One of the simplest installation is on a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) server. Before you go on, however, I will highly suggest you install PhpMyAdmin so the database creation is simple. For more information take a look at my Install PhpMyAdmin for easy MySQL Administration article. Once you have PhpMyAdmin installed you will want to create a database for your installation. You can name the database whatever you want, just make sure you remember the name. With your LAMP server up and running you have the most difficult aspect of the installation out of the way. All that is left is the actual installation of Drupal.

Your first step is to download the latest release of Drupal from the Drupal download page. Once you have that file downloaded move it to your web servers’ document root. You will need root access to undertake these steps so you will with su to root or use sudo.

Unpack the Drupal file. This will most likely be done with the tar xvzf drupal-XXX.tar.gz command (Where XXX is the actual realease number). This will create a new directory called drupal-XXX (Where XXX is the release number). Now, I always change the name of this directory for simplicity. I will either rename this directory to main or something easy to remember. You can also move the entire contents of the directory into the document root. The only issue this can cause is if you are installing multiple sites on the same server. For that reason I tend to keep the Drupal install in its very own directory.

Once you have this file unpacked and the directory renamed, the fun begins. Fire up your browser and point it to http://path/to/installation/ (Where path/to/installation is the entire path to the Drupal installation. For example http://192.168.1.10/main/.) This will automatically start up the installation process.

Step 1

The first step in the installation is to select your language. The default will be English. If you need to install Drupal in another language select the obvious link. Once you click the appropriate link you will be taken to the next step.

Step 2

Step 2 requires that you change the name of the default.settings.php to settings.php. This file will be found in the /var/www/html/main/sites/default/ directory (This will depend upon your installation of course.) You also need to change the permissions of this file so it is writable by the web server. You can do this with the command chmod g+w settings.php. One last step is to create the directory sites/default/files with the command (from within your web servers’ document root) mkdir sites/default/files. You may get another error when you click try again. If you do this is a permissions error. Enter the command chmod -R g+w sites/default/files which should solve the problem.

Step 3

Now it is time to set up your database. Remember the database you created with PhpMyAdmin? This is where that information goes.

Once you fill out this information click Save and Continue to move on. You’re almost done.

Step 4

Just a couple more steps. Now you can remove write permissions on the settings.php file (chmod o-w settings.php) and enter the configuration information for your site. The information you need to provide is self explanitory. Once you have finished save the information and you’re done. You will be greeted with the “Installation Complete” page!

Installation Complete

Final Thoughts

You can now log in with your administrator name (you will have created that in the site configuration page above) and start building your site. Drupal is an outstanding Content Management System you will quickly come to depend upon for many of your website rollouts.

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In this article you will learn how to install and configure the phpMyAdmin MySQL tool.

The first step is to download phpMyAdmin. You can get this tool from the phpMyAdmin download page. Once you have this downloaded you will need to move the file into the document root of your web server (you will need to have root or sudo access to do this and the setup) Most likely this will be either /var/www/html or /var/www. Once you have this file in the proper locaton it is time to take care of business.

The first thing to do is to unpack the file. The unpacking command will depend upon what file format you download. Let’s use the .gz file for an example. With the file phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-english.tar.gz in place issue the command:

tar xvzf phpMyAdmin-3.11-english.tar.gz

The resulting directory will be phpMyAdmin. I highly recommend changing the name of that directory to something easier to navigate and remember. I generally just change the directory with the command mv phpMyAdmin phpmyadmin.

Now that the directory is correct move into the directory. There is one file in particular you must have which is the config.inc.php file. You will notice there is a file called config.sample.inc.php. Some documentation instructs to change the name of config.sample.inc.php to config.inc.php and make your changes from within that file. It is my opinion that method can become confusing with all of the extra options included. Instead create the new config file with the following contents (depending upon your setup):

<?php
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */
/*
* Servers configuration
*/
$i = 0;
/*
* First server
*/
$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'ROOT_PASSWORD';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = 'localhost';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type'] = 'tcp';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['extension'] = 'mysqli';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPasswordRoot'] = true;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['nopassword'] = true;
?>


There are a few pieces to note. First make sure you use the actual root mysql password where you see ROOT_PASSWORD. Also, if you want to prompted each time for your login information change ‘config’ to ‘cookie’ in the ‘auth_type’ line.

Once you have that configuration file in place you should be able to log into your phpmyadmin system. To do this you will enter http://ADDRESS_TO_SERVER/phpmyadmin/ in your browser (where ADDRESS_TO_SERVER is the IP Address or URL that points to the server.

If, for some reason, this configuration file does not work for you give the web-based setup script a try. To run this point your browser to http://ADDRESS_TO_SERVER/phpmyadmin/setup to start the graphical setup process.

After you are logged in it should be pretty obvious how to create a new database. You simple enter thename you want to give the database and click the Create button.

You’re done! You now have a phpmyadmin install ready to serve you.

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