Install Moodle on FreeBSD

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After the base install, use freebsd-update to install security patches, then update the ports collection using portmaster and portaudit. The book, Building A Server With FreeBSD 7, by Bryan J. Hong may help ensure a solid (and repeatedly installable) FreeBSD server setup.

Installed versions of software

Here are the installed versions of the main software:

• httpd -v: Server version: Apache/2.2.9 (FreeBSD)
• mysql> status: Server version: 5.0.67-log FreeBSD port: mysql-server-5.0.67_1
• Moodle 1.9.3+
• PHP 5.2.6

Before attempting the Moodle installation, I first installed the various PHP extensions listed in the DETAILED Moodle Installation Instructions.

Required ports

Still, while running Moodle's install.php script from a browser, I encountered a number of PHP errors. To make the installation go more smoothly, install these ports ahead of time:

• /usr/ports/devel/php5-pcre
• /usr/ports/textproc/php5-dom
• /usr/ports/textproc/php5-xml
• /usr/ports/textproc/php5-xmlreader
• /usr/ports/textproc/php5-xmlwriter
• /usr/ports/textproc/php5-ctype
• /usr/ports/net/php5-xmlrpc
• /usr/ports/archivers/php5-zlib (I discovered later that backups were failing because zlib was not installed.)

pkg info

For completeness, here's what pkg_info shows (many of these ports were installed automatically while installing the above ports):

• apache-2.2.9_5 Version 2.2.x of Apache web server with prefork MPM.
• autoconf-2.62 Automatically configure source code on many Un*x platforms
• autoconf-wrapper-20071109 Wrapper script for GNU autoconf
• automake-1.9.6_3 GNU Standards-compliant Makefile generator (1.9)
• automake-wrapper-20071109 Wrapper script for GNU automake
• bigreqsproto-1.0.2 BigReqs extension headers*
• curl-7.18.0 Non-interactive tool to get files from FTP, GOPHER, HTTP(S)
• expat-2.0.1 XML 1.0 parser written in C
• freetype2-2.3.7 A free and portable TrueType font rendering engine
• gettext-0.17_1 GNU gettext package
• gmake-3.81_3 GNU version of 'make' utility
• help2man-1.36.4_2 Automatically generating simple manual pages from program o
• inputproto-1.4.2.1 Input extension headers
• jpeg-6b_7 IJG's jpeg compression utilities
• kbproto-1.0.3 KB extension headers
• libICE-1.0.4_1,1 Inter Client Exchange library for X11
• libSM-1.0.3_1,1 Session Management library for X11
• libX11-1.1.3_1,1 X11 library
• libXau-1.0.3_2 Authentication Protocol library for X11
• libXaw-1.0.4_1,1 X Athena Widgets library
• libXdmcp-1.0.2_1 X Display Manager Control Protocol library
• libXext-1.0.3,1 X11 Extension library
• libXmu-1.0.3,1 X Miscellaneous Utilities libraries
• libXp-1.0.0,1 X print library
• libXpm-3.5.7 X Pixmap library
• libXt-1.0.5_1 X Toolkit library
• libiconv-1.11_1 A character set conversion library
• libtool-1.5.26 Generic shared library support script
• libxml2-2.6.32_1 XML parser library for GNOME
• lynx-2.8.6.5_4,1 A non-graphical, text-based World-Wide Web client
• m4-1.4.11,1 GNU m4
• mysql-client-5.0.67_1 Multithreaded SQL database (client)
• mysql-server-5.0.67_1 Multithreaded SQL database (server)
• ntp-4.2.4p4 The Network Time Protocol Distribution
• openssh-portable-overwrite-base-5.0.p1,1 The portable version of OpenBSD's OpenSSH
• openssl-0.9.8i SSL and crypto library
• p5-gettext-1.05_2 Message handling functions
• perl-5.8.8_1 Practical Extraction and Report Language
• php5-5.2.6_2 PHP Scripting Language
• php5-ctype-5.2.6_2 The ctype shared extension for php
• php5-curl-5.2.6_2 The curl shared extension for php
• php5-dom-5.2.6_2 The dom shared extension for php
• php5-gd-5.2.6_2 The gd shared extension for php
• php5-iconv-5.2.6_2 The iconv shared extension for php
• php5-mbstring-5.2.6_2 The mbstring shared extension for php
• php5-mysql-5.2.6_2 The mysql shared extension for php
• php5-openssl-5.2.6_2 The openssl shared extension for php
• php5-pcre-5.2.6_2 The pcre shared extension for php
• php5-session-5.2.6_2 The session shared extension for php
• php5-simplexml-5.2.6_2 The simplexml shared extension for php
• php5-spl-5.2.6_2 The spl shared extension for php
• php5-tokenizer-5.2.6_2 The tokenizer shared extension for php
• php5-xml-5.2.6_2 The xml shared extension for php
• php5-xmlreader-5.2.6_2 The xmlreader shared extension for php
• php5-xmlrpc-5.2.6_2 The xmlrpc shared extension for php
• php5-xmlwriter-5.2.6_2 The xmlwriter shared extension for php
• pkg-config-0.23_1 A utility to retrieve information about installed libraries
• png-1.2.32 Library for manipulating PNG images
• portaudit-0.5.12 Checks installed ports against a list of security vulnerabi
• portmaster-2.6 Manage your ports without external databases or languages
• printproto-1.0.3 Print extension headers
• t1lib-5.1.2,1 A Type 1 Rasterizer Library for UNIX/X11
• xcmiscproto-1.1.2 XCMisc extension headers
• xextproto-7.0.2 XExt extension headers
• xf86bigfontproto-1.1.2 XFree86-Bigfont extension headers
• xproto-7.0.10_1 X11 protocol headers
• xtrans-1.0.4 Abstract network code for X

As mentioned above, I later installed zlib. I also upgraded to 7.1-RELEASE (I did this before installing zlib). pkg_info | grep zlib gives:

• php5-zlib-5.2.6_2 The zlib shared extension for php

See also

Installing Moodle