The FreeBSD experience - part 3 let's AMP

Now the basics are there, I'm going to turn my VM into an (F)AMP-machine; Apache, MySQL and PHP.

I'm going to use the current versions available in de ports-repository:

Apache 2.2 (v2.2.21)
MySQL 5.5 server (v5.5.17)
PHP 5 (v5.3.8)


Install MySQL
(these are the installation instructions taken from the Joomla site).

Go to the ports directory and install

# whereis mysql55-server
mysql55-server: /usr/ports/databases/mysql55-server
# cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql55-server

# make install clean

Accept the default settings.

Copy the MySQL configuration file to /usr/local/etc and edit this file (my.cnf)

cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /usr/local/etc/my.cnf

To enable an automatic start of MySQL at boot time do the following:

echo mysql_enable=\"YES\" >> /etc/rc.conf

Before we continue we add a root password to MySQL

mysql -u root password {yourpasswordhere}

Install Apache 2.2.x

# whereis apache22
apache22: /usr/ports/www/apache22
# cd /usr/ports/www/apache22
# make install clean

-- Accept default settings --

After installation, uncomment the following lines in /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf

Include etc/apache22/extra/httpd-mpm.conf
Include etc/apache22/extra/httpd-default.conf 

(We'll dive into SSL later).

Let's add Apache to /etc/rc.conf to have it started at boottime

echo apache22_enable=\"YES\" >> /etc/rc.conf

Also enable AcceptFilter suport in FreeBSD kernel:

echo apache22_http_accept_enable=\"YES\" >> /etc/rc.conf

That takes care of loading accf_http kernel module at system startup. To manually load the module, use

kldload accf_http

The utility of accf_http is such that a server will not have to context switch several times before performing the initial parsing of the request. Use this command to check whether the accf_http kernel module is successfully loaded:

kldstat | grep accf_http

To start Apache HTTP server, you may restart the system or enter command:

service apache22 start

You can point your browser to that server's URL and see whether Apache is serving the default page.

Install PHP5

# whereis php5
php5: /usr/ports/lang/php5
# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
# make install clean

Select Apache Module and continue till it's done. After installation we need to copy a configuration file in /usr/local/etc:

cd /usr/local/etc
cp php.ini-production php.ini

Load the php.ini in an editor and add/change the following:

[Date]
date.timezone = "Europe/Amsterdam"

[Session]
session.save_path = "/var/tmp"

Edit your Apache configuration file (/usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf) and add  this:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

In  the DirectoryIndex  add php  extentions  like:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

Start/restart Apache22

apachectl restart

Create a file /usr/local/www/apache22/data/phpinfo.php with a single line:

echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' >> phpinfo.php

Check if it works by browsing to {your serverip}/phpinfo.php

Thanks to the following links I was able to get here:

http://joomlab15.exonsoft.com/en-us/articles/joomla!15x/99-joomla-15-on-freebsd-81?start=3

http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/unix-tutorials/1397-how-to-install-apache-mysql-php-phpmyadmin-in-freebsd

The Joomla info is a bit outdated and not very accurate at some points (I struggled with mod.fcgid so I left it out).

At this point I'm having a bit of a dilemma to install phpmyAdmin as well.