XAMPP installation

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Problems

3. Linux, Mac, Windows
    3.1 Linux
    3.2 Mac (not ready)
    3.3 Windows (not ready)
        3.3.1 Known issues

4. To conclude

1. Introduction

XAMPP is easy, but...
From their blurb:
Many people know from their own experience that it's not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl.

XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP, Perl and more. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start.

XAMPP is one of the many solutions when you want to run Website@School on your own your Linux, Mac, Solaris or Windows computer.
Please see http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html for details and downloads.

And now for the 'but ...'
NOTE: Please read the following security information from the Apachefriends:

The philosophy behind XAMPP is to build an easy to install distribution for developers to get into the world of Apache. To make it convenient for developers XAMPP is configured with all features turned on. The default configuration is not good from a security point of view and it's not secure enough for a production environment - please don't use XAMPP in such environment. Since LAMPP 0.9.5 you can make your XAMPP installation secure by calling »/opt/lampp/lampp security«.

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2. Problems

XAMPP may be easy, but every type of installation may or may not have it's own quirks. That's why we describe a couple of installations up to the level where Website@School is actually working.

Reading this chapter does not relieve you from reading the Installation chapter, section 1.2.2. User requirements

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3. Linux, Mac, Windows

Please help us by creating an installation guide for Mac and Windows.

3.1 Linux

The installation of XAMPP was performed on a HP d530 with a P4 3.2 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, xampp-linux-5.6.3-0-installer.run 32 bits version. The installer is user dirk on a PC called c36.

Test XAMPP

This demonstrates that the webserver is running. So far, so good. Maybe other services are not running. Let's check:

root@c37:/opt/lampp# ./lampp stop Stopping XAMPP for Linux 5.6.3-0... XAMPP: Stopping Apache...ok. XAMPP: Stopping MySQL...not running. XAMPP: Stopping ProFTPD...not running. root@c37:/opt/lampp#

Yes indeed....

How to start and stop XAMPP

Starting XAMPP:

dirk@c36:~$ sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start
[sudo] password for dirk:
Starting XAMPP for Linux 5.6.3-0...
XAMPP: Starting Apache...ok.
XAMPP: Starting MySQL...ok.
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD...ok.
dirk@c36:~$

Stoppintg XAMP:

dirk@c36:~$ sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop
Stopping XAMPP for Linux 5.6.3-0...
XAMPP: Stopping Apache...ok.
XAMPP: Stopping MySQL...ok.
XAMPP: Stopping ProFTPD...ok.
dirk@c36:~$

Now shut down your Linux box and star up again. This forces you to manually start XAMPP. It's an extra check. Better to check now than hours, days, month later find out ... @Q!@#$%!!

Secure XAMPP

Start XAMPP

Preparations for the installation of Website@School

Testing

3.2 Mac (not ready)

Please help us with instructions!

3.3 Windows (not ready)

Please help us with instructions!

3.3.1 Known issues

Bert reports he cannot install Website@School because of:
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in C:\wamp\www\program\lib\database\mysql.class.php on line 295
It is true that the last step in the installation takes quite some time. Maybe it can be solved in a future release by letting the program ask for extra exection time.

The installation fails because 30 seconds apparentlly is not enough to complete the installation. Reasons can be: - The installation takes time because of the huge amount of Demonstration data (The Exemplum Primary School, users, Areas, sections, pages, modules, etc).
- The PC is too slow for the default 'max_execution_time' of the file php.ini, which is set to 30 seconds.

Workarounds:
- Raise 'max_execution_time' in php.ini.
- Install without Demonstration Data
- Faster PC


After a 'successful' installation of Website@School with XAMPP for Linux 5.5.19-0 or later, the website is visible, but the login screen is white and contains no data. Reason:

A fix until the release of Website@School 0.90.6b:

The login screen is now accessible.

4. To conclude

No conclusions so far.

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Author: Dirk Schouten <dirk (at) websiteatschool (dot) eu>
Last updated: 2015-02-03