Zen Internet Support Forum

Hi, I've just joined Zen to host some stuff, and have signed up for a bronze Linux hosting package.

Can I run MediaWiki on this to try out a few things with a wiki? Mediawiki requires PHP v5.0 and MySQL 4.0 or later. Zen provide better than this, but I'm not clear if the package will run on the Linux server.

I've never tried anything like this before, so this is a learning curve for me.

Also, a big hello to everyone here on this Forum.

Jock in a Frock

Well I'm sorry to say that I can't get Mediawiki to run, despite following all the instructions. I suspect its down to the config on the Linux box which is beyond a Zen users control. Since I didn't get any response here, I've decided to cancel my Zen account and move elsewhere.

 Wishing you all the best.

 Jock in a Frock.

Hi there,

Firstly, I'd like to make clear that this forum is a community support forum - as detailed in the sign-up information and at the top of the page; it is not an official support channel for Zen Internet - and as such is not monitored frequently.

With regard to MediaWiki, what problems have you encountered when attempting to install it?  

I've just tried it on my own Zen-hosted cPanel site (no changes made so it should be the same for other customers on our cPanel servers with PHP5 and MySQL 5), and when I go to install it states the following:

Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki.

I created a database (called mediawiki, but that's unimportant) and a user for that database(mw in this case), which I assigned to it through the cPanel interface. This meant I had a user of 'cpaneluser_mw' and a database of 'cpanelnuser_mediawiki' - where cpaneluser was replaced by my cPanel login name.

I entered a user for MediaWiki where prompted. 

The database host was left as default in the MediaWiki install script - i.e. localhost

I didn't select a super user account.

I selected a prefix of 'mw_' for the database - though didn't really need to as I was only using the database for MediaWiki.

I left everything else as default in the MediaWiki installer and Clicked 'Install'.

This gave me the following after the 'Environment checked...' part I mentioned earlier:

• Generating configuration file...

• Database type: MySQL
• Loading class: DatabaseMysql
• Attempting to connect to database server as cpaneluser_mw...success.
• Connected to 5.0.45-community-log
• Database cpaneluser_mediawiki exists
• Creating tables... done.
• Initializing statistics...
• Created sysop account admin.

• Creating LocalSettings.php...

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Installation successful! Move the config/LocalSettings.php file to the parent directory, then follow this link to your wiki.

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(note 'I've removed the link from 'this link' as well as other user information)

I followed the instruction to move the 'LocalSettings.php' file to the folder I had put MediaWiki in (in this case 'public_html/mediawiki' - but you can install media wiki in 'public_html' if it's all your site is doing, as I have an existing site I didn't want to do this).

Once done, I followed the link from 'this link' and I had a working MediaWiki installation.

The only things you need to make sure you've got right are your database names and users - the Knowledge Base article here shows you how to create a MySQL database and user. All you need is the section labeled 'Creating a MySQL database' - you can stop reading when you reach the heading  'Managing your MySQL databases'.

I hope this helps - and please let us know if you're still having issues after reading this post.

regards,
Phil.

 

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Phil Long
Technical Support Manager - Zen Internet Ltd.

Hi Phil, thanks for the reply.

I am aware this is not an official support channel, and I would not have gone througha n official channel for help with my query, since it was a trivial project for me anyway.

I'm glad to see you got MW working, and many thanks for posting your experience. I hope this helps others who might want to run MW in the future.

Unfortunately I have already cancelled my Zen hosting account. I didn't do this in a hissy fit, but because it was just not for me, I think I'm out of my depth at the moment.

 I have no previous experience of Linux and very little experience of hosting. I think I'll build a local Linux server box and tinker there. This will give me better control on the server side, and I'll get that working. I might then decide to come back to Zen at a future date.

Once again, thanks for posting your reply.