Installing and upgrading help

Welding helps almost EVERYTHING! .

Thanks for the links. Looking at the documentation now.

Thanks for the replies. I was able to backup. When I asked the 1and1 representative I was asking about backing up the mysql tables. After reading the manual a little, it looks like its all done by XML. So as was said  "Haven't lost everything!"

Just downloaded the backup .zip file. Installed Linux Mint and going to read up on the moodle install.

The student who I have that is very computer literate, often makes me feel like I may have the expression on my face that I often see when explaining some welding related topic to someone that missed the last 3 classes.

I have been using computers for years and missed out on linux though I loved DOS, GWbasic, and dbase programming. Now I have gotten lazy and don't spend enough time "reading the instructions".

Anyway, thanks

Before going further, strongly suggest checking out how to use git.  I hinted at that but, unfortunately, did not provide a link.  So here's the link:

http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Git_for_Administrators

Why?  Moodle 2 is a work in progress and one will want to get updated code and fixes to issues quickly and efficiently.  The way to do that is via git.

Check out the documentation for upgrading/updating your Moodle at http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Upgrading#Standard_install_package

I actually use git with school moodle servers that have multiple (per campus) moodle sites.  With a script and git, updating is a matter of minutes as opposed to the 'long way' which took about 1 hour+ per site.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

Let's start by disclosing (exactly) what version of Linux Mint you've downloaded and installed - a url to the page that leads to the download link would help.

On this page: http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

I see that a version 13 is long term support and there are a few options for 32 bit or 64 bit as well as the GUI desktop included.

And, since you've mentioned going after the 'latest Moodle', check out the requirements for the lastest Moodle at: http://download.moodle.org/

Certain minimum PHP and MySQL versions are required for versions of Moodle (PHP 5.3.2, MySQL 5.1.33 for the most recent versions of Moodle).  Also, it might be important to install the 64 bit version of the operating system for better/faster MySQL performance (that assumes the hardware of the machine you've installed upon is capable).

Linux Mint has a community and in using Google found these:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/805

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/486

Interesting to note that one of the users who commented said the GUI was no help when installing phpmyadmin. :|

Please note dates of postings and what version the postings concern.

As to the question concerning does one need to physically remove files when removing apps ... can only guess with Linux Mint.  In CentOS, when removing MySQL Server and related MySQL apps, it doesn't actually remove the databases (database files).

'spirit of sharing', Ken

Since I've pointed you to a tutorial feel kinda responsible for stuff that's missing.

Your workstation needs to have a static IP address … not DHCP.
Don't randomly guess an IP on your entities network … get with the networking folks to acquire the static IP.
Guessing CAN wreck an entire network … or render it 'confused'.

Following the tutorial at:
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/486
have installed Linux Mint 13 (Long term support) in a VirtualBox on a MacOSX laptop.

That how-2 wasn't specifically for Moodle, so the following are some notes made while installing Moodle
on Linux Mint 13 (which isn't a server version, but is long term support).

MySQL has to be installed first and mysqld running for phpmyadmin to work.
In the phpmyadmin Mint install it using MySQL and creates a database for phpmyadmin.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

When installing MySQL you will be prompted for a user (root) and a password for MySQL.  Leave user as root and provide a password that you can remember.  It will be used later from the command line (mysql prompt below) to create a database for moodle.

In the URL above there is a part about phpmyadmin … adding a line to apache.conf.

[Tue Dec 04 10:30:29 2012] [warn] The Alias directive in /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf at line 3 will probably never match because it overlaps an earlier Alias.
apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName

But, it works anyway.
And the GUI desktop does have a item in menus for phpmyadmin … just launches the browser and goes to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/


Would also recommend installing:
git: sudo apt-get install git
enables the installation of Moodle via git.

nmap: enables port scanning of your server
sudo apt-get install nmap

openssh (server): allows ssh connection from a workstation (putty Windows, or Terminal from a MacOSX workstation)

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Might also install alpine … used for reading EMail on the server.
sudo apt-get install alpine

To access alpine from terminal: alpine

For higher versions of Moodle (2.3.3+ and above):
will need to acquire php5-curl (required), php5-xmlrpc and php5-intl

sudo apt-get install php5-curl
sudo apt-get install php5-xmlrpc
sudo apt-get install php5-intl

php5-curl is a stopper … if not installed, Moodle won't install.

for reference: apache2 uses www-data for user and group.  Important for ownerships of folders/files for Moodle.

Web root is in /var/www/
To get moodle running, the Moodle data directory (normally moodledata) has to be defined in apache2.conf.  Moodle will not install if moodledata is at the same level as the code directory.  Work around/fix:

Edit the 000-default file in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

ken@ken-VirtualBox /etc/apache2/sites-enabled $ cat 000-default
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    DocumentRoot /var/www/
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/moodledata>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from localhost
        deny from all
    </Directory>

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

Installing Moodle via git:
The MOODLE_19_STABLE stuff below could be replaced with any such found in
doing git branch -a
If your machine can handle it.  One could install MOODLE_23_STABLE … even the latest release MOODLE_24_STABLE

cd /var/www/
sudo git clone git://git.moodle.org/moodle.git moodle
cd moodle
git branch -a
sudo git branch --track MOODLE_19_STABLE origin/MOODLE_19_STABLE
sudo git checkout MOODLE_19_STABLE

chown www-data:www-data /var/www/moodle

mkdir /var/moodledata

chown www-data:www-data /var/moodledata

Create the database for Moodle:
mysql -u root -p [ENTER]
You will be prompted for the password

mysql> create database moodle character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci;

\q
or quit to exit

Now try to hit your server by IP address/moodle from a workstation and see if you get the install routine.

'spirit of sharing' ... and by NO means a Mint/buntu-ese 'guru', Ken