A while ago, we showed you how to install PHP on your Home Server, and recently we showed you how to install WordPress on your server. Now, we are going show you how to install MediaWiki onto your server for you very own Wiki pages. MediaWiki is the software that powers sites like Wikipedia and our very own Wiki, so the software is very solid, and works great. Also, it a great way to store documents, lists, even recipes that can be easily accessed by friends. Not to mention, it is a great way to list and organize them too. And here is how you install it on your server:
Head over to the WGS Wiki for the most up to date version.
What you will need
What to do
First thing’s first, if you haven’t already installed PHP of IIS, you will need to do that FIRST. After that is doen, you are going to want to download MediaWiki and put it on a network share. Then you are going to either use Remote Desktop Connection or Advanced Admin Console to gain access to the server.
Install MediaWiki
Open up the phpbb tar.gz file and extract the MediaWiki files to "C:\inetpub\wiki". It should look something like this:
Now, right click on the wiki folder and select “Properties”. Find and open the security tab. Click the “Advanced” button. Now, click the “Add…” button. Add the user "IUSR_SERVER", replacing "SERVER" with whatever you named your server. For instance, I named my server "UMMON", so I added "IUSR_UMMON". Now give that user Full Control. Enable “Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects”, and click okay.
- This will reset permissions on the files, and will revert back to being unchecked when it is done.
Now find “Administrative Tools” and open “Internet Information Services.” Under your computer’s name there is three entries. Open “Websites”, and then find “Default Web Site.” Right click on it and open the “New” group and select “Virtual Directory.” Not Virtual Directory from file. Now give the alias “wiki” or whatever you want. This will be the path to your MediaWiki installation. Click “Next” and set the path to “C:\inetpub\wiki”. Click “Next”. It will give you options for the new virtual directory. Tell it to “Read”, and “Run scripts”. Now you are done setting up the web service side of it.
Now we just need configure the database.
Configure Database
Unlike a number of other packages, MediaWiki can not only create the database if you have root access, which we do because it is our server. But it will create a new MySQL account that it will use after installation instead of using the root account. Not only is this awesome, it makes installation that much easier and convenient.
Configure Media
Now navigate to your wiki. It should look something like: "https://yourserver.homeserver.com/wiki/" and you should see a page like this:
Click the “set up the wiki” link to configure it. It will give you a list of information. It won’t find “Turck MMCache, eAccelerator, APC or XCache, because we don’t have those installed, nor GNU diff3. These are not really necessary and I find them to be more of an annoyance than anything else.
Feel free to name your wiki pretty much anything you want. As for the copyright/license, be careful what you chose. I chose none, because I’m not too concerned about theft of data. Most of my wiki ends up on the WGS Wiki anyways. The Admin username is defaulted to “WikiSysop” but again, feel free to use whatever name you choose. This is the main account on the wiki and likely yours.
Now to database config. We are going to use MySQL so make sure that is what is selected. Leave the database host name alone. Changing this will likely make it not work. Set the database name, username and password to whatever your heart desires. Now, select the “Use superuser account.” Use “root” for the superuser name, and the password you specified when you first installed MySQL with. Now click “Install MediaWiki!” It will either tell you it was successful, or take you back to configure everything properly.
Now go to “C:\inetpub\wiki\config\” and copy “LocalSettings.php” to “C:\inetpub\wiki” and you are done and have your very own Wiki! For more, head over to the We Got Served Wiki.
Stay tuned for more PHP software packages next time!
11. May 2008 at 5:37 pm
Hello!
I’ve installed PHP, MySQL and MediaWiki as written in the How-Tos, but the wiki-site brings up an “HTTP 403 Forbidden” error. It says “This website requires you to log in”. But how do I have to do this? I’ve checked the Security tab etc. but found nothing.
Thanks for help in advance!
Greetings
Tademos
11. May 2008 at 7:03 pm
Ok, with http://xx.homeserver.com/wiki/index.php the install site came up, but after clicking on “setup” the following messages appear:
Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation problems.
“PHP 5.2.6 installed Could not find a suitable database driver!
For MySQL, compile PHP using –with-mysql, or install the mysql.so module
For PostgreSQL, compile PHP using –with-pgsql, or install the pgsql.so module”
So, what’s that?
Thanks!
11. May 2008 at 7:39 pm
The first part, “HTTP 403 Forbidden” means that either the c:\php directory or the c:\inetpub\wiki directories aren’t accessable by the webserver. Make sure “IUSR_SERVER” (replace server with your computer’s name) has at least read access to both those directories, and all the files within them. The other is you need to open up “C:\php\php.ini” and fine “;extension=php_mysql.dll” and “;extension=php_mysqli.dll” and remove the “;” from both lines.
11. May 2008 at 8:00 pm
That’s all done and verified, I inserted the “extension=php_iisfunc.dll” because I’ve seen this on a screenshot and it wasn’t in my php.ini.
So what could it be else?
12. May 2008 at 8:07 am
Tademos: Still not working? Just to make sure, you do have MySQL installed and running, right? If you don’t this will cause that problem. If you still have problems, head over to my site, or email me directly.
27. May 2008 at 5:32 pm
I was reading this article and the supplemental articles. As I understand, all this gets loaded to the C:\ drive. I was wondering what would happen if loaded to the “Program Files” folder share; or, if I created a D:\ partition and loaded there.
My concern is room/space for added content.
Comments please.
Thank You.
27. May 2008 at 6:09 pm
@Harry: Good point. However, unless you are adding *a lot* of content, there is about 14GB of room left on the system drive in a fresh install. That and one of the problems I ran into was that on my system and a few others, PHP doesn’t like being anywhere but in c:\inetpub.
4. June 2008 at 12:47 pm
Due to the recent “bad” weather here in the “Mid West”, my WHS server took a shot. Had to replace the APC UPS and the 230GB WD Harddrive. Back ups saved most of the good stuff.
I replaced the 230GB with a 500GB (read 1/2 TB) drive. I was still hoping to “punch-out” to a 50GB c:\ partition. I have the “real estate” now. The install never ever mentions changing the size of the c:\ slice. This is “too” automatic.
Partition Magic 8.0 does not work on 2003 Server software. (I tried several permutations.) I have found Paragon 9.0 Personal. That is the next effort. I just want to push the c:\ out to 50GB for a comfort zone in using Mediawiki on the WHS.
Is the 20GB limit “hard coded’ for that size? Is this going to be another attempt at something “stupid”? I have not found any article about larger WHS c:\ drives, yet; no one confesses to there being a limit.
Comments Please.
Thank You.
4. June 2008 at 5:46 pm
@Harry, sorry to hear about your storm.
The 20GB partition is indeed hard coded in to the installer at early stages, and this has been a problem for a lot of people. There are a number of programs that can do what you want, but I recommend trying it on a fresh system with nothing important on it, because you may end up having to reinstall.
17. August 2008 at 4:54 am
I’m having a devil of a time getting PHP and Mediawiki to work. Could it be some interference from what HP Media Smart is trying to do? I haven’t been able to get the php info page. The sympton I’m getting from http://localhost/wiki is a 403 error. I looked and haven’t seen that question resolved here (see Tademos’ question).
17. August 2008 at 8:33 am
403 is a permissions access problem, and it means that either your wiki files aren’t accessible by IUSR_SERVER (or whatever the account is on your computer), or that the php files (in c:\php\) are not accessible by ISUR_SERVER. Also, the forums are an easier place to discuss the problem. And there is a thread for MediaWiki in the Wiki Discussion section.
And at Harry, there is a walkthrough for increasing the size of your partitions in the WGS Wiki. Also, you need to actually use a “recovery” disk that supports NTFS (should be anything remotely recent), and boot off that disk. DO NOT install to WHS, as it won’t resize the active partition anyhow.
23. April 2009 at 9:59 pm
Hi!
I still have the problem :
PHP 5.2.9-2 installed Could not find a suitable database driver!
For MySQL, compile PHP using –with-mysql, or install the mysql.so module
For PostgreSQL, compile PHP using –with-pgsql, or install the pgsql.so module
For MSSQL, compile PHP using –with-mssql not ready, or install the mssql not ready.so module
I added the lines:
";extension=php_mysql.dll"
";extension=php_mysqli.dll"
"extension=php_iisfunc.dll"
and nothing happens , what can i do?!