I want to get into web design, so I am going to learn some PHP and mySQL. Although, how do I install it under debian? I cannot find many guides. I do not want to run my own server though so I suppose I have to find one that supports these. So basically, how do I get started with PHP and MySQL for web design?

Hi!

I use Apache, MySQL and PHP for web development like you want to. To get started with it try the following.
(BTW - I use RedHat)

1. Download PHP. Go for a "source" package.
2. Download MySQL. Go for a "binary" package (IMHO).
3. Download Apache (source).
4. Compile PHP and Apache. This is done by ungziptarring each package, then doing

./configure
make
su
(log in as root)
make install
exit

(I am assuming you know how to untar / ungzip - just do tar zxvf package.name.version on the download file)

Oh yeah, I found that I needed to add the following after ./configure to get things to work on my system:

Apache configure line:
./configure --enable-so --enable-mods-shared=/usr/local/apache2/modules/libphp4.so

PHP configure line:
./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-apache2

Add these to httpd.conf in apache directory /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

LoadModule php4_module /usr/local/apache2/modules/libphp4.so

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

The order of installing / compiling is

1. Install MySQL
2. Install Apache
3. Install PHP

Now start apache (/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start) and try surfing to 127.0.0.1 in a webbrowser. You should see the apache vanilla greeting page.

That should get you started!

Regards,