Moodle in English: Which Linux?

Re: Which Linux?

by Tim Hunt - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 4:20 PM

While some people have their favourite version of linux, it really does not matter much which you choose. The main thing you should look at when choosing is whether you want paid support (e.g. Red Hat enterprise linux, or similar) in which case there is a cost/advertised quality of service trade-off you can look at.

What you would typically do when setting up a linux server is to install the standard 'server' configuration of whatever linux distro it is, and then use the package manager to install exactly those bits of the LAMP stack that you want. For example, on Debian or Ubuntu it would be something like the following commands:

sudo apt-get install mysql
sudo apt-get install apache2
sudo apt-get install php5
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5

(I'm not sure about the exact package names there, you would need to look it up. Perhaps that first one should say postgresql

)

Then you need to install Moodle on top of the platform in the standard way.

Anyway, there are some step-by-step guides at Administrator_documentation#Installation_.26_Upgrading.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Howard Miller - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 4:39 PM

If you would like a completely biased recommendation... Ubuntu Server (don't be tempted to load the GUI version).

We've been using 8.04LTS (long term support) for quite some time. 10.04LTS is just out with guaranteed support and patches for several (3?) years. It's looking good and should support Moodle 2's requirements out of the packet.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Dale Davies - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 5:03 PM

I second the vote for Ubuntu Server (again, no GUI installed). I was no Linux expert when I started with it a few years back, I found that not only is Ubuntu stable and easy to use, but if you do have a problem you can guarentee there is a solution for it out there on the net.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Jon Witts - Friday, May 14, 2010, 3:10 AM

Hi Howard,

The LTS server version is supported for 5 years; and at present it's packages are well above the Moodle 2 requirements - I have a test install of Moodle 2 running nicely on it at the minute

Jon

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Re: Which Linux?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 7:56 PM

Search this forum for "linux flavour" and "linux distribution" for similar discussions, for example

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=32192

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=119575

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=132847

> Also, am I correct in assuming that once we have a stable Linux platform we could use LAMP to provide stable combination of Apache, PHP and MySQL?

What an understatement!!!

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Re: Which Linux?

by Howard Miller - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 8:07 PM

One of those discussions made me think. Whatever flavour of Linux you choose I would avoid using the packaged version of Moodle (if there is one). You are much better to install Moodle "manually" and this will give you a lot more flexibility. It's only marginally more bother.

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Re: Which Linux?

by HJWUCGA INC. - Friday, May 14, 2010, 12:28 AM

I'm with Howard. Install Moodle yourself and the docs are quite good and easy to follow.

I use to like Ubuntu server and then discovered my true love - CentOS/Red Hat. I love the idea of SELinux from a learning standpoint =). Ubuntu has too many packages that may or may not work or new to market that we don't have a need for a lot of them.

Here at work, we are migrating from SUSE (Suse Linux Enterprise Server) because their support is terrible and now moving on to RedHat instead.

Debian, Gentoo, etc.. they all are good and to be honest, you can go wrong with any flavour.

Once you go Nix you definitely won't Win =)

good luck and let us know if you need help

Chris

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Re: Which Linux?

by greg mushial - Friday, May 14, 2010, 2:37 AM

Chris -

We're on Ubuntu 9.10 server 64bit and are happy... but am wondering what you've seen in CentOS that has impressed you so favorably? [we're still in testing/trial phase... as such could do the swap to CentOS much more easily now than doing such after the first semester begins and we start having a live load]. Also - do know if CentOS would accept our existing RAID config (3x RAID-1) or would we have to start from scratch with a CentOS install/swap?

many thanks, greg

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Re: Which Linux?

by HJWUCGA INC. - Friday, May 14, 2010, 3:43 AM

Greg,

For us, we don't need all those packages that may or may not break when we update a package. Though CentOS has less packages, the simplier it is, the more stable the system. We are using it for our test platforms and we found it works beautifully with our enterprise/production RHEL (which is not surprising =) and should be expected.

There are nuances and you may have to do some minor tweaking but it's nothing you can't figure out with your RAID setup.

In short, there is no one specific package but if I need to update say PHP from a stock version, it all works...

I like the features they have in RHEL and because of it, I try and use them in this distro... clustering, virtualization...

yummmy (pun intended)

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Re: Which Linux?

by Mary Evans - Friday, June 4, 2010, 9:08 AM

Well this is an interesting discussion...

I installed Moodle 2.0 yesterday evening on my host server at www.names.co.uk. The hosting package I paid for last year runs on a Linux/Zeus/4.3 platform and this is where my effort ended...

Web server software (Zeus/4.3) is not supported, sorry.

The message is still on the web here...
http://moodle2.visible-expression.co.uk/moodle/

Sadly no Moodle 2.0 for me on the web...although Moodle 1.9.8 works fine on the same server!

Can someone tell me exactly what's happening here?

Thanks

Mary

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Re: Which Linux?

by Howard Miller - Friday, June 4, 2010, 4:34 PM

If the 4.3 refers to the PHP version then it is not supported. In fact PHP4.3 is not supported by PHP (if you see what I mean). It is a very old version.

Moodle requires PHP 5 point something.

A Zeus web server is a bit of a brave choice too. I've had some fun in the past working with non-Apache servers. You are often OK until you try to do something like Moodle Networking.

EDIT:
names.co.uk's web site says that they support PHP 4 and 5 so you can probably switch it somehow.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Mary Evans - Friday, June 4, 2010, 6:49 PM

Hi Howard,

I had no option with Zeus as it seems it's part of the package they put together for Starter Plus Hosting. There is an alternative in the form of a dedicated server, but these are expensive, but if I want to I can have LAMP set up as a virtual dedicated server.

As for my current set up. I purposely set up my MySQL database for Moodle 2.0 so that it uses MySQL 5.0.58, and the PHP version for my particular hosting package is PHP 5.2. I think 4.3 is the newest version of Zeus software.

I'm waiting for a reply from the Technical Support Team at Namesco. And so hopefully I'll get to the bottom of this problem.

Anyway thanks for your comments, I'll let you know what transpires with my Technical support.

Cheers

Mary

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Re: Which Linux?

by Mary Evans - Sunday, June 6, 2010, 9:29 PM

Hi Howard,

This is the reply I received from my website host company this morning!

"...Moodle software does not support Zeus web server which is what we operate on your hosting package. We do not provide Apache on any of our shared hosting packages therefore if you require Apache web server you would need to purchase a VPS or Dedicated server..."

These VPS options are pretty expensive for someone like me who just wants to develop themes, and have a small Moodle site to use as a repository to store and display them.

Mary

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Re: Which Linux?

by Howard Miller - Monday, June 7, 2010, 12:22 AM

I know it's not always so simple.... but take your business elsewhere? There are loads of hosting companies that do support Moodle's requirements.

I'm yet to be convinced that it's even true. There has been a fair bit of chat from users who clearly do run under Zeus. Unfortunately, if you do make a maverick choice of software the collective knowledge is greatly reduced - I, for one, have never used it and don't know the details.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Mary Evans - Monday, June 7, 2010, 2:07 AM

To tell you the truth Howard, I don't believe it either, since Moodle 1.9.8 works OK on that same server. But there must be some conflict going on for the Error message: Web server software (Zeus/4.3) is not supported, sorry . to be displayed while installing Moodle 2.0, else why would it be there?

Whose the best person (developer/coder) to approach to find out? There might be a bug in the system.

Mary

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Re: Which Linux?

by Howard Miller - Monday, June 7, 2010, 3:08 AM

Ask in the developers forum - "why does Moodle 2.0 not support Zeus?" (something like that). You could always hack the check out of the code and see what happens. It may only be a small part of the functionality but don't say I told you

EDIT:
What the hell... MDL-22689

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Re: Which Linux?

by Tim Hunt - Monday, June 7, 2010, 4:26 AM

I still don't know what we mean by Zeus. Where is the home-page of the project that develops that software? What exactly is it? Are there known compatibility problems getting PHP apps to work on it?

OK, so it seems to be http://www.zeus.com/, which is commercial software, which means that the website if full of marketing drivel, but light on technical information. Looking in their knowledgebase, there are no search results for Moodle, and the search results for PHP seem irrelevant.

You are really on your own with this. For an easy life Howard's suggestion to switch to another host has a lot to recommend it.

However, specifically on the Moodle 2.0 install thing. It must somewhere be doing a test on the type of web server you are trying to install on, and rejecting any that are not of a given list. You just need to find that code (try searching for the error message, and pack-tracking from there). Then just disable that test so you can try the install anyway. But you will be on your own.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Tim Hunt - Monday, June 7, 2010, 4:31 AM

OK. I was feeling kind and did the searching.

Searching for "setup_get_remote_url" lead to the language string 'unsupportedwebserver'

Searching for that lead to the function setup_get_remote_url() at around line 580 of lib/setuplib.php.

So, to support Zeus we need to add a bit to the if statement there. However, to work out the right code, we need access to a Zeus server, which, as I just pointed out, is commercial software, so I don't think you will persuade any of the core developers to do it for you. You will have to work it out on your own. Or persuade the wonderful paid support people at Zeus to do it.

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Re: Which Linux?

by Howard Miller - Monday, June 7, 2010, 5:01 AM

I liked the bit of marketing drivel... "the expectation is that Apache users will migrate to Zeus as server load increases".

There's really only a couple of variations in that list of servers, so it would be worth a punt guessing a few likely possibilities before paying money.

It's still a bit of regression as it clearly did work on that platform.

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