OK, just found out where I am going wrong. And I am going wrong in more ways than one. Firstly, I need to modify the /etc/apache2/sites-available/default to allow .htaccess rules to override the httpd.conf. Really I should not use .htaccess, but as I am using my Linux as a test environment for my Tranquillizer website, which does use .htaccess, I will stick with it for now. So this is what I am about to do: In /etc/apache2/sites-available/default: Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all # Uncomment this directive is you want to see apache2′s # default start page (in /apache2-default) when you go to / #RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/ I shall change “AllowOverride None” to “AllowOverride All” This tells Apache that it’s okay to allow .htaccess files to over-ride previous directives. This means that I can get php code parsed inside html files, which is essential for my template system. I place this code into my .htaccess: RemoveHandler .html .htm AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html Then I need to restart Apache so that the changes take effect. I’ll report back in a moment. Update: Success!!! I did not need to restart Apache, the instruction was: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 [...]

Just found this page on the Ubuntu website, bookmarking it here. Looks like need to make some changes to get the .htaccess working. Also seems that I could have installed LAMP automatically with this command: To install the default LAMP stack in Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) In Feisty, the Ubuntu base system includes Tasksel. You can either install LAMP using tasksel or install the LAMP packages as detailed above. sudo tasksel install lamp-server The site also explains how to uninstall if everything goes pearshaped. Hopefully it will not come to that! Suggested Reading:Linux Ubuntu – a Whole New WorldInstallation of Domain Name Service (DNS) – BindBluefish – Linux just gets better.Mod rewrite / clean urls for Drupal on Ubuntu Apache ServerLinux, Apache, PHP Success. Next MySQL…

Well, everything seems to be going exceptionally smoothly so far. Time for bed now, but next time I will be installing MySQL. Then once that is set up I should in theory have a test environment to test database driven websites such as Drupal and WordPress. And this will help me on my journey to become a web designer, or as decided today, a web solutions manager. Personally, I feel that hacker is still more apt for my skills. But they are getting there. Although I am not entirely sure what I have learnt this evening, other than with Ubuntu / Linux it is very easy to install Apache and PHP. Hopefully I will have time to install MySQL tomorrow night. For now, I want to quickly check that I can view a simple static html page on my Apache web server…… Excellent, it worked. In the terminal I typed sudo gedit /var/www/index.html which opened the text editor. I copied the source code of the index page of my Tranquillizer website, saved, then pointed my browser at http://localhost/ and the page is there, in all its glory. Just to be sure (I am like that) I created a page called [...]

I guess this is where I find out if it is working…… Apache restarting with sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart I have only ever done this through the control panel of my web host so far. So interesting to see how it is really done! OK, the results: jon@jon-desktop:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart * Forcing reload of web server (apache2)… apache2: Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName apache2: Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName [ OK ] I hope that those messages are standard, i.e. “Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name” Time to test if it has worked……… Yippee! Yes, entering http://localhost/testphp.php into the browser has produced a result, so PHP is working. I tried previously before installing Apache and PHP, and I simply got to option to download the file in which I had typed The results are: PHP Version 5.2.1 System Linux jon-desktop 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Fri Aug 31 00:55:27 UTC 2007 i686 Build Date Jul 17 2007 17:59:41 Server API Apache 2.0 Handler Virtual Directory Support disabled Configuration File (php.ini) Path /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini Scan this dir for additional .ini files /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d [...]

I am now going to record my progress at installing PHP on Ubuntu, in the same way that I recording the results of installing Apache. Again, for my benefit, and your amusement. Are you laughing at me or with me? jon@jon-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree Reading state information… Done The following extra packages will be installed: apache2-mpm-prefork php5-common Suggested packages: php-pear The following packages will be REMOVED apache2-mpm-worker The following NEW packages will be installed apache2-mpm-prefork libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php5-common 0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 3184kB of archives. After unpacking 6324kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y Get: 1 http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/main apache2-mpm-prefork 2.2.3-3.2ubuntu0.1 [429kB] Get: 2 http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/main php5-common 5.2.1-0ubuntu1.4 [223kB] Get: 3 http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/main libapache2-mod-php5 5.2.1-0ubuntu1.4 [2531kB] Get: 4 http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/main php5 5.2.1-0ubuntu1.4 [1078B] Fetched 3184kB in 5s (609kB/s) dpkg: apache2-mpm-worker: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request: apache2 depends on apache2-mpm-worker (>= 2.2.3-3.2ubuntu0.1) | apache2-mpm-prefork (>= 2.2.3-3.2ubuntu0.1) | apache2-mpm-event (>= 2.2.3-3.2ubuntu0.1); however: Package apache2-mpm-worker is to be removed. Package apache2-mpm-prefork is not installed. Package apache2-mpm-event is not installed. (Reading database … 105677 [...]