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3. Putting LiHaLo to Work

3.1 Intro

Well, maybe this is an easier way to explain how you can get LiHaLo to work. It also describes how you can download and get LiHaLo to work. We concentrate on Linux (LAMP) but it's essentialy the same for WAMP & XAMP.

We hope this is a help for you.

3.2 Install and test the underlying software

3.2.1 LAMP

LiHaLo needs 4 major components to be operational, these four are summarized as LAMP:

1) L: Linux but any other OS running the next 3 components will do;

2) A: Apache, THE open-source webserver, http://httpd.apache.org. Actually it will run on other webservers too, check http://www.php.net if you're interested .. ;

3) M: MySQL, an open-source RDBMS, http://www.mysql.com ;

4) P: PHP, the Hypertext Pre-Processor, http://www.php.net .

We've tried to install these in the previous section. In this section we provide some ways to verify if the components are installed and working properly. Fortunately, most modern linux distributions have everything onboard and properly configured, any other OS probably needs some customizations, executed by you .. LiHalo itself consists out of a bunch of php-scripts, and it uses a mysql-database.

3.2.1.1 LINUX

Linux, or any other OS that runs MySQL and PHP: I hope I don't need to explain how to verify if your OS is OK. But if you manage to get the next three items up and running, it's certainly ok ...

3.2.1.2 APACHE

Apache: fire up a browser and go http://localhost, you should see a page with the message that apache is up and running. 
It might eventually be a page modified by the source where you got your apache from, eg your linux-distribution.
If this doesn't work, it is possible that apache is installed but not launched yet.
Try launching it by issuing any of the following commands:
- /etc/init.d/httpd start
- /etc/init.d/apache start
- /etc/init.d/apachectl start
- /etc/rc.d/rc.httpd
- apachectl start
- httpd
There really are a lot of possibillities,the binary is almost always called 'httpd', but there exist a lot of ways 
to start it up trough some kind of wrapper.
If apache is still not running, please check apache documentation: 
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/install.html or your distribution's documentation.

Once you've got apache running, you must find out where it's DocumentRoot is, probably that's something like /var/www/html, or /home/httpd. For OpenSuse it is /srv/www/htdocs. Anyway, the DocumentRoot is defined in apache's configuration file, which is usually called 'httpd.conf'. httpd.conf lives usually in /etc/, /etc/apache, /etc/httpd, /usr/local/etc/, /opt/apache/etc, .. Open the file and look for the entry DocumentRoot, you should remember the location forever (or at least until you've got LiHaLo up and running).

3.2.1.3 MYSQL

MySQL, according to MySQL documentation, you should verify your installation by running this command:
# mysqladmin version
It outputs this information on my testmachine:
xenon:~# mysqladmin version
mysqladmin  Ver 8.23 Distrib 3.23.49, for pc-linux-gnu on i686
Copyright (C) 2000 MySQL AB & MySQL Finland AB & TCX DataKonsult AB
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL license

Server version          3.23.49-log
Protocol version        10
Connection              Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket             /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime:                 20 days 9 hours 37 min 2 sec

Threads: 12  Questions: 2064  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 78  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 9 Queries per second avg: 0.001
If this does not work, refer to MySQL installation documentation at their website: http://www.mysql.org/documentation/mysql/bychapter/manual_Installing.html. Your distribution's information might contain information on installing/using MySQL too.

3.2.1.4 PHP

PHP: Copy the file test.php from the install/ directory of LiHaLo to your apache-DocumentRoot (remember ?), and point your browser to http://localhost/test.php. A nice page with a lot of information about your system should show up. This page must contain a section about mysql. If this is not true, check http://www.php.net/manual/en/installation.php for more information. Again, maybe the distribution's docs might mention something about.

3.2.2 WAMP

This is mainly the same as the above. For further instructions go to Installing a WAMP - System
Info.
This info is meant for those people who are not used to use the command-line. And indeed : it can be confusing. There is no "PATH" to the executive for MySQL. But I'll guide you through. So if you followed the installation-instructions at www.webthang.co.uk, you're documentroot will be : "C:\web" .
So copy the un-tared and un-zipped file to the folder "web" . Rename it to "LiHaLo".
And know it comes : how must I run those '.sql-files" ?
I took me some time to find it out ; that's why I give this explanation here.

3.2.3 XAMP

This is mainly the same as the above. For further instructions go to Installing a XAMP - System

3.3 Install LiHaLo on top of these underlying components

You have to download the LiHaLo software from the website http://www.lihalo.org, it's a tar file called LiHaLo-RC4.tar.gz, you should always download the most recent version.

3.3.1 First Time Install

3.3.1.1 Unpack the tar-file in your apache DocumentRoot

Let's assume your DocumentRoot(remember ?) is /var/www/html and execute the following steps ( most likely as root) :

# mv LiHaLo-RC4.tar.gz /var/www/html
# cd /var/www/html
# tar xvzf LiHaLo-RC4.tar.gz
# mv LiHaLo-RC4 LiHaLo

You now should have a directory /var/www/html/LiHaLo. [ DocumentRoot/LiHaLo ]

3.3.1.2 Create & populate your database for LiHaLo

Go to /var/www/html/LiHaLo/install and use the script to create & populate your database:

#./install.sh

If it runs without returning any output, things went perfect. From MySQL version 3.23.50 on, it will return ERROR 1148 about a command that is not to be used with this version: in this case, execute:

# mysql --local-infile=1 < populate_LiHaLoDB.sql
followed by 
# ./update_rc2_rc3.sh
followed by
# ./update_rc3_rc4.sh

This should not return any output.

3.3.2 Update from RC3 to RC4

3.3.2.1 Unpack the tar-file in your apache DocumentRoot

Let's assume your DocumentRoot(remember ?) is /var/www/html and execute the following steps:

The following steps have to be done to go from RC2 to RC3.

  1. # mv LiHaLo-RC4.tar.gz /var/www/html
  2. # cd /var/www/html
    • mv LiHaLo LiHaLo-RC3 if you want to hold the RC3-files
    • rm -Rf LiHaLo if you do not want to keep the RC3-version
  3. # tar xvzf LiHaLo-RC4.tar.gz
  4. # mv LiHaLo-RC4 LiHaLo

3.3.3.2 Do the update

Now you DO NOT NEED TO REBUILD OR RE-POPULATE YOUR DB ! Just do the update: Go to /var/www/html/LiHaLo/install and use the script to do the update.

# ./update_rc3_rc4.sh

This should not return any output.

3.3.3 Test your installation

Fire up your browser again and surf to http://localhost/LiHaLo, you should see a nice page where you can enter your first LiHaLo qso, if this is true: Congratulations !! You got LiHaLo up and running !!

Please refer to the other parts of the documentation to proceed.


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