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This tutorial explains the installation of Apache web server, bundled with PHP and MySQL server on a Linux machine. The tutorial is primarily for SuSE 9.2, 9.3, 10.0 & 10.1 operating systems, but most of the steps ought to be valid for all Linux-like operating systems.

MySQL 5.0 installation

Since Apache and MySQL servers must be installed prior to the PHP installation, I recommend installing the triad in this order: MySQL, Apache, PHP. You may well have some MySQL server already installed – in that case you can skip directly to the Apache 2 installation. However, it’s a good idea to reinstall everything, in order to have the most recent versions of the software.

There are several options for how to install MySQL:

• using YaST – the easiest and fastest way. However, the version of MySQL bundled with SuSE installation is usually NOT the best (i.e. the most recent) available,
• RPM installation – supposedly also fast and simple, I’ve never tried though. The only drawback here is that MySQL is not installed into a single destination – it’s scattered across several directories. I like to keep things tidy, so I skipped this option,
• installing binaries – downloading precompiled files from the mysql.com website, copying them into a directory of your choice, and doing some simple configuration. I tried this, but it didn’t work for me – for some reason the MySQL server wouldn’t start,
• installing from source – I would recommend this. Yes, it takes some time and effort, but you will get the most recent MySQL installed in a single location on your system, and everything will be configured according to your needs.

The rest of this chapter deals with the 4th option – the installation of MySQL from the source.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have superuser (root) privileges and user “mysql” already exists in your system. If not, create one:

groupadd mysql
useradd -g mysql mysql

This will be the default user under which the MySQL server will be running.

Download the source

First, download the MySQL source . You need the mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23.tar.gz tarball file (or mysql-5.1.52-linux-x86_64-glibc23.tar.gz for 64-bit systems).

Unpack, configure, compile

So you have downloaded the mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23.tar.gz file. You know the drill: unpack, configure, make, make install:.

tar -xzf mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23.tar.gz
cd mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23/
./configure  --prefix=/usr/local/mysql-5.1.52 --with-charset=utf8  --with-collation=utf8_general_ci
make
make install

We used the –with-charset and –with-collation options to set the default character set and collation – otherwise it would have been the default Swedish collation.

I recommend creating a symbolic link called “mysql” pointing to the MySQL installation directory, in order to make referring to it from elsewhere easier:

ln -s /usr/local/mysql-5.1.52/ /usr/local/mysql

This way we can always refer to MySQL installation directory as /usr/local/mysql . The obvious advantage is that if you install PHP with the –with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql option (see PHP 5 Installation Guide), it won’t stop working if the name of the MySQL installation directory changes in the future (if you upgrade your MySQL for instance).

Create my.cnf file

To complete MySQL server installation, you have to create a configuration file. It offers several security and control options (here you can limit system resources to be used by MySQL server, set the default collation and character set etc.). You need not to create a brand new configuration file – there are 4 pre-made files in the support-files/ directory. Read the information in those files to determine which one to use. For small servers (e.g. testing servers, or servers of a limited performance), my-small.cnf file is the best option. Copy the file of your choice to /etc/my.cnf:

cp support-files/my-small.cnf /etc/my.cnf
chown root /etc/my.cnf
chgrp root /etc/my.cnf
chmod 644 /etc/my.cnf

We have made sure both the owner and user group of the my.cnf file are “root” and the access privileges are properly set. Finally edit the file:

vi /etc/my.cnf

Search for [mysqld] clause, and add immediately below it:

user = mysql

We have specified that MySQL service is to be run with user “mysql” privileges.

If you want to use InnoDB databases (what you probably will), uncomment (and perhaps edit) all innodb options in the my.cnf file. Save all changes (<ESC> :wq).

Additional settings

For proper functioning, MySQL needs a “mysql” database. To create this database, simply run:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

The script will create /usr/local/mysql/var/ directory containing the necessary databases. This directory serves as a default storage for all databases you will create. Make sure it is writable by “mysql” system user!

Start server, check it, connect

Now you are ready to start your MySQL server for the first time.

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Hit enter again to get your prompt back. The MySQL server should now be running. To check that server is running and works properly enter

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin version

You should get some response about the server software version.

Connect to MySQL server:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -u root

If you get a welcome message and the prompt changes to mysql>, the server works and everything is fine. If this failed for any reason, it may indicate some problems with your installation/configuration.

Set the root password

Now, before you do anything else, set root user’s password (!). Stay connected to MySQL and enter:

DELETE FROM mysql.user WHERE User = '';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
SELECT  Host, User FROM mysql.user;

Look for the record that has root in the User column and something other than localhost in the Host column. This is the host_name.

SET  PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_password');
SET  PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'host_name' =  PASSWORD('new_password');

Remember, this is the MySQL superuser for all databases. Therefore you should use a strong password and keep it safe. Later, when you will be writing PHP scripts, do NOT use superuser for accessing databases! The “root” user is meant only for administration purposes. After you are finished, exit MySQL:

quit

Restart MySQL server

After everything is set up, restart MySQL server:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p shutdown
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Voila, your MySQL server is up and running!

Automatic startup

Set up an automatic startup so you don’t need to start MySQL server manually after each system reboot. Go back to the directory where you extracted the downloaded mysql tarball file. Enter

cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/mysql
chkconfig --add mysql
chkconfig --level 35 mysql on

Further reading

MySQL Reference Manual