noel alanguilan

for php development i use a local php/mysql web server to make dev work a bit faster. these are the steps we followed for a workstation running linux.

download xampp from apache friends. the version available was 1.7.2.

extract the downloaded archive with:

sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.2.tar.gz -C /opt

note: if you have xampp already installed, the above command will overwrite it. careful.

xampp is now installed in /opt/lampp

to start xampp:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

you should see something like this:

Starting XAMPP for Linux 1.7.2...
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5)...
XAMPP: Starting MySQL...
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD...
XAMPP for Linux started.

which means the server is ready. i don’t need an ftp server for dev work so i decided to stop proftpd:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stopftp

note: issuing the above command will deactivate the proftpd server permanently–it will not start when you start xampp. see the command cheatsheet somewhere below to find out how to reactivate it.

to test our setup fire up your favorite browser and type:

http://localhost

you should see something like this:

you’ll be able to see the status of the installed components, the status of the security of the system, links to documentation and most importantly, detailed information about the server system via phpinfo() as well as database administration panels–phpmyadmin and phpsqliteadmin.

at this point, we have an apache webserver running with php and mysql support.

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oracle is buying sun. oracle is into databases in a big way. sun is home to sparc, solaris, java, open office, and recently, mysql. a lot of people have been blogging about what will come out of this marriage. i’m just wondering about what will happen to open office, mysql, in that order.

oracle doesn’t really need mysql. it is, after all, a huge database company. maintaining a free open source sql database such as mysql may just eat away at the markets of its other database products. so mysql may be spun off or, more logically, ultimately die under the care of oracle. i’m not really worried as i know that mysql has been forked already so the line will go on.

what i’m really wondering about is what will oracle do with openoffice? oracle is known to be one of the top contributors to linux because it ultimately contribute’s to the company’s income. but i do not see openoffice contributing significantly to oracle’s bottom line. i reluctantly see openoffice withering under oracle which is a shame, really. should this actually happen i will be sad but not worried as there are other alternatives. as always is the case, with open source. there’s go openoffice which is an alternative build to sun’s openoffice. and then there’s ibm’s lotus symphony.

but i do hope that oracle will continue openoffice development or better yet maybe spin it off. its better than killing it off.

i have been preoccupied of late with security stuff. the first one is what they’re calling conficker.c which will activate on the first of april. no one knows what it will do but i would bet a beer that its not entirely good. symantec has a removal tool for this and previous versions of conficker (aka downadup).

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another news item that has been in that particular corner of my brain is the network bluepill aka psyb0t botnet. its a new botnet targeting routers/modems instead of pcs. these router/modems are the gadgets that give you access to the internet. imagine what bad things can happen when that’s been compromised. you can’t scan for the botnet either because the botnet code is not on your pc. according to dronebl–a real-time tracker of abusable ips–you are vulnerable if:

• Your device is a mipsel (MIPS running in little-endian mode, this is what the worm is compiled for) device;
• Your device also has telnet, SSH or web-based interfaces available to the WAN, and
• your username and password combinations are weak, OR the daemons that your firmware uses are exploitable.

the best way to ensure that you don’t get infected (or reinfected) is to perform a hard reset of the device, update the device’s firmware to the latest and change the administrative passwords to stronger ones, maybe use a passphrase instead.

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and then there’s the next version of ubuntu–jaunty jakalope or version 9.04–coming out by april (2009.04). that’s something to look forward to. at the same time i’ve been studying/ evaluating the server version of ubuntu as a replacement for some (or all my server installations).

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i have taken on a new project making a new website which will act much like a repository of information about a famous person. this will replace another project that i had to let go. its another php/mysql/apache install (spelled as web 2.0). this should prove interesting.

its been A terribly frustrating day. i’ve seen enough of “error establishing a database connection” to last me until the next version.

i was just trying to post something on one blog and experimenting on another and i keep getting this message. i have several wordpress blogs in different subdomains under alanguilan.com. one setup shouldn’t affect another but in this case its site wide — i get the same message on all the blogs at the same time. once for a few minutes things go well and i can access the sites but it goes south again soon after.

when i get an opportunity to check the sql databases with phpmyadmin the databases for each blog checks out fine. so my guess is its the main mysql database that’s getting messed up. there are utilities to repair the database and several backups of the thing via yahoo’s control panel so i’m not terribly worried. its just inconvenient for the moment.

so far the database seems stable and i haven’t seen the error message for an hour now. i hope it stays that way.