Very detailed installation instructions

The following is a step-by-step guide originally written by Bjørn Roger Rasmussen (just like the Windows setup guide). It gives some instructions on setting up Apache and MySQL as well, so you might want to read it if you need even more guidance than in the earlier parts.

more.groupware together with Red Hat Linux 7.x and 8.x

[Note]Note

An alternative to follow this instruction is to install LinuxEasyInstaller in stead. LinuxEasyInstaller is software package with scripts which does the job with installing MySql, Apache, PHP and phpMyAdmin very easy. You can find more information at http://www.phpmylinux.net/?rub=lei

Below you will find the manually way to install MGW without any help from LinuxEasyInstaller:

This step-by-step - guide is suited for you who intend to install more.groupware to run at your Red Hat Linux 7.x or 8.x computer. If you use another Linux distribution you will find that not everything written below will work at the same way as described.

Making your computer ready for running more.groupware

I started with a clean installation of Red Hat Linux. I did a custom installation and I selected to install everything. With this kind of installation you get both Apache, PHP and MySQL installed on your PC.

After completing the installation of Linux I logged in as root and started from the shell Setup followed by System services. The following services must be running / selected:

  • httpd (Apache web - server)

  • mysqld (MySql database)

  • Optional: sshd (secure "FTP" and "Telnet")

Select the services mentioned above and reboot your computer. (If you know what you are doing it is also possible to manually start the services without rebooting, e. g. /etc/init.d/mysqld start and /etc/init.d/httpd start).

In stead of using setup you can give the commands:

    chkconfig httpd on
    chkconfig mysqld on
  

After doing the changes in setup or with chkconfig the necessary services will start automatically every time you reboot your computer.

Start your web browser with the address http://ipaddress_of_your_computer/ and check that you get the Apache test page. To check that PHP works you should make a little text file with the following contents (you could use the text editor Pico at you Linux computer):

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save the file in /var/www/html e. g. with the name test.php. Start your browser with the webpage http://ipaddress_of_your_computer/test.php You should get a lot of information about PHP.

Configuring MySQL

Run the following MySQL commands from shell:

      mysqladmin -u root password choose_a_password 
      mysqladmin -u root -p create MGW # (enter password defined above when prompted) 
      mysql -u root -p # (enter password defined above when prompted)
    

Give the following command after you have got the mysql - prompt: grant all on MGW.* to MGW@localhost identified by 'you_choose_a_password'; Write \q to quit!

Explanation:

After the installation of Red Hat Linux MySQL has as default a user called root with no password (password blank) defined. In the first mysql - line above we changed from blank root password to a self - chosen password.

In line two we made a new database with the name MGW which we shall use together with more.groupware later. To get the permission to make the database we used the MySQL user root with the password we defined in MySql line 1 above.

In line three we choose to log into the MySql - shell as the MySql root user. In line four (the grant all - command) we choose to give all the rights to access the MGW - database to a user with the same name as the database (MGW) with a self - chosen password.

To log out of MySQL (the MySql - prompt) you write \q

Unpacking the more.groupware files

Unzip the files (if necessary) and copy them to /var/www/html/moregroupware/ at your Linux computer.

I downloaded (and unzipped) the more.groupware - files to my Windows computer. To transfer the files to the Linux PC I used WinSCP (SSH FTP). You can download WinSCP from http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/

Check the file / folder permissions after the transfer. The owner of the more.groupware folder shall be root (user = root, group = root) with permissions 757.

Configuring more.groupware

Start your web - browser and open the web - page http://yourPCname/moregroupware/setup/index.php. The setup is described here in full detail.

Security

After you have got more.groupware to run you should do some work with securing your setup. Under the installation you got the following message:

"The more.groupware Team recommends to adjust the rights of the moregroupware folder in a way that not everybody can modify or run the scripts. Grant full rights only to the webserver user."

In Red Hat Linux the HTML - folder (/var/www/html/) is by default owned by root and the web - server is running as root. This is not the safest solution on earth. I recommend you to search the net and find more information about how you can secure your Linux - computer.