Installing Joomla 1.5.x.x and Xampp 1.7 on Ubuntu 11.04

XAMPP
1. Download Xampp de Apache Friends.
2.  After downloading simply type in the following commands:

1. Go to a Linux shell and login as the system administrator root and Extract the downloaded archive file to /opt: sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.4.tar.gz -C /opt 
   
   Warning: Please use only this command to install XAMPP. DON'T use any Microsoft Windows tools to extract the archive, it won't work. 
   Warning 2: already installed XAMPP versions get overwritten by this command

That's all. XAMPP is now installed below the /opt/lampp directory.

3. Start Xampp

To start XAMPP simply call this command: /opt/lampp/lampp start
You should now see something like this on your screen:
Starting XAMPP 1.7.4...
LAMPP: Starting Apache...
LAMPP: Starting MySQL...
LAMPP started.

Ready. Apache and MySQL are running.
If you get any error messages please take a look at the Linux FAQ.

4. Test Xampp
OK, that was easy but how can you check that everything really works? Just type in the following URL at your favourite web browser:
http://localhost
Now you should see the start page of XAMPP containing some links to check the status of the installed software and some small programming examples.

 

5. Start and Stop Parameters

START AND STOP PARAMETERS
Parameter	Description
start	Starts XAMPP.
stop	Stops XAMPP.
restart	Stops and starts XAMPP.
startapache	Starts only the Apache.
startssl	Starts the Apache SSL support. This command activates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay activated.
startmysql	Starts only the MySQL database.
startftp	Starts the ProFTPD server. Via FTP you can upload files for your web server (user "nobody", password "lampp"). This command activates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay activated.
stopapache	Stops the Apache.
stopssl	Stops the Apache SSL support. This command deactivates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay deactivated.
stopmysql	Stops the MySQL database.
stopftp	Stops the ProFTPD server. This command deactivates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay deactivated.
security	Starts a small security check programm.

For example: To start Apache with SSL support simply type in the following command (as root):

/opt/lampp/lampp startssl

You can also access your Apache server via SSL under https://localhost.

Reference: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html


MySQL Admin
1. Go to Ubuntu Software Center and look for "My SQL Administrator" in the text area of Get Software.

2.  Click on Install, and that's pretty much it.
3. To run mysql, you have to, first, open Xampp.
4. After that, you should check if the Server Host-name is 127.0.0.1 or localhost (in case your doing it local). That's because, although it sounds lame, I had so much trouble with that installing Joomla. The username is root, and leave blank the password. Click on connect.
5. If everything goes ok, it should appear a window wich says that the server is running. If it doesn't, check again that xampp is ok and the hostname is the right one.
 

JOOMLA 
1. Download Joomla Spanish For English version, click here.
2. Unpack the downloaded file in a console:
    sudo tar xvfz Joomla_1.5.23-Spanish-pack_completo.tar.gz

3. Enter to the lampp file as root, with
       sudo nautilus
4. Go to 
     opt/lampp/htdocs/
    and paste the unpacked files in a new folder called "whatever you like". The new route would be something like 
     opt/lampp/htdocs/joomla
being joomla the name that I gave to the new folder and where I pasted the unpacked files from Joomla 1.5.23.

5. Now we go to the web browser, and type:
http://localhost/joomla
it means that you have to type localhost/ and the name of the folder that you gave in the previous step, to start the installation part. 
Note: remember to start xammp before doing this.

6. It should appear the first page of the installation, and it asks us to choose the language. Next, it appears the Pre-installation Check page, and it show us that the configuration file (configuration.php) appears with error, because it isn't writeable.
To change that, we're going to change the permissions to the folder lampp, because in the installation part, Joomla creates the file called configuration.php and needs to have root permissions. So, in a console, we type

sudo chmod 777 -R /opt/lampp/htdocs/joomla
That should give total permissions to the file and to everything that inside of it.

7. Now, coming back to the installation page, we click next, and we have to fill the database configuration data. 
hostname: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (whichever works for your pc).
username: root
password: NO PASSWORD, leave it blank.
database name: mydatabase
And click next.  
Note: If it doesnt appear normal, it means, after click next it shows you an error kind of "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds..." or something like that, you should do the next: 
open a console, type
sudo nautilus
go to opt/lampp/htdocs/joomla/installation/sql/mysql
 and open the file joomla.sql
replace everything that says  TYPE=MyISAM CHARACTER SET `utf8`; with ENGINE=MyISAM CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
It should work. 
8. in the FTP configuration, don't fill anything and click next.
9. In main configuration, type the Name of the site, an e-mail, a password that you remember for the administration part, and next. It appears a window that says something like it's not going to create sample files, but it's ok, you should click next. 
10. Finally, it says that you Finish, but, it remembers you that you should erase the Installation folder. If everything went well, the configuration.php file must be created on the httdocs/joomla file. If it's not,  you have to create it manually inside this route, with the name of configuration.php and the lines that shows the Finish page of the installation part. 
11. Before going to the http://localhost/joomla to check that actually works, we should do this:
in a console, type

sudo gedit /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini

look for the line that says 
error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT and replace it for error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE

Restart  xammp in the console with

sudo /opt/lammp/lammp restart

 
and now, you can go to the web browser and check the main page of joomla http://localhost/joomla (remember to replace joomla for the name that you gave to the folder inside lampp).
It should appear the welcome page of Joomla. 


I hope this works. ;)