Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu

Ubuntu has committed to five years of support for the LTS (Long Term Support) server version.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS server CD
x86 desktop computer, keyboard, monitor, mouse, and firewalled internet connection.
One hour of time. (seriously!)

Start computer and use F12 to boot from CD.
Select Install to hard drive.
Select your language, country, and keyboard layout (i.e. English, United States, American English)
Select autodetect network, if you have DHCP. Should be made a static IP in a development or production environment.
Enter your servername (i.e. moodletest)
Select to manually edit the partition table. I’m doing my testing on a standard 40GB harddrive and will modify these sizes in production.

/boot ext3 200MB bootable (needs to be on the first part of the drive)

/ ext3 10GB (files are relatively static)

swap 4GB (nice to have a good amount of space)

/var ext3 26GB (variable content – uses rest of the drive)

Select timezone (i.e. central)
Set clock to Universal Time (i.e. yes)
Enter Administrators Full name (i.e. Joe Smith)
Enter account name (i.e. joesmith)
Enter a secure password (‘abcde’ is not a good one!)
Let the computer restart
Login your account
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list (uncomment the universe source – about line 22)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade
sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server openssh-server
mysqladmin –u root password databasepassword
OTHER MYSQL PASSWORD COMMAND
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-mysqli
sudo apt-get install ntp ntp-simple unattended-upgrades
sudo apt-get install clamav unzip zip aspell-en
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-security php5-ldap php5-odbc (requirements for our site)
cd /var/www
sudo wget http://download.moodle.org/stable17/moodle-latest-17.tgz
sudo tar –zxf moodle-latest-17.tgz
sudo mkdir /var/moodledata
sudo chown –R www-data.www-data /var/moodledata /var/www/moodle
sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/default (modify lines 4 and 9 from /var/www to /var/www/moodle)
PUT MOODLE MYSQL command lines HERE!
ifconfig (look for your server’s ip address on the 2nd line)
On another computer open a web browser and put in your server address found in line 31.
Complete the Moodle install using a secure username and password
Reboot
Go to a bar for a few hours.
Come back and tell your boss that you FINALLY got the test server running.

Documentation