Foswiki Installation

Since the Foswiki community is larger and more dynamic than the Twiki community, I decided to migrate the existing Twiki installation into a Foswiki installation.

https://foswiki.org/System/InstallationGuide

Steps

• download the foswiki tar.gz file (https://foswiki.org/Download/FoswikiRelease02x01x05)
• copy en uncompress it to odin: /srv/htdocs/foswiki
• create an apache config file: Apache Config Generator (https://foswiki.org/Support/ApacheConfigGenerator)
• copy the generated foswiki httpd.conf file as foswiki file to /etc/apache2/sites-available
• call the configuration file from /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default:

Include /etc/apache2/sites-available/foswiki

• restart Apache and solve any errors:
  • #RewriteEngine on
  • #RewriteRule (twice)

 [[mailto:root@odin:/etc/init.d][root@odin:/etc/init.d]]# ./apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2
 * We failed to correctly shutdown apache, so we're now killing all running apache processes. This is almost certainly suboptimal, so please make sure your system is working as you'd expect now!
 ... waiting Syntax error on line 24 of /etc/apache2/sites-available/foswiki:
Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
   ...fail!
[[mailto:root@odin:/etc/init.d][root@odin:/etc/init.d]]# ./apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2
Syntax error on line 24 of /etc/apache2/sites-available/foswiki:
Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
   ...fail!
[[mailto:root@odin:/etc/init.d][root@odin:/etc/init.d]]# ./apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2
Syntax error on line 30 of /etc/apache2/sites-available/foswiki:
Invalid command 'RewriteRule', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
   ...fail!
[[mailto:root@odin:/etc/init.d][root@odin:/etc/init.d]]# ./apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2
   ...done.
[[mailto:root@odin:/etc/init.d][root@odin:/etc/init.d]]# 

• goto http://odin.explio.local/foswiki/ and click the available links

**** ERROR ****
The following critical dependencies are missing from your installation:
... CGI::Session: Can't locate CGI/Session.pm in @INC 
... Crypt::PasswdMD5: Can't locate Crypt/PasswdMD5.pm in @INC 
... Error: Can't locate Error.pm in @INC 
... JSON: Can't locate JSON.pm in @INC 

Install missing critical dependencies

Add the foswiki/lib directory to the CPAN path:

• copy the /srv/htdocs/foswiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg.txt file to LocalLib.cfg in the same directory
• adapt the $foswikiLibPath line:

$foswikiLibPath = '/srv/htdocs/foswiki/lib';

Download the dependencies from:

• http://search.cpan.org/~markstos/CGI-Session-4.48/lib/CGI/Session.pm
• http://search.cpan.org/~rsavage/Crypt-PasswdMD5-1.40/lib/Crypt/PasswdMD5.pm
• http://search.cpan.org/~shlomif/Error-0.17025/lib/Error.pm
• http://search.cpan.org/~ishigaki/JSON-2.97001/lib/JSON.pm

Each time, the Download link is found in the left navigation bar under TOOLS.

• unzip the tar.gz file
• unzip the tar file
• go down in the unzipped folder to the lib subdirectory
• copy the directory in that folder to the foswiki/lib/CPAN/lib directory

Install CPAN modules in Ubuntu itself, e.g.:

• perl -MCPAN -e 'install File::Find::Rule'

Change owner and group of foswiki

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data foswiki

Get rid of all exclamation marks in "configure"

• Internationalisation > Locale tab: Display Time Values variable requires perl 5.12:
  • installed perl 5.12 (alongside the default 5.10 version) following the instructions from https://perl-howto.github.io/2010/04/perl-512-parallel-zu-einem-bestehendem-perl-installieren-appcpanminus-als-cpan-installer.html
  • then added the 5.12 version to the foswiki path in .../bin/LocalLib.cfg:

 @localPerlLibPath = ( '/usr/bin/perl512/lib/5.12.0', );

• Store > Store Implementation tab: Store Implementation variable:
  • *Caution* - If you intend to migrate data from an older version of Foswiki, you should select one of the RCS based store now before editing any wiki topics or registering any users!
  • default: Foswiki::Store::PlainFile => Foswiki::Store::RcsLite
• Mail > Basic settings & Auto-configure tab: unable to install "sendmail" on odin, and SMTP doesn't work either…

Uninstall things you didn't need to install…

• ActivePerl??? (http://docs.activestate.com/activeperl/5.12/install.html#installing activeperl on linux (x86))

Disable TWiki

• rename the /srv/htdocs/twiki folder in _twiki
• Apache will not restart, Apache log shows the following two errors:

[Mon Apr 09 08:54:45 2018] [error] Can't locate /srv/htdocs/twiki/tools/mod_perl_startup.pl in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /etc/apache2) at (eval 2) line 1.
[Mon Apr 09 08:54:45 2018] [error] Can't load Perl file: /srv/htdocs/twiki/tools/mod_perl_startup.pl for server odin.explio.local:0, exiting...

• disable the following line in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf:

# PerlRequire /srv/htdocs/twiki/tools/mod_perl_startup.pl

• optionally disable the following line in /etc/apache2/sites-available/default:

# Include /etc/apache2/sites-available/twiki

Optimize your foswiki

see: https://foswiki.org/Support.Question1823