InstallInstruct14

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (new installation)

Please read this section COMPLETELY before beginning.

1. Unpack the tarball *within* your web tree by running the following in your shell (this assumes you have ssh access and that you are working with the tarball on the designated server - this can be locally or hosted elsewhere):

tar -zxvf geeklog-1.4.1.tar.gz

FTP, Windows Users: unpack the tarball on your local computer and upload the result to your designated server. Everything uploads as ASCII except the images.

2. For *nix installations the following may be required:

chown -R webuser:webuser /path/to/geeklog

This guarantees that everything in that path belongs to you, typical settings are www:www or nobody:nobody and more often than not doesn't matter.

3. For *nix installations cd into /path/to/geeklog and do the following:

chmod -R 775 logs chmod -R 775 data chmod -R 775 backups chmod -R 775 public_html/backend chmod -R 775 public_html/images/articles chmod -R 775 public_html/images/topics chmod -R 775 public_html/images/userphotos

FTP Users: If you're doing the chmod via a FTP client, you must also apply the chmod to the files in logs/ and public_html/backend as well as the directories themselves. Most, if not all, ftp clients do not perform this command recursively. That means you need to set each file within each of these directories manually.

SPECIAL NOTE:

Not following step #3 correctly is the #1 reason why people receive errors when they first try to use Geeklog. Take your time and get it right. Also, some users have reported problems if the above permissions are not set to 777. Try 775 first and only be more permissive if you receive an error message.

There is also a script at http://yourgeeklogsite/admin/install/check.php that can test the permissions for you.

4. Create the database you want Geeklog to reside in. You only need to create an empty database - the install script (see below) will create the tables for you.

If you are not familiar with using MySQL, you are urged to get phpMyAdmin and use it to create a new database. If you have no idea what the previous two sentences mean, contact your sysadmin for help.

5. Edit config.php with the appropriate settings for your server. For installation, this basically means "set your paths," as all other variables can be changed after a successful installation. The config.php file contains comments to help you out.

Windows users, you should be able to use the Unix '/' in your paths without any problems. Otherwise, you will need to use the doubled Windows slashes '\\'.

Please read the comments in config.php carefully.

6. Edit lib-common.php and change the require_once() at the top to point to the location of your config.php file.

7. Open your browser and navigate to http://yourgeeklogsite/admin/install/install.php and follow the directions!

8. Once you see the success message, you are ready to go. You can now delete the admin/install directory (and all files within it).

9. Read the first story on your Geeklog site to learn how to log in as the administrator. Please remember to change the default passwords on all pre-configured accounts right away.

If you run into problems or keep getting error messages, please see the section on common installation problems below.