Step-by-step Install Guide for Debian

What you need to start

• etch CD-1
• A test x86 desktop computer, keyboard, monitor, mouse, and firewalled internet connection.
• One hour of time. (seriously!)

Directions

Install Debian

Follow the official guide:

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

Log in the root account and edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file adding the official repository nearest to your connection.

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list  

For example, from chili:

---

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

deb http://ftp.cl.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.cl.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib

---

Now to get all the security updates.

# aptitude update
# aptitude dist-upgrade

And reboot to run on the new kernel! (if it is the case)

# reboot

Install web server

Install lighttpd (skip apache)

At this point we'll need to log in again to the server as root and type:

# aptitude install lighttpd

Press Y to continue the install.

We need enable CGI scripts:

# lighty-enable-mod cgi
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd force-reload

and install php5 with some modules:

# aptitude install php5-cgi php5-gd php5-curl php5-xmlrpc php5-cli

Press Y to continue the install.

Install Database

Install Postgresql (skip MySQL)

Log in again to the server as root and type:

# aptitude install postgresql-8.1 php5-pgsql

Press Y to continue the install.

We now need to create the database user 'moodleuser'.

# su - postgres
$ createuser -D -A -P moodleuser
$ exit

Enter in a NewMoodleDatabasePassword here, then answer 'N' to the question.

We now need to create the database 'moodle' for the user 'moodleuser'.

# su - postgres
$ createdb -E utf8 -O moodleuser moodle
$ exit

Let's now secure the postgresql database with an admin password.

# su - postgres
$ psql template1
# ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'NewAdminDatabasePassword';
# \q
$ exit

Edit the file '/etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_hba.conf' and on line 79 change the words ident sameuser to md5.

# nano /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_hba.conf

Restart the database so everything is fine.

# /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.1 restart

Install Moodle

Log in again to the server as root and type:

# cd /var/www
# wget http://download.moodle.org/stable19/moodle-latest-19.tgz
# tar -xzf moodle-latest-19.tgz
# chown www-data.www-data /var/www/moodle
# mkdir /var/moodledata
# chown www-data.www-data /var/moodledata

Configure Moodle website

Log in again to the server as root and type:

# 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:

http://yourIP/moodle

Complete the Moodle install using a secure username and password

Go to a bar for a few hours.

Come back and tell your boss that you FINALLY got the test server running.

Install other software

On the command line, type:

# aptitude install clamav

Press Y to continue the install after each of these apt-get commands.

The clamav package will support virus checking on file uploads into Moodle. May have to run it again to configure properly.