QNAP and Moodle

QNAP and Moodle

by Lu Fox -
Number of replies: 8

Good evening to all community members

I've searched for this topic in former posts and discussions (also trough google), but very old topics which could not help me solve the problem are all I was able to find

The problem is:

I'm trying to install the latest version of Moodle on my QNAP NAS, as I had installed it on an older NAS and it worked perfectly (Moodle 2.6.5 - which was listed within and made available through QNAP-supported applications)

Amazingly, I have now found out that Moodle is nolonger available (supported), so I have downloaded both the ZIP and TGZ files of moodle 3.5.2 and tried to use them through QNAP manual installation procedure but both turned out to be unserviceable with QNAP NAS.

Is there anyone who could help me install the latest (or any older) version of Moodle in my QNAP, or just tell me the procedure I should follow?

Any suggestion would be very much appreciated

Thanks

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In reply to Lu Fox

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

I see quite a lot of people are using these QNAP boxes. I know nothing at all about them. What operating system do they run?

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In reply to Lu Fox

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
There were a few Synology threads on moodle.org. In fact I played with one some time back: See "Re: Forcing PHP version" https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=366204#p1476788. For more do an advanced search https://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?id=5.

In short: modest power requirements, well suited for many cases, if you don't mind the tedious path names.

BTW, it is Linux, an own distribution - main thing with root shell access.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Lu Fox -
I can confirm QNAPs have a Linux-based OS, but it seems to me it only

allows *.qpkg files to be installed. Some time ago I found a

QNAP-compatible release of Moodle 2.6.5 which is nolonger available and

while searching the Internet for a possible solution I read that some forum

users have apparently installed moodle 3.1 on their QNAP. So, I thought,

there must be a way to do so which I do not know ... is it like that?

Thanks in advance



Il Lun 8 Ott 2018, 10:29 Visvanath Ratnaweera (via Moodle.org) <
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In reply to Lu Fox

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Before giving you false hopes, I have no experience with QNAP. I was talking about Synology earlier.

That said, I went through their documentation and expect it to behave very much similar to Synology at the root level. Their wiki is excellent. There is even provision for replacing their Linux version with Debian! https://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/Debian_Installation_On_QNAP
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Lu Fox -

Thank you very much first for your kind reply. I will read the suggested procedure and try to figure out whether it is applicable to my case, as I would like to preserve the stability provided by the QNAP system.

I will let you know, both in the affirmative and in the negative


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In reply to Lu Fox

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
You are welcome!

I think you misunderstood the howto on Debian installation. If your intention is just to run a newer Moodle on QNAP it is not necessary to "jail break" it. Keep the factory installed Linux distribution QTS https://www.qnap.com/qts/ as the LAMP stack. Just follow the so-called "manual" installation routine of Moodle https://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle. That is at least what I did with the Synology.

You didn't say anything about the purpose of your Moodle. If your interest is (low-power) embedded hardware you should consider the generation of hardware led by Raspberry Pi (RP). The RP might look like an unlikely candidate as a server. But the latest generation Pi 3 B+ runs an ARM 1.4 GHz quad-core and has 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM. The highly tuned Moodle installation on Raspbian, MoodleBox https://moodlebox.net, would handle many of the situations for a QNAP, and more, I bet. Run a search for moodlebox here on moodle.org.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: QNAP and Moodle

by Lu Fox -
Actually, yes, may be I misunderstood the previous post

Anyway, QNAP has implemented a utility (Virtualization Station) allowing to setup various OS (any of those made available on the market), so that any "jail break" is unnecessary. However, this would be a sort of "second layer" installation while in the past there were Moodle releases (*.qkpg) which could be installed directly in the NAS OS, thus making everything ... say "smoother" - but it seems to me no similar solution is available anylonger, at least for the time being. Should I find a solution which fits my specific needs I'll certainly post it.

Thanks

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