Wordpress on Ubuntu user edition

(Updated for Ubuntu 13.10)

Install LAMP

1. sudo apt-get install tasksel
2. sudo tasksel install lamp-server
3. You may also want to install phpmyadmin, and I needed php-curl too
4. Edit apache.conf to get rid of startup message, i.e.

• Add ServerName localhost to apache.conf

(Along the way you'll need to add a root password for MySQL, and check that /etc/hosts has a good entry for your IP address so that Apache will run.)

Enable user directories in Apache

I set up my beta website in a home directory as it avoid lots of permissions issues. To turn on user directories:

1. sudo a2enmod userdir
2. Enable php in user directories: edit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.conf
3. enable rewrite commands in .htaccess for nice permalinks: sudo a2enmod rewrite
4. sudo service apache2 restart

Using a non-standard port

My ISP does not allow servers on port 80 but does permit them on other ports. Based on these instructions I

edit /etc/apache2/ports.conf to read:

Listen 80 

Listen 6111

create a new file in /etc/apache2/sites-available with the following content

<VirtualHost *:6111>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /home/[name]/public_html
<Directory /home/[name]/public_html>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
         Order allow,deny
         allow from all
 Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Listen 6111

• And link this file to the sites-enabled directory
• sudo ln -n sites-available/61112.conf sites-enabled/

(Tweak firewall if necessary, and recreate mysql user names with 'localhost' privileges.)

Additional steps

1. Configure MySQL: (Re-)Create the database user, import the MySQL backup, and reattach privileges.
2. Install Ruby via Software Centre
3. Install compass (which installs Sass)
4. Install sublime sass highlighting package controller