Local Installation on Linux

In order to install osCmax on to a local machine (ie. the one you are using now, or on the same network) you will need some additional software. Luckily there is lot of free software to do this.

• Linux
• Apache
• MySQL
• PHP

Or more succinctly LAMP.

There are numerous Linux distributions (distros) out there but for this example I will be using Turnkey LAMP - based on Ubuntu. So far I've found this to be the simplest/quickest to setup.

See the server_software page for further downloads.

The following is not a step by step guide but an outline of what to do.

1. Install a new webserver on a different machine on your local network
2. Install a new webserver within a Virtual Machine (VM) on your usual PC

The example below outlines the procedure for installation in a VM. A similar approach can be used for an installation on a modest PC/laptop, skipping the VM stuff.

1. Download Turnkey LAMP
2. Download/Install Sun (Now Oracle) Virtualbox - preferably from your Package Manager, if using Linux
3. Start Virtualbox and create a new Virtual Machine with the following suggested settings:

• Linux, Linux 2.6
• 384Mb - based on a Linux machine with 1Gb, adjust to suit.
• Remove Floppy and change boot order to CD first
• Video Memory 5Mb
• Add a CD/DVD device and attach your downloaded distro eg. turnkey-lamp-11.0-lucid-x86.iso
• Add a HDD, new virtual disc eg. webserver.vdi of at least 1.5Gb
• Assign a Network Adapter eg. pre-configured Bridged Adapter (see documentation)
• Save, then startup the Virtual Machine

1. Partitioning Method: Guided - use entire disc. (in this case the entire virtual disc)
2. Install the GRUB boot loader.
3. When prompted to reboot, shutdown the 'Live CD' instead. (Machine, Close, Shutdown)
4. Change the settings on the VM to boot from hard disk first, instead of CD.
5. Restart the VM.
6. Enter a root and mySQL password (advised not to be the same).
7. Skip the TKLBAM prompt.
8. Optionally (advisable) install the security updates. (Will take a while)
9. Eventually you will get the “Turnkey Linux Configuration Console”, showing the webserver addresses used for access. Note the address for Webmin.

• Congratulations you are now running a server on your local machine!

1. Using a browser login to the Webmin screen of the server, using your root account.
2. Select Software Packages
3. Select Package from APT and enter apt-utils
4. Select Install
5. Do the same for php5-gd, php5-curl, mod-security-common, suphp-common and apache2-suexec

(note: the above are only suggestions and are neither exhaustive nor all required - search on the web for more information on each of them.)

1. Select Servers, Apache Webserver, Global Configuration, Configure Apache Modules
2. Select rewrite and suexec, followed by Enable Selected Modules

1. Servers, Apache Webserver
2. Create Virtual Host
3. Document Root /var/www/html/
4. Stop & Start Apache

1. In Webmin, select Tools, Upload and Download - Download from Web tab should be activated.
2. URLs to download: http://www.oscmax.com/system/files/osCMax_v2_0_25_1.zip (for example, check the latest link from the ocCmax website)
3. Download to file or directory: /var/www/html/ and select create directory as needed.
4. Tools, File Manager
5. Browse to /var/www/html
6. Click on the zip file and select Extract.
7. Browse to /var/www/html/catalog
8. Rename .htaccess.new to .htaccess
9. Do the same for /var/www/html/catalog/admin/.htaccess.new
10. Browse to /var/www/html/catalog/includes
11. Rename configure.php.new to configure.php
12. Press the Info button and select write permissions for Group and Other, Save.
13. Do the same for /var/www/html/catalog/admin/includes/configure.php

1. In Webmin, Servers, mySQL Database Server - use root and your mySQL password to login
2. Create Database
3. Name: oscmax, Character Set: utf8, Collation: utf8_general_ci (or utf8_unicode_ci)
4. Click Create
5. Select User Permissions
6. Create New User, giving an appropriate name (oscmax) and password. Leave other fields as is.
7. Select Database Permissions, Create New Database Permissions
8. Select the oscmax database and enter the oscmax user
9. Enter localhost for the Host, Highlight all the Permissions and Save

1. Open another browser window/tab (Firefox is recommended)
2. Type localhost/catalog/install/index.php into the URL bar - replace localhost with the webserver IP address.
3. You should now see this screen

1. Screen 1 :: Step 1 ::Enter the following information and then click Continue
   • Database Server :: Enter localhost
   • Username :: Enter oscmax (for example, as entered previously)
   • Password :: enter the appropriate password
   • Database Name :: Enter the name of the database (oscmax, as created above)
2. You should see the yellow box (bottom left) change to say “The database structure is now being imported. Please be patient during this procedure.”
3. Screen 2
   • You should now see the yellow box change to say “Database imported successfully”
4. Screen 3 :: Step 2 :: The information should be pre-populated for you.
5. Click Continue
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Screen 4 :: Step 3 :: Enter the information you want for the admin section
   • Store Name :: Your store name
   • Store Owner First Name :: Your first name
   • Store Owner Last Name :: Your last name
   • Store Owner's Email Address :: Your store email address
   • Administrator Username :: Your login username
   • Administrator Password :: Your login password (do not lose this!)
7. Screen 5 :: Step 4 :: FINISHED!
8. Click on Catalog or Administration Tool

Clean up permissions and directories, as shown in osCmax screens, during access.

Disclaimer: The above demonstrates a means to provide a webserver environment and in no way is meant as a definitive method. Many options are available to the end user and it should be recognised that the above is only for a local test environment, with little security aspects being addressed. * A reputable hosting provider should be used for a live website.

— Ridexbuilder 2011/01/27 05:04

Adding skip-innodb to the mysqldb section of /etc/my.cnf will save ~100Mb RAM usage. Combined with a few more tweaks, to reduce the number of Apache processes, for example, it is possible for Turnkey Linux to run quite snappily in a 128M RAM Virtual Machine. This bodes well for the host machine, making the overhead pretty minimal.