Clarifications

$michal frackowiak$ michal frackowiak 1202118607|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi,

of course there is no pecl remove. I have updated the installation document. BTW: anyone can edit pages at wikidot.org — feel free to do this. If you find any bug or inconsistency, fixing this is the fastest way to improve the docs.

if you are getting a "The site does not exist." message, then I think you have installed Wikidot successfully!!!

Wikidot needs a domain to work. Not a "localhost", but the whole domain. Only within this domain additional wikis are created. I suggest that you do the following if you are using a unix-like system (suppose you want to run Wikidot just locally):

edit the /etc/hosts file and add line:

127.0.0.1    mywikidot www.mywikidot profile.mywikidot
# add any other sub-wikis here, e.g.
127.0.0.1    myownwiki.mywikidot

use the same "mywikidot" as URL_DOMAIN property in GlobalProperties:

public $URL_DOMAIN = 'mywikidot';

you still need to use the same "mywikidot" as ServerName in your Apache config.
now save the file and make sure that when you point your browser to www.mywikidot (without .com) it hits your wikidot installations (sometimes you need to wait until domain cache times out)

At this point you should have your very private wikidot installation on localhost.

Disclaimer: the above is almost exactly what we are doing on our development machines. I hope there are no typos above.

TODO: it would be nice to have a how-to: "Local installation of Wikidot" or similar ;-)

Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalfrackowiak.com

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1202137347|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Michal,

Thank-you! Wikidot v1 is now working on my local server.

One thing I think I'm missing. Where do I setup/configure the administrative user(s) for the main wikidot site now that I have it working?

I'll write up a "localhost how-to:" once I make sure everything is working well.

Thanks again,
Ed

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Re: Installation Clarifications

$michal frackowiak$ michal frackowiak 1202143807|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The administrative user is:
login: admin@wikidot
password: ADMIN1

you can change the password just as for a normal user. To set up another user to be a super-user you need to… access the database directly :-( and modify the "super_admin" property in ozone_user.
To create more users they need to go through the "create account" process, which means you also need to have a working email delivery system - or you could create them directly in the database.

Those are also things that could be improved on the open-source release.

Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalfrackowiak.com

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1202146622|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I don't know how I missed this in your guide:

Log in to your Wikidot

open a webbrowser and navigate to www.yourdomain.com, click login

use e-mail: admin@wikidot ; password: ADMIN1

Which app similar to PHPMyAdmin for MySQL do you recommend for managing PostgreSQL databases?

Thanks again!
-Ed

last edited on 1202359706|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Ed Johnson + show more

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Gabrys 1202465379|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

There is a graphical great frontend to PostgreSQL: pgAdmin3 (we use from time to time).
PHP version: pgphpadmin (or something similar).
CLI — SQL console: psql

(as wdadmin)

sudo su postgres
psql wd1

and then from psql for example

UPDATE ozone_user SET super_admin = 't' WHERE unix_name = 'ed';

Hope this helps you. :)

Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my Dev blog

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st_ray 1203607834|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi, I got my wikidot running in my local network, thanks for the nice howto´s.

Now I have the problem to get it running on the internet cause I am using dynamic dns.

For me it looks like wikidot always needs "www." in the url. my dynamic dns is running with subdomains like fake.homesite.org. How do I need to configure apache or GlobalProperties.php
to get the system running

Best regards

st_ray

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Gabrys 1203610495|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Wikidot needs www.yourdomain.com for the main wiki. You can create almost anything.yourdomain.com.

Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my Dev blog

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st_ray 1203611004|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

How Gabrys ?

Thanks

st_ray

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Gabrys 1203619725|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You just need to get www.yourdomain.com working (point directly to your installation of Wikidot). If this is enough for you, it's enough.

But if you want something-else.yourdomain.com, you need to create new wiki (www.yourdomain.com should supply you with a link to "create new wiki"). Then the name of new wiki is exactly what you need to put in front of .yourdomain.com in order to connect to it.

But remember, that the name (f. e. something-else.yourdomain.com, when you created wiki name something-else) must (as a domain name) point to the IP of the server you run your Wikidot on.

Knowing that, it should be easy to understand the whole thing.

Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my Dev blog

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1203617084|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi!
I'm glad someone else is taking the plunge with a home install!!!

I have a registered domain name that I pointed at my home IP and setup my router to forward port 80 to my Wikidot server. That works great. I can also create additional mywiki.mydomain.com Wikidot sites and access them. I don't know how it will work if a subdomain.domain.com is the address of the base Wikidot install. Is it even possible to have a mywiki.subdomain.domain.com address?

I have a second machine that I can test with a dynamic IP. I'll mess around with it this weekend and see if I can figure it out. You may want to spend the few dollars a year to register a domain name. I believe you can still use a dynamic dns to point to that domain name.

Which dynamic dns service are you using? I can test with my no-ip account, but am willing to set up another one to match your setup.

-Ed

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st_ray 1203624172|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Thanks Gabrys, thanks Ed for your replies,

to Gabrys:

Ok I understand what you mean. Maybe I can fake the www. by setting www.homesite.org in my host file. Configure
the new wiki directly on the server for fake.homesite.org. Cause I am behind a router and it is always the same IP.

I´ll tell if it ´s working.

to ED

So far I only wanted to setup a test server. I don´t realy care about a own domainname. I only wanted to show some people in our company the system. And I am not in charge of our domain names.

So if you want to try it I have an account at dyndns.org.

Do you know why the developer made it ? That you have to use www. ?

Best regards

st_ray

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1203643019|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

st_ray and all,

Using DynDNS.com actually worked very well! I'm switching to their service and dropping no-ip. The reason? DynDNS allows enabling wildcards (no-ip requires you to buy premium services to enable this feature).

I just finished setting up my other Ubuntu server for testing.

Here's all I had to do:
1. Set up my DynDNS.com account and activated it.
2. I added a hostname (pizzageek.is-a-geek.com) and pointed it at my home, external IP address (you can install the client so this gets automatically updated if your IP is vunerable to changing like most home DSL/Cable accounts are).
3. (This is the key step) I was sure to check the Wildcard: [x] Yes, alias "*.hostname.domain" to same settings. for my hostname.
4. I made sure the /etc/hosts file on my Ubuntu server had the following entry:

127.0.0.1 localhost www.pizzageek.is-a-geek.com

5. I restarted Apache and PostgreSQL for good measure.
6. I logged into my router and made sure that port 80 was forwarded to the internal IP address of my Ubuntu/Wikidot server.
7. I went to my main Windows PC and connected to http://www.pizzageek.is-a-geek.com and I hit my base Wikidot install. I then created a new user account and created 2 new wiki sites:

http://ejwiki.pizzageek.is-a-geek.com (this is a public site)
http://ejtest.pizzageek.is-a-geek.com (this is a private site)

8. I got really excited that I didn't have to edit the /etc/hosts file on the Ububtu server to accommodate the new wiki sites I created and rushed back here to report my findings!

As I said, the ability to enable wildcards with DynDNS was the key. This appears to allow any newwiki.mainwiki.dyndnsdomain.com to work without a hitch!

I'll leave my test server running as much as possible through the weekend. I would love it if you could test it from your end by creating an account and a wiki site or two. Don't do anything permanent - this server will soon be redeployed at my work for our private Wikidot server. This is just my "proof of concept" setup. Once I do more testing, I'll be going forward with an install at work.

Assuming you don't find any issues connecting, creating an account and creating new wikis, this stuff can be added to the howto documentation.

Hope this helps!
-Ed

last edited on 1203644813|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Ed Johnson + show more

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st_ray 1203931381|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi ED

many many thanks. Works perfect.

st_ray

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Re: Installation Clarifications

Ed Johnson 1203990285|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Well, not quite perfect. I'm having problems with file downloads acting like they are part of a custom domain, not a "regular" wikidot site. I'm not sure if it's the 4th level domain in the URL or if it's something else. I'm on vacation this week, so won't be able to dig into it until next week.

I'd be curious if you run into the same problem - misery loves company! ;)

-Ed

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