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Tutorial: How to install Grav CMS on Ubuntu 18.04

miguel — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:31:51 GMT

Grav is a CMS like Wordpress and Drupal. It has some advantages over those, though. For example, it doesn't need a database like mysql to work properly.

Here's a tutorial with the steps necessary to install on a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 server.

Step 1: Pre-requisites

Grav requires a web server (we'll use Apache) and PHP, as well as a few extra modules for each.

Login to your Ubuntu 18.04 server using ssh, or terminal. Then since we'll be installing stuff as root, use this command to start a root shell.

sudo -s

Be careful, because when you're running a root shell, you could accidentally remove important stuff or mess up your system. So it's a good idea to check commands over before running them, and copy-and-paste is always recommended.

Now that you're root, you can install Apache and PHP, as well as some PHP extensions that Grav will use:

apt update && apt upgrade
apt install apache2 php php-mbstring php-gd php-curl php-xml php-zip

Great... It should look something like this:

Once it's installed, you'll be able to load up the default Apache page on your webserver by using a web browser. It should look something like this when you go to your server's address:

If you get to this point, congratulations. You have a web server running!

Step 2: Install Grav

For this next step, you'll have to go to the Grav site and find the URL of the latest version. Look for downloads, and copy-and-paste the URL.

Now you can download that to the webroot of your server, which should be at /var/www/html/

The second line below will grab the latest version (which you can copy in paste in place of the getgrav URL, and save it as "grav.zip".

cd /var/www/html/
wget -O grav.zip https://getgrav.org/download/core/grav-admin/1.5.1

And the result should be something like this:

And you should have a zip file named "grav.zip" in the current directory. We will unzip it. Of course, we may have to install unzip first :-)

So go ahead and unzip grav.zip. Then we can move all the files inside the grav-admin folder to the root of the webserver. There's a hidden file called ".htaccess" in the grav-admin directory. Don't forget to grab that one too. And then you can remove the zip file.

cd /var/www/html/
unzip grav.zip
mv grav-admin/* /var/www/html/
mv grav-admin/.htacess /var/www/html/
rm grav.zip

And now we need to set the permissions for the files we just installed. Since you're logged in as root, we want to change them to the www-data user, which belongs to the Apache webserver.

chmod -R 755 *
chown -R www-data:www-data *

It should look like this:

Just a couple more things to do...

First, we need to create a virtualhost for apache to recognize your site, and to set some module permissions.

Create a new file called yoursitename.conf at /etc/apache2/sites-available, and put in the following, replacing my example site name (cr7.westwoodtech.ca) with the full address of your site:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
nano cr7-westwoodtech-ca.conf

And that file should have this in it (copy and paste, changing the example site name):


     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
     ServerName cr7.westwoodtech.ca

     
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted

Screenshots of this process:

Great, exit and save that file with Control-X.

Now we need to enable the site, and while we're at it, we can enable the rewrite module in Apache that Grav will need. Then restart Apache. Enter these commands:

a2ensite cr7-westwoodtech-ca.conf
a2enmod rewrite
systemctl restart apache2

If all goes well, you'll be able to load your grav site!

And from here, you can create your admin user and get started!

Slackware Linux Tips

hitest — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:51:33 GMT

Slackware Linux is arguably one of the oldest, surviving versions of Linux; it is my distribution of choice. I am currently running Slackware 12.1 with the shiny 2.6.24.5 smp kernel. Slackware is very robust and secure, it does not use a lot of system overhead to run. This means that Slackware will run very efficiently on high-end machines and also on older hardware. Slackware has a reputation for being very difficult to use, this reputation is partly deserved.

Slackware does not use many graphical interfaces to set-up, configure your computer. You will be required to use a text editor and a root shell prompt to set-up many of the system functions. The installation procedure uses a ncurses based installer, an easy-to-use text based installer. If you are willing to learn, read, and have a lot of fun, then give Slackware Linux a try. If you feel comfortable with navigating on the command-line interface and using a text editor you will love Slackware. Once a Slacker, always a Slacker:-)

In this post I would like to post a few tips, tricks that’ll help you to get your Slackware system up and running. My suggestions work for me, but, feel free to modify as needed, it is your system:-)

Slackware typically defaults to run level three. If you would like a graphical log-in prompt open up your favourite text editor and edit /etc/inittab

For example you could use nano: #nano /etc/inittab

Change

id:3:initdefault:

id:4:initdefault:

If you would like your monitor to be able to go into power save mode then edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Add the following line in your Monitor section.
Option “dpms”
I recommend that if you wish to optimize your Slackware system to run efficiently that you use the JFS (Journaling File System) when you set-up your root partition. I’ve found that the JFS uses less system resources particularly on older hardware:-)
Slackware 12 is able to auto-mount devices, media. If you would like to enable this functionality for your regular user then edit /etc/group
Add your regular user to the following groups: plugdev, cdrom, audio, video, floppy
To set-up sound:

This will be done as root at run level three

alsaconf

alsamixer

alsactl store

To set-up your display settings and configure x windows run this command at run level 3.

xorgconfig

*Note you can also run xorgsetup which will set-up your monitor automagically, but, I prefer the finer settings of xorgconfig.

To add a user to your slackware system

adduser

To switch between graphical environments:

If you’ve done a full install of Slackware, which I highly recommend then you can switch between the various desktop environments (KDE, Flux, Blackbox, etc.) by issuing the following command at the run level three prompt:

xwmconfig

An excellent resource to use for trouble shooting, gathering information is the Slackware book. You can obtain the Slackware book at the Slackware site: http://www.slackware.com
Using Slackware you have the luxury of installing software from a number of sources.

A) You can compile software directly from source code.
B) You can use Slackware build scripts to compile software. I recommend the following site as a trustworthy repository of build scripts, software: http://www.slackbuilds.org/
C) You can also download software directly from the Slackware site to update your system: http://www.slackware.com/
D) You can use the src2pkg utility to create Slackware packages that can be installed on your system. This is a nifty utility that you can use to transform source code into .tgz packages: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/amigolinux/download/src2pkg/
E) A good resource for installing, upgrading packages is the slackbook: http://www.slackbook.org/html/book.html#PACKAGE-MANAGEMENT
11. If you would like a software firewall on your Slackware system you can use this firewall generator for IP tables: http://www.slackware.com/%7Ealien/efg/

I think that you will enjoy Slackware Linux. Happy Slacking!

hitest