note: Riseup has been hosting drupal sites for a couple of years now, and we are currently in the process of changing the configuration of our hosting vservers.
The old method of using a shared code base is going to be phased out, and we will be allowing people to run the complete installation in their own directory.
either
#in the shell: mysqldump -h mysql -u usernamesql1 -p usernamesql1 > backup.sql and enter your db password, and make sure that the file is dumped there in your directory... then move it someplace secure. or #use phpmyadmin at raven.riseup.net/phpmyadmin (login and click on "export" and follow the instructions to export a snapshot of your database to your local computer) then in your user's base apache directory: get the new version of drupal from the drupal.org website that you wish to install: unpack it...
tar -xvvzf drupal-5.3.tar.gz (or you can download the above file, and unpack it locally, dropping all the files into whatever is your base directory. Feel free to ask for help with this step, we can also create a new directory for this drupal install and then set that to be your URL's base directory. then
- getting started
- templates
- directory layout
- random notes
- upgrading to a newer version of drupal
- further reading
getting started
First, if you have a index.html file in your home directory, remove it before you do anything else. When you browse to a new drupal site for the first time, follow the directions displayed in order to create an admin account (account #1). Once you have an admin account, you should set these options under administer > settings:- Name: the name of your website.
- Clean URLs: enabled.
- File system path: sites/username/files
(replace username with the syscp login. For example, if you were assigned the domain blue.revolt.org, your username is blue. This step is very important.)
templates
- logo path: /files/logo.jpg
(use this when uploading a custom logo. replace jpg with whatever the logo file type really is. if you did not upload the logo using the general themes tab, but used the tab of a particular theme, then replace logo.jpg with themename_logo.jpg, where themename is the name of the theme). - file permissions: when using the theme editor module, everything should be set up ok. you should be able to edit the theme manually via sftp or ssh, and via the theme editor. however, if you upload your own custom theme not created by the theme editor, make sure you make the permissions exactly like so: "drwxrws--- user www-data".
directory layout
./files where uploaded files go
./files/theme_editor the theme editor directory
./config your drupal configuration directory
./config/files link to ../files
./config/modules where custom modules go
./config/settings.php your site's drupal configuration (don't change!)
./config/themes link to ../files/theme_editor
./drupal link to drupal codebase.
./webalizer web stats
random notes
- the database password cannot contain the character @.
upgrading to a newer version of drupal
If you are looking to update your drupal installation on Riseup, then now is a good time to grab the new installation. This will toss out the above directory layout, and put a whole drupal codebase right in your directory. Most sites on Riseup are using 4.6.11 ... Drupal strongly encourages upgrades to 4.7 and then the current stable release of 5.7 Many people have reported errors when trying to jump straight from a 4.6.* to a 5.7 install... so it might be better to try to get to 4.7 first, and then to a 5.* version. Hopefully, these upgrade issues will be ironed out in the new 6.0 version, which is due to be released any day now. A couple of members have attempted this upgrade, and here are some notes & reminders:- It is crucial that you back up your database before attempting any upgrades:
either
#in the shell: mysqldump -h mysql -u usernamesql1 -p usernamesql1 > backup.sql and enter your db password, and make sure that the file is dumped there in your directory... then move it someplace secure. or #use phpmyadmin at raven.riseup.net/phpmyadmin (login and click on "export" and follow the instructions to export a snapshot of your database to your local computer) then in your user's base apache directory: get the new version of drupal from the drupal.org website that you wish to install: unpack it...
tar -xvvzf drupal-5.3.tar.gz (or you can download the above file, and unpack it locally, dropping all the files into whatever is your base directory. Feel free to ask for help with this step, we can also create a new directory for this drupal install and then set that to be your URL's base directory. then
- log in as user #1, which has full administrator priveleges. this is important because other users (#2+) will not have the full priveleges to run the update script. (if you can't do this for some reason, you will need to change the access_check line in update.php to FALSE and then don't forget to change it back when you are done!)
- if you can, visit admin > settings > site maintenance and take the site off-line while you are updating. (this step is only available starting from 5.* versions)
- turn off all modules except those in core
- go into the /sites/default directory and edit settings.php to reflect your db and base url
- open basedir and vhost settings may be important to change in syscp also remove old virtual host settings (ask for help from hosting committee with this one)
- make a new directory (or copy them from your old) called 'files' in your base directories level and make sure it is chown'd to your username: www-data and chmod is g+w (write-able by drupal)
- go back to the website and run the update script (visit http : // yourbaseurl/update.php
- follow the instructions there
- HOPEFULLY it runs smoothly and your database is updated! (if not, you'll need to restore the backup and try again, maybe with an older version of drupal first)
- check around in yourbaseurl/admin/settings ... make sure to change your general files base directory to whatever you set it to be (now it will no more be sites/yourusername/files)