phpMyAdmin install Slackware 12.2

hellbillyJoker · 12-26-2008, 10:18 PM

I'm a NEWB

I have a fresh install of Slackware 12.2, kernel 2.6.27.7-smp.
I'm trying to get a web server going. I've got Apache and PHP up and running.

I don't know where to begin with mySQL, so I thought I'd begin with a front-end to help me out. I'm trying to follow the instructions here http://slackwiki.org/PhpMyAdmin

First it says to download to /usr/src/sourcepkg . The next instruction says to

Code:

tar /usr/src/source/phpMyAdmin-XXX.tar.bz2

, so I created the dir 'source' in /usr/src to put the file into.

Per the instructions, I extracted in /var/www, created the symbolic link, jumped to the section "httpd (apache2) under Slackware 12", created the /etc/apache/conf.d/phpMyAdmin.conf file, added the line to the /etc/httpd/phpMyAdmin.conf file.

Under "Configuration" it says to restart with

Code:

/etc/apache/rc.httpd restart

That fails with:
bash: /etc/apache/rc.httpd: No such file or directory

So I Googled around and restarted with:

Code:

apachectl -k restart

I think it restarted, but it gave the message:
httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for ServerName

Back to the instructions, when I try to go to http://localhost/phpMyAdmin
I get:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /phpMyAdmin on this server.

The instructions say "If you have set a password for your MySQL root user, you will have an error"

I have never set a password anywhere. I'm assuming one is set by default in Slackware 12.2.

It then says to "Edit /var/www/phpMyAdmin/config.inc.php"

When I cd to /var/www/phpMyAdmin, I get:
bash: cd: /var/www/phpMyAdmin: No such file or directory

So I poke around and there is a /var/www/phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages folder that contains config.sample.inc.php, so I cp config.sample.inc.php to config.inc.php, and edit.

First the instructions say:

Code:

Change to something unique:
$cfg['blowfish_secret']=;

It has the line $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; I try adding 'somethingunique' (literally) in the single quotes.

Then it says:

Code:

Change:
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';
To:
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';

When I scroll down, there is already a line:

Code:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';

So I don't change anything.

I then refresh the page and I still get the same:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /phpMyAdmin on this server.

If anyone can help me with this, or just point me to something that will tell me how to use mySQL with my current install, that would be great!

bathory · 12-27-2008, 03:20 AM

Quote:

bash: cd: /var/www/phpMyAdmin: No such file or directory

So I poke around and there is a /var/www/phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages

According to your configuration you have to use the URL: http://localhost/phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages.
I suggest you to change this to something more simple and difficult for others to guess, because phpmyadmin is used from hackers to gain access to servers and databases. You can for example:

Code:

mv phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages db-admin

and use: http://localhost/db-admin to use phpMyadmin.

Regards

hellbillyJoker · 12-27-2008, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bathory

According to your configuration you have to use the URL: http://localhost/phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages.
I suggest you to change this to something more simple and difficult for others to guess, because phpmyadmin is used from hackers to gain access to servers and databases. You can for example:

Code:

mv phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages db-admin

and use: http://localhost/db-admin to use phpMyadmin.

Regards

Thanks for the reply!

I understand and will follow your advice about renaming the location of phpMyAdmin, but for the sake of sticking to the instructions until I know what is going on, and since I am not serving anything up publicly (I'm behind a firewall/router), I changed the symbolic link to point to phpMyAdmin-3.1.1-all-languages which then makes the conf file show up under phpMyAdmin, but I'm still getting the forbidden error. I believe with your steps I'd still be in the same boat.

bathory · 12-27-2008, 12:58 PM

There are some "errors" in the tutorial you've followed.
The guy there says to d/l the archive in /usr/src/sourcepkg and extract it, but in the commands he uses it seems that he extracts it in /var/www (that is the DocumentRoot of apache) and then creates a symlink to simplify the URL.
Since you use a symlink you must make sure that there is a:

Code:

Options FollowSymLinks

either for the <Directory /var/www/phpMyAdmin> part, or at least for the DocumentRoot <Directory /var/www>.

If it doesn't work you can check the apache error_log for hints.

Regards

geek745 · 12-27-2008, 04:18 PM

so the whole point of phpmyadmin, as you know, is to provide a nice interface to the mysql server, so that you don't have to execute sql commands on the command line. phpmyadmin is exactly that - a php-driven administrative interface to mysql. phpmyadmin is itself a website, so you are taking advantage of the resources on your system (Apache webserver with php interpreter) to run phpmyadmin on your local machine. You need to understand configuration of apache, php, mysql, and then how to use phpmyadmin to be successful.

apache serves web pages (html). you can have apache interpret php scripting (like what is used in phpmyadmin) by linking the .php file extension to the php interpreter (slackware packages have already done this for you, i hope). when you created that /var/www/phpmyadmin-xxx you need to make sure it is at least world-readable so that the system users running apache and php can get to it. this could be your "forbidden" error (http error 403?). the error you got when restarting httpd (apache) was because you have not defined a hostname for your box (can do this in /etc/HOSTNAME and /etc/hosts) or you have not entered that hostname into apache's httpd.conf as the ListenOn value. then you need to have your mysql database configured. out of the box, it lets you login with user "root" and a blank password - you are advised in the mysql configuration to change this or disable the root account. You also need to configure phpmyadmin, as per their instructions, to tell it which server this phpmyadmin installation is built to manage (you can enter localhost for the server name, or your loopback ip address 127.0.0.1) and other options, as specified in the installation instructions. After that, you should be all ready to create databases and tables, and manage them as you wish.

I recently set this up on my secondary box at home because i grew lazy of using the command-line mysql client... not a big deal, if you understand the core concepts outlined above.

hellbillyJoker · 12-28-2008, 10:26 PM

I tried all of these steps, tried different instructions I found online. I was able to get a directory listing, and click on index.php to run the program, but thought that didn't seem right, so I removed everything.

I found a phpmyadmin tgz file on zenwalk.org and installed that with installpkg.

I still got a directory listing, and everything would work when I clicked a file in the directory listing, so I created a index.html in the directory to see what happened. It loaded on accessing the directory. I found that I had to add index.php to the httpd.conf file. Now it seems to be working correctly.

Thanks for all of the help.