Internet Network

&
Services

Ubuntu 10.10 Server Running

Moodle 2.0 Application

Hakeem Abass
ITM 2
Cork Institute of Technology
3/15/2011
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Internet & Network Services Assessment 1 15 March 2011

Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 2
What is Moodle ................................................................................................................. 2
Procedure .......................................................................................................................... 2
Downloading & Installing Operating System .............................................. 3-5
Downloading Ubuntu......................................................................................................... 3
Installing Ubuntu ............................................................................................................ 4-5
LAMP Server Installation .......................................................................... 6-13
Login into Ubuntu server ................................................................................................... 6
Installing LAMP Server ................................................................................................ 6-7
Installing PHP5 Packages .................................................................................................. 8
Testing PHP ...................................................................................................................... 9
Restart Apache2 .............................................................................................................. 10
Install & test PHPmyadmin ....................................................................................... 11-13
Moodle Installation ................................................................................... 14-20
Downloading Moodle ..................................................................................................... 14
Unpacking Moodle ......................................................................................................... 15
Moodle data directory ...................................................................................................... 16
Ownership & Permissions ............................................................................................... 16
Restart Apache ................................................................................................................ 16
Install Moodle ................................................................................................................. 17
Moodle database set up ................................................................................................... 18
Configuration .................................................................................................................. 19
Administrator Account .................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 22
Reference ........................................................................................................ 22

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1. INTRODUCTION
This document describes the installation of “Moodle", an Open Source Content Management
System on Ubuntu Linux so that it uses MySQL as the database. The default database system
is PostgreSQL. This project was carried out using Ubuntu 10.10. The installation was tested
using the latest Moodle application, “Moodle 2.0”.

The Moodle Installation procedure is backward compliance with the older versions of
Moodle, but not sure of future releases of Moodle.

What is Moodle?

Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management

System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a free web application that
educators can use to create effective online learning sites. Moodle is free to download and
registration is voluntary.

2. PROCEDURE
This project was carried out using the VMware workstation cloud environment. From the
start I decided to simplify the installation process by dividing the process into 3 stages.

 Stage 1: Download & Installation of Operating System.

 Stage 2: Installation of the LAMP server.
 Stage 3: Installation and Configuration of Moodle.

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3. Step 1: Installation of Operating System-Ubuntu 10.10

For the purpose of this project, all the installations will be done from the command line
interface. This means all installations will be done by issue Linux commands from the
Ubuntu server. The command-line interface is the default for the Ubuntu server without the
desktop. In this project both version are necessary, therefore am going to briefly illustrate
how to download and install both.

3.1. Downloading Ubuntu

 From your web browser, navigate to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
 Select the architecture of your processor (32 or 64 bit), for this project select 64 bit
for the server and 32 bits for the desktop.
 Click "Start download". A pop up window opens, prompting you where to run or
save the file, choose save file.
 Insert the storage media you want to use (either USB or CD), and click save.

After downloading the ISO image successfully, you are now ready to start installation.

Fig. 1: Downloading Ubuntu

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3.2. Installing Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine

 Create a new VM from VMware booting from the .iso image on the storage device.
 Follow the Ubuntu installation wizard till the VMware instance boots up.

Fig. 2: Configuring and installing from the ISO image on the storage media. This procedure
is the same for Ubuntu server and desktop

Note: At this point, take note of the username and password that you provided, DONT
FOGET IT!

Fig. 3: Installation in progress.

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Fig. 4: Installation complete

If finally your screen displays image as above and below, then you have successfully install
the base system and you are ready to go on to the next step of this project.

Fig. 5: Installation complete

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4. Step 2: Installing the LAMP Server & other application

LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) is an acronym for a solution stack of free, open source
software, originally coined from the first letters of Linux (operating system), Apache HTTP
Server, MySQL (database software), and PHP, Python or Perl (scripting language), principal
components to build a viable general purpose web server.
4.1. Login into Ubuntu Server
Type into the command line interface;

#sudo –i

You are then ask to provide your username and password you gave during the Ubuntu
installation

Then,

#apt-get update

This will upgrade installed packages to latest versions.

4.2. Install LAMP Server

Type into the command line interface;

#apt-get tasksel install lamp-server
This command installs the lamp-server, directly or you can type;

#tasksel

And you get something as below;

Fig. 6: Choosing LAMP server

Navigate to LAMP server by using the up & down and select the relevant application
and press ‘return’ on the keyboard to start the installation.

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Fig. 7: Installation of the LAMP server in Progress

During the installation of the LAMP server you will be ask to provide root password
for MYSQL for „root‟ user, this is also important to remember for later use.

Fig. 7: Giving Password for MYSQL

Fig. 8: LAMP Server Finishing installation

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Fig. 9: LAMP Server installation completed

LAMP Server Installation time: 4-5 minutes.

4.3. Installing PHP5 Packages

Install the package PHP5-GD & PHP5-CURL which are required by Moodle.

#apt-get install php5-gd

Fig. 10: Installating PHP5-GD

After successful installation as shown above, then;

#apt-get install php5-curl

Fig. 11: Installating PHP5-CURL

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4.4. Testing PHP5 & Getting details about php5 installation

At this stage, you will create a small PHP file (info.php) in the „/var/www‟ directory.
In the command line type;

#cd /var/www

This command takes you to the „/var/www‟ directory, then type;

#nano /var/www/info.php

In the editor that open add the following text;

<?php
Phpinfo();
?>

Fig. 12: Creating PHPTest script

Exit the editor, and save as /var/www/info.php – ‘Press ctrl +x’

Fig. 13: Saving the PHPTest script

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4.5. Restart Apache

Restart the Apache Web Server so these changes become part of the system.

Type,

#/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Go back to root directory from „/var/www‟ directory by typing

#cd

Then type,

#ifconfig - to get the IP address of the Localhost

Fig. 14: Creating PHPTest script

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4.6. Testing Apache and Php5

Open the browser on the Ubuntu desktop earlier installed and type in the address bar
of the browser, as shown below:

http://ipaddress

If the Apache is running fine you should see a page as shown below;

Fig. 15: Apache Working

Next type in the address bar,

http://ipaddress/info.php

To test the PHP 5 is working, then you should see as shown below;

Fig. 16: PHP Working

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4.7. Install PHPmyadmin

This is a web interface through which you can fully manage your MYSQOL database.
To install in the Ubuntu server, type:

#apt-get install phpmyadmin

During the installation you will be asked to provide password for the user admin.

Fig. 17: Phpmyadmin installation and configuration

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Next open your browser again and type;

http://ipaddress/phpmyadmin

You should be able to see a page as shown below;

Fig. 18: PHPmyadmin database Created

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5. Step 3: Installing Moodle 2.0 on Ubuntu Server

The Moodle installation will be done from the command-line interface, but rather that use
„apt-get‟ to get Moodle from the repositories, Moodle will be dropped from the
http://moodle.org website to get the latest Moodle build.

 Installation Steps
 Download from Website the latest Moodle build.
 Extract the Zipped file.
 Make Moodle‟s data directory
 Change ownership and permissions for Moodle and moodledata directories.
 Restart Apache.
 Run & Install Moodle
 Set up Moodle Database.
 Moodle configuration

5.1. Downloading and Unpacking Moodle

At this point we need the Ubuntu server and desktop, first start up a new Firefox Window
and type into the address bar http://download.moodle.org and click on the 'Latest
Release' 'zip format' entry.

Fig. 19: Moodle download page

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On clicking the „.zip‟ file, you will be redirected to the „sourceforge.net, download website
note down the URL as shown below, because you will be using a powerful Linux tool to get
the download from this website into the server.

Fig. 19: Moodle download URL

Next, power on the Ubuntu Server, and make sure you are in „root‟ directory,

Then type

#apt-get install wget

„wget‟ is the tool e will use to get Moodle from the sourceforge.net‟ website and from „root‟
directory type;

#cd /var/www

The Moodle folder should be downloaded into this directory. Now get Moodle, type;

# wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/moodle/files/Moodle/stable20/moodle-latest-20.zip

Fig. 20: Moodle download

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5.2. Unpacking Moodle

After the download, which take 1-2 minute to finish, install „unzip‟ tool;

#apt-get install unzip

Unpack Moodle, type;

#unzip moodle-latest-20.zip

At this stage you now have in this directory two files when you issue the list command

#ls

As shown below;

5.5. Make Moodle data directory

From „root‟ go into the „var‟ directory

#cd /var

#mkdir moodledata

5.4. Change ownership and permissions for Moodle and moodledata

directories.

Still in the „var‟ directory, change ownership & permissions on the „moodledata‟;

#chmod 777 /moodledata

#chown -R /moodledata

#cd /var/www
To go to „www‟ directory to change ownership & permissions on the „Moodle‟ folder;

#chmod 777 /moodle

#chown -R /moodle

5.5. Restart Apache.

#cd
To go back to „root‟ directory, then;

#/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

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5.6. Run & Install Moodle

From this point on, Moodle is ready to finish the final step of the installation, but we need to
run through the program's own installer. Start up a Firefox window and type the URL
http://localhost/moodle into the address bar. This should bring up the first page of the moodle
installer shown below;

Select Language
Select the language you want. The default is English click on "next”.

Fig. 22: Moodle language setup

Configuration Completed
The program now writes a config file to your system. If this step fails, try doing the sudo
chmod 777 /var/www/moodle command again, as above. Click on 'Next'

Terms and Conditions

Try to read the T & C, to continue, click on the 'Yes' button.
Checking PHP settings
A page of tests are conducted on PHP. All should say "OK" in Green. The only one that isn't
by default is "GD Version" - if this has failed reinstall php5-gd and restart apache (see
above). If they all say "ok" click on next.

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Locations
The next page sets the locations of the moodle installation. These should be/var/www/moodle
and /var/moodledata (the last one is the directory you created above).
Click on next. If this fails, check you set up the /var/moodledata directory as above.

5.6. Setting up Moodle Database

This can be done from the phpmyadmin page we set up earlier but we going to create the
database using MYSQL. From the command-line interface type;

#mysql –u root –p

You will ask to enter your mysql password you enter earlier, and you are the MYSQL prompt
local client, now create the database by typing;

>CREATE DATABASE moodle;

Check on the phpmyadmin, to see if the Moodle database is created, then create user „admin‟;

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Fig. 23: Moodle database created

>CREATE USER admin;

Next create password for user „admin‟;

>SET PASSWORD FOR ADMIN = PASSWORD(“password”);

Grant user „admin‟ all privileges on the database

>GRANT ALL PRIVILEDGES ON Moodle* TO admin@localhost IDENTIFIED BY „82--

---‟;

Fig. 24: Creating Moodle Database

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Fig. 25: User created with all the privileges on Moodle Database

This sets the moodle database to be useable by the MySQL user admin with the password 82-
----. This can be changed to any values you like. The quotes around the end are required,
because you will get a database error when you try to start Noodle for the first time.

5.6. Final Configurations

With the user „admin‟ created with all the privileges you can now go into your moodle page
and start customizing the page, creating users, add course categories etc.

Fig. 24: My Moodle login page

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5.6. Administrator Account

On the administrator account page, you will enter your new password for the administrator,
then click on 'update profile' at the bottom. This will throw up some errors - correct them so
you can carry on, or if you like fill this page in properly. As with everything else, you can
change it any time you like.

Next, Click on „Continue‟

Welcome to Moodle
You now have an up and running Moodle server.

Adding custom theme to the Moodle page

 Find free Moodle themes from http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6552
 Download one. Extract the zip file .
 Copy the extracted folder to /var/www/moodle/theme
 From Moodle, install the new theme:
 Moodle -> Appearance -> Themes -> Theme Selector

Fig. 24: My Moodle Admin configuration page

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6. Conclusion
This project was intend to teach individual on the advantages of having an application
running on Ubuntu server. The major thing I learnt is how to install and make an application
run on a server securely with the administrator with full permission and ownership.

I was able to install a lot of application free while using the Ubuntu command line interface.

7. REFERENCE
http://moodle.org/

http://www.ubuntu.com/

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