ELS Howto: Serendipity


Synopsis

This document describes how to install Serendipity blogging software on an Elemental Linux Server (ELS) system.


Prerequisites

These instructions assume that you have a working PHP-enabled web server and a working email system. If you do not, see the ELS Howto: Apache and PHP and the ELS Howto: Remote Mail before beginning this document.

You may also want to install the imagemagick package from the 'Additional Applications' CD-ROM.


Installation

Installation of Serendipity is well documented. This document will guide you through the specifics of installing it with the SQLite3 database bundled with ELS.

  1. Download the latest version of Serendipity from http://s9y.org and extract it into your web server's document root directory.
  2. Create a symbolic link with the name of your blog that points to the serendipity directory.
  3. Create a directory for the SQLite database that is outside of the web server's document root.
  4. Change the ownership of the database directory to the same user that httpd runs as.

Example

The following example shows how you would install serendipity if your web server document root were /home/httpd and your SQLite databases were stored in /home/sqlite.

cd /home/httpd
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/php-blog/serendipity-1.6.2.tar.gz
tar --no-same-owner -zxf serendipity-1.6.2.tar.gz

ln -s serendipity blog

mkdir /home/sqlite

chown daemon /home/sqlite

Configuration

Configuration of Serendipity is done through a web browser interface and is most easily performed from a client workstation with a graphical browser.

  1. Point your web browser to the base URL of your blog.
  2. Verify that there are no errors detected and choose the Simple Installation link at the bottom of the page.
  3. Check that PDO::SQLite is selected as the database type and clear all other database settings.
  4. In the database name field, enter the relative path to the database directory you created during the installation section of this document.
  5. Fill in the fields under General Settings as appropriate for your setup and choose the Complete Installation link.

Example

The following example shows the Database Settings fields of the installer for a blog located in /home/httpd/blog and a database stored in /home/SQLite:

Database type:      PDO::SQLite
Database host:      leave blank
Database user:      leave blank
Database password:  leave blank
Database name:      ../../sqlite/serendipity

Note

After completing the simple configuration, you should log into your blog's administration interface and make a few minor changes. Specifically you'll want to do the following:


Testing

Testing of the configuration is done as you follow the web-based install procedure and possible remedies to common errors are displayed in the browser. However there are a few things that can be checked if you cannot access the Serendipity configuration page.

  1. Check that PHP is installed properly. There is a good test script at http://www.htmlite.com/php003.php
  2. Run netstat -tlnp | grep httpd to verify that httpd is listening on port 80.
  3. Verify that firewall rules allow unrestricted access for on port 80 for any hosts trying to access your blog.
  4. Test network connectivity to the server by pinging it from another machine.

For additional help with installation and configuration, please refer to the Serendipity home page.