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Revision as of 09:27, 1 June 2011
Title: Installation Manual for 2.4.9 on Ubuntu 10.04LTS
These instructions cover the installation of the Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS operating system and WeBWorK 2.4 from scratch. Note that you can also quickly install Ubuntu 10.04 and WeBWorK 2.4 from the WeBWorK Live DVD (see Installing from WW2.4_Ubuntu9.10_Vanilla_LiveDVD).
If you are just upgrading WeBWorK, especially if you already have existing WeBWorK courses, see Upgrading WeBWorK.
These instructions are more detailed (but offer fewer choices and often less background information) than the general Installation Manual for 2.4 and are aimed at non unix experts. Readers may want to quickly scan Installation Manual for 2.4 to get an overview of the installation process and then carefully read and follow these instructions.
Contents
- 1 Notation
- 2 Installing the Ubuntu 10.04 Linux Operating System
- 3 Terminal Window Notation and Use
- 4 Ubuntu Software Packages
- 5 Installing Perl Modules
- 6 Apache 2 and mod_perl
- 7 Checking MySQL
- 8 Reboot and Test
- 9 Downloading the WeBWorK System Software and Problem Libraries
- 10 Installing WeBWorK
- 11 Configuring the Shell
- 12 Checking Module Dependancies
- 13 Configuring WeBWorK
- 14 Configuring Apache
- 15 Test your configuration
- 16 If Something is Wrong
- 17 Create the admin Course
- 18 Starting and Stopping Apache, MySQL and the GNOME desktop GUI
- 19 Install the WeBWorK Problem Libraries
- 20 Create Your First Actual Course
- 21 Test that Things are Working Properly
- 22 Optional Configurations
- 23 Updating WeBWorK files
- 24 Where to go From Here
Notation
First some short comments on notation we will be using. We will use <key>
to indicate that you should press a specific key (e.g. <Enter>
, <Tab>
, <F12>
, etc.). Sometimes we will also use e.g. <root password>
to indicate you have to enter the root password.
^
will indicate the <Ctrl>
key so e.g. ^X
is really shorthand for <Ctrl> <X>
, i.e. press the Ctrl key and hit the X key.
We will give references to specific versions of software, e.g. httpd-2.2.4.tar.gz rather than the more general httpd-2.x.x.tar.gz. In most cases you should be able to use the latest stable version but we have only tested the versions listed.
Installing the Ubuntu 10.04 Linux Operating System
Installation CD
Obtain the Desktop Edition
installation DVD/CD set. Connect to http://www.ubuntu.com/ for information. For example you can use wxDownload Fast or BitTorrent to download an ISO image of the installation CD and then burn your own installation CD. You want the file ubuntu-10.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
or, if you have a very old server, ubuntu-10.04.2-desktop-i386.iso
. Choose the former to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2). Choose which ever download site works best for you; I have had good luck with http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/ If you download the ISO image, make sure that you verify the integrity of the downloaded file by comparing the MD5 checksum of the downloaded file with the MD5 checksum listed at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes or at the download site (e.g. http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/10.04/MD5SUMS). wxDownload Fast automatically calculates the MD5 checksums which is convenient. These instructions will assume you have the ubuntu-10.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
installation CD but installing from the i386, alternate CD, a commercial DVD/CD set or from the net should be essentially identical.
You will want to have you computer connected by ethernet to the internet for the installation. Place the installation CD in your DVD/CD drive and reboot your computer from the DVD drive. You may have to press <F12>
during the boot process to bring up a boot menu which will allow you to select booting from the DVD. Or you many have to edit the BIOS to select the DVD as the first boot device.
After the system boots you will be presented with a series of 7 steps.
- Step 1
- On the first install panel keep English as the selected language and click
Install Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
, the second option. - Step 2
- Select a city in your time zone and hit
Forward
- Step 3
- Hit
Forward
to accept the default keyboard layout
Optional Configurations
If you will have a large number of users (say over a 1,000) and/or a slow server, you may want to consider the first two optimizations. They are independent but related and deal with how WeBWorK handles various temporary and static files. We call these two options Optional A and Optional B. The third option, Optional C, gives greater security.
Optional A creates a separate partition on which are stored all of WeBWorK's "temporary" files. These are mostly small files such as png images of equations, pdf files, etc that may be reused but if they are not present (e.g. if they get deleted) they will be seamlessly regenerated on the fly. There is no reason to back up such files and having them in a separate partition means that it is easier and faster to back up other partitions and skip backing up unnecessary files.
Optional B installs and configures a lightweight webserver. Apache is a very standard and powerful webserver which we use to serve WeBWorK pages. However its child processes use a lot of resources (e.g. memory). When serving static files and images, a much lighter weight webserver can be used. This can substantially reduce the load on a heavily used server.
Optional C configures Apache so that access to WeBWorK will be through an encrypted Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with an https: URL.
Except for creating a separate partition, we will wait until WeBWorK is installed and tested before implementing these options. We mention them here because the next step is partitioning the disks.
Partition disks
- Step 4
- Next comes the
Partition disks
pages. You should be able to accept the defaults unless you want to follow Optional A and/or create separate partitions for various directories. There is a lot of information on the web if you don't want to accept the default partition set up. If you want to implement Optional A follow the directions below.
Optional A: The default partitioning scheme creates just two partitions, a root (/
) partition and a swap partition. Here we will create those and an additional partition for WeBWorK's temporary files.
- On the
Partition disks
page use<Tab>
to selectGo Back
and then selectPartition disks
- Use the down arrow to select your disk (
sda
) - On the
You have selected an entire device to partition...
page selectYes
to the questionCreate new empty partition table on this device
- On the
This is an overview...
page selectFREE SPACE
- On the
How to use this free space
page selectCreate a new partition
- Now you have to decide how to allocate your disk space. The rule of thumb is to use twice the amount of RAM you have for swap (e.g. 2 GB if you have 1 GB of RAM). For WeBWorK's temporary files 25 GB for every 1,000 students should be ample. You can allocate the remainder of your disk space to the root (
/
) partition. Actually if you are going through the trouble of doing this, you probably will want to research other partitioning recommendations. - On the
The maximum size you can use...
page enter the size for your root (/
) partition andContinue
- Select
Primary
for the type of the new partition - Select
Beginning
for the location of the new partition - Select
/
for the Mount point of the new partition and then selectDone setting up the partition
Now we repeat the process for the partition which will hold WeBWorK's temporary files.
- On the
This is an overview...
page selectFREE SPACE
- On the
How to use this free space
page selectCreate a new partition
- On the
The maximum size you can use...
page enter the size for WeBWorK's temporary files partition. As we said 25 GB for every 1,000 students should be ample. ThenContinue
- Select
Logical
for the type of the new partition - Select
Beginning
for the location of the new partition - Select
Mount point
and then hit<Enter>
- Select
Enter manually
and then hit<Enter>
- For the
Mount point for this partition
enter/var/www/wwtmp
andContinue
- Then select
Done setting up the partition
Finally we set up the swap partition
- On the
This is an overview...
page selectFREE SPACE
- On the
How to use this free space
page selectCreate a new partition
- On the
The maximum size you can use...
page enter the size for swap partition. As we said the rule of thumb is to use twice the amount of RAM you have. ThenContinue
- Select
Logical
for the type of the new partition - Select
Beginning
for the location of the new partition - Select
Use as
and then hit<Enter>
- Select
swap area
and then hit<Enter>
- Then select
Done setting up the partition
Finally
- Review your changes and
- Select
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
and then hit<Enter>
- Select
Yes
to confirm the changes
Continue Initial Installaion
- Step 5
- The next panel asks "What is your name?". What you fill in here is a privileged user so you might want to enter a special administrative account rather than your normal account.
- Enter the information for "What is your name?"
- Enter the information for "What name do you want to use to log in?"
- Enter the information twice for the password
- Enter the information for the name of the computer
- Then hit
Forward
to continue
- Step 6
- If the
Migrate Documents and Settings
page appears just hitForward
to continue without importing anything - Step 7
- Finally hit
Install
on the Ready to install page to begin the installation. TheAdvanced...
button on this page gives you options on installing the boot loader but you almost certainly want to use the defaults.
Now sit back and relax while the installation takes place. Some of the steps can take a long time. Please be patient. When you finally see "Installation complete" hit Restart now
.
Continue Installation
After this finishes the system will eject the CD and ask you to reboot.
- Log into your account
- At some point the
Update Manager
window may pop up. If it does, accept all updates. Alternately you can selectSystem
,Administration
,Update Manager
. Clickinstall Updates
. You may have to enter the<wwadmin password>
which functions as the<root password>
. Follow any instructions, e.g. you may be told to reboot as soon as the installation is completed (to reboot, click on your name in the upper right hand corner, then selectRestart
)
Test Browser and Keyboard
After reboot and login, click on Applications
, Internet
, Firefox Web Browser
(or just click the Firefox icon at the top of the screen) and you should be connected to the world.
Goto
http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.4_on_Ubuntu_10.04
where you can view this document and, if you want, copy commands that you need (see below).
If something is wrong and you are not connected to the web, the first thing to do is check that you entered the correct network information.
- Select
System
,Preferences
,Network Connections
- Select
Auto etho
and clickEdit...
- Select
IPv4 Settings
- Check that all the entries are correct and edit them if they are not
- If you change something click
Apply
- Enter
<wwadmin password>
and clickAuthenticate
- Click on
Close
to closeNetwork settings
Your network connection should start up almost immediately. If you are still having problems first try rebooting and if that doesn't work it's time to investigate further or seek help.
Here's an aside on keystroke delay and repetition rate. If you are like me and find the keystroke delay too short (so that you often type "geeet" when you want to type "get"), do the following. Click System
, Preferences
, Keyboard
and then increase the delay time interval and hit Close
.
Terminal Window Notation and Use
Before installing and configuring additional software, we need to talk about terminal windows.
To open a terminal window click Applications
, Accessories
and then select Terminal
.
In a terminal window some commands will have to be run as root whereas others should be run as a regular user. We will use # to indicate that the command is to be run as root e.g.
# perl -MCPAN -e shell
and $ to indicate that the command is to be run as a normal user e.g.
$ cp .bashrc .bashrc.bak1
To execute the above commands you have to hit <Enter>
. We'll just assume this.
After executing a command, often the system will respond with text (sometimes a lot of text!) which we will usually not repeat below. We only give the commands that you should execute.
The bash shell which you will be using has a number of very convenient features.
One is command and file name completion. If you are typing (e.g.
ch
) and hit <tab>
bash will complete the command or filename if it is
unambiguous (or more precisely it will complete as much as possible).
If there are multiple possibilities (as in the case of ch
) nothing will
happen (except you may hear a beep) and you can type more letter(s) and hit <tab>
again. Or you can
hit <tab>
a second time and you will see a list of all possible
completions. E.g. entering ch<tab><tab>
gives a list of possible
completions and ch<tab>g<tab>
(or chg<tab>
) gives chgrp
, the change group command. This
is very fast and convenient and it also leads to fewer typing errors.
Another useful shortcut is the command history. Using the up and down arrow keys will bring up previous commands which can be edited and then executed. If you are repeating a command or entering a command which is similar to a previous one, this is very useful.
You can copy commands from these instructions (with copy
from the Edit dropdown list or ^C
) and paste them into a terminal window
(with paste
from the Edit dropdown list or <Shift> <Ctrl> <V>
). This is an excellent way to use these instructions since it is fast and insures commands are entered correctly (just be careful to read before you run the command and replace things like database_password
with the correct code in the few places such things occur).
By default Ubuntu has no password set for the root user. To gain root access you have to use the sudo
command with the <wwadmin password>
. This is the password you set for the first user (which we called the WeBWorK administrator <wwadmin>
while installing Ubuntu. However we will
manually set a password for the root user since this is a much more standard setup. To do this, type in the following in a terminal window:
$ sudo passwd Password: <wwadmin password>
After that you are asked to type in the new root password twice. Enter the password for the root user and Do not forget what you enter here.
Enter new UNIX password: <root password> Retype new UNIX password: <root password> passwd: Password updated successfully $
To test this
$ su Password: <root password> # whoami root # exit $
Finally perhaps a safer way to run commands as root
is to use the sudo
command
$ sudo <command> Password: <wwadmin password>
After you enter the password the command is executed. For a certain period (maybe 5 minutes) you can execute additional sudo
commands without reentering <wwadmin password>
. A log of all sudo
commands is kept in /var/log/auth.log
. In these instructions for the most part we will not use sudo
, but keep it in mind for other times that you have to become root
in order to execute a few commands (e.g. restarting Apache
).
Note that for certain GUI tools such as the Synaptic Package Manager
that require root access, the password required is <wwadmin password>
, the password for the first account you set up, not the new <root password>
.
For our next terminal window task create a downloads
directory where we will keep copies of downloaded software.
$ cd $ mkdir downloads
Ubuntu Software Packages
Our next task is to install a number of Ubuntu software packages. For a very fast way to do this, copy the command at the end of this section, paste it into a terminal window and run it as root. Or you can go through the step by step process using the Synaptic Package Manager
as follows.
- Select
System
,Administration
and thenSynaptic Package Manager
. You will have to enter the<wwadmin password>
. TheSynaptic Package Manager
window will open - Click on
Reload
to bring the package information up to date
Now we will actually select and install a large number of packages. The process is the same for all packages. I'll give an example of installing libnet-ldap-perl
and then just give the list of required packages.
- Select
Search
- Under
Look in:
selectName
. The defaultDescription and Name
sometimes returns too many possibilities - We are searching for
libnet-ldap-perl
so enterldap-perl
(or something similar; you can copy and paste from this document if you want) and click onSearch
- This should result in 6 possibilities. Select and Mark for Installation (by double clicking or checking and then selecting
Mark for Installation
)libnet-ldap-perl
. You will see a pop up windowMark additional required changes?
and you should always clickMark
to accept the requirements. - Follow this basic procedure for all the packages listed below
Here is the list of Ubuntu packages that need to be installed. See Installation Manual for 2.4 for a short explanation of what most of these packages do.
apache2
apache2-mpm-prefork
dvipng
gcc
libapache2-request-perl
libdatetime-perl
libdbd-mysql-perl
libemail-address-perl
libexception-class-perl
libextutils-xsbuilder-perl
libgd-gd2-perl
libmail-sender-perl
libmime-perl
libnet-ip-perl
libnet-ldap-perl
libossp-uuid-perl
libpadwalker-perl
libphp-serialization-perl
libsoap-lite-perl
libsql-abstract-perl
libstring-shellquote-perl
libtimedate-perl
libxml-parser-perl
libxml-writer-perl
make
mysql-server
netpbm
openssh-server
preview-latex-style
subversion
texlive
unzip
When I do this I see on the bottom of Synaptic Package Manager
window 82 to install/upgrade
, 1 to remove
. Your numbers may differ slightly.
Now click Apply
and Apply
again to confirm the changes. You will be asked to enter a
New password for the MySQL "root" user
. Enter your choosen MySQL root
password. As was said above, Do not forget what you enter here. Also remember that this is the password for the MySQL root
user, not the Ubuntu linux system root
user. Below we refer to this as <mysql root password>
That completes the set up of your base Ubuntu system. You can quit the Synaptic Package Manager
.
If you would prefer to install all of these packages in one fell swoop, run the following command as root ( $ su <Enter>
;
Password: <root password>
):
# aptitude install apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork dvipng gcc libapache2-request-perl libdatetime-perl libdbd-mysql-perl libemail-address-perl libexception-class-perl libextutils-xsbuilder-perl libgd-gd2-perl libmail-sender-perl libmime-perl libnet-ip-perl libnet-ldap-perl libossp-uuid-perl libpadwalker-perl libphp-serialization-perl libsoap-lite-perl libsql-abstract-perl libstring-shellquote-perl libtimedate-perl libxml-parser-perl libxml-writer-perl make mysql-server netpbm openssh-server preview-latex-style subversion texlive unzip
When prompted, you can always accept the default (hit <Enter>
) except when asked for the password for the MySQL "root" user. In case you skipped by it, look above for information on the New password for the MySQL "root" user
. When the process finishes, enter
# exit
to return to a regular user.
Installing Perl Modules
We now have to install several additional Perl modules which unfortunately are not available from the Debian package system.
Testing Perl Modules
To test if a Perl module is installed and working on your system, issue the following command, replacing Module
with the name of the module:
$ perl -MModule -e 'print "installed!\n"'
If the module is installed you will see installed!
. If not you will see at lot of gibberish. E.g. at this stage in our installation process CPAN
is installed and MXML::Parser::EasyTree
is not so
$ perl -MCPAN -e 'print "installed!\n"'
yields
installed!
and
$ perl -MXML::Parser::EasyTree -e 'print "installed!\n"'
yields
Can't locate XML/Parser/EasyTree.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl ...
You can check the version of an installed module by the following command, replacing Module
with the name of the module:
perl -MModule -e 'print "$Module::VERSION\n"'
For example for the GD.pm module
perl -MGD -e 'print "$GD::VERSION\n"'
Installing Additional Perl Modules from CPAN
Be aware that in rare cases you might have to as root run
$ su <root password> # unset LANG # exit $
since otherwise the installation of some modules (Module::Build is an example) may fail.
First we will set up CPAN. For this you have to be root.
$ su <root password> # perl -MCPAN -e shell
Since this is the first time you are using CPAN it will ask you Would you like me to configure as much as possible automatically?
Respond Yes
and that should be it.
Next we add at least one mirror and reload the index. A list of mirrors can be found at http://mirrors.cpan.org. I have had good luck with the mirror ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/pub/CPAN .
To add the mirror ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/pub/CPAN and reload the index do the following. For me, a slow and inaccurate typist, copying (^C
) and pasting (<Shift> <Ctrl> <V>
) is much faster.
cpan> o conf urllist push ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/pub/CPAN cpan> reload index
Note that one time this failed when I tried to do it in the evening but when I tried again the next morning it worked fine. Now we update CPAN itself
cpan> install Bundle::CPAN
and always hit <Enter>
to accept the defaults when prompted. This can be a long process with many long pauses. Please be patient.
When you again see the
cpan>
prompt enter
cpan> reload cpan cpan> o conf commit
Now install the following modules
cpan> install XML::Parser::EasyTree Iterator Iterator::Util Pod::WSDL
and in case you are prompted accept all defaults by just hitting <Enter>
.
Note that with more than one module to install, we just list them after install
separated by spaces.
When you again see the
cpan>
prompt enter
cpan> exit #
Installing Additional Perl Modules from Source
At one point in time (August 2006), the installation of DateTime
using CPAN was broken. Currently DateTime
can be installed using CPAN. However it is useful to show you how to install perl modules from source in case one of the perl modules we installed above gets updated and its installation from CPAN becomes broken. If that happens you can follow the procedures outlined here to install the module from source.
IMPORTANT: With Ububtu we have already installed DateTime
so you don't have to install it as outlined below. We are just using this as an example of installing a module from source which hopefully you will never have to do. You can skip this section and go directly to the Apache 2 and mod_perl section.
Now we give the example of installing DateTime
from source. As we said you can skip this part.
Goto http://search.cpan.org/,
search for DateTime
and click on DateTime
. Then near the top right download DateTime-0.36.tar.gz
and save it to disk. Move it to your downloads
directory. Then
$ cd $ cd downloads $ tar -zvxf DateTime-0.36.tar.gz $ cd DateTime-0.36/ $ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make test
If make test
indicates something is missing you will have to install that. In fact in the case of DateTime
, you would see that quite a few things are missing.
DateTime
requires the additional modulesversion
,Module::Build
,Class::Singleton
,DateTime::TimeZone
andDateTime::Locale
. We could install these using CPAN
# perl -MCPAN -e shell cpan> install version Module::Build Class::Singleton DateTime::TimeZone DateTime::Locale cpan> exit # exit $
If you see anything that looks suspicious during this process, you can always test to see if the perl module in question was in fact installed. If it was not installed
try CPAN first and if CPAN fails then install it from source. The great thing about CPAN (if it works) is that it will trace down and automatically install all required components. Note that if you get a message indicating that package/file.pm
was not found, you should serach for and install package::file
since perl modules use a double colon (::
) as a directory separator.
Assuming all is OK
$su <root password> # make install # exit $
Finally you should definitely test that the module (e.g. DateTime
) was installed sucessfully
$ perl -MDateTime -e 'print "installed!\n"'
If you see
installed!
you can celebrate.
Apache 2 and mod_perl
First we have to enable a couple Apache modules. Acting as root
in a terminal window enter
# a2enmod apreq # a2enmod info
Next we make a copy of the configuration files for safekeeping.
# cd /etc/apache2/mods-available # cp info.conf info.conf.bak1 # cp status.conf status.conf.bak1
Now we will edit configuration files info.conf
and status.conf
to allow us to view information about the setup and performance of the web server. Note that this is not absolutely necessary but it can be very useful. You can use your favorite editor but we will give instructions assuming you are using gedit
. Note that you have to be root to edit these files. First we edit info.conf
# cd /etc/apache2/mods-available # gedit info.conf
You will see a lot a warning messages since Ubuntu doesn't like you to run gedit as root. You can ignore these or use sudo instead.
I suggest you allow access to server information from e.g. your department domain. To do this uncomment (i.e. remove the #
from)
# Allow from .example.com
and then replace .example.com
by .math.yourschool.edu
where of course you should edit .math.yourschool.edu
appropriately.
Then save the file and quit (Save
and File
, Quit
).
Now we edit status.conf
# cd /etc/apache2/mods-available # gedit status.conf
After the comments at the top and above the <Location /server-status>
line enter
ExtendedStatus On
Now edit the
# Allow from .example.com
line just as you did for info.conf
.
Then save the file and quit
Now we have to set your server's fully qualified domain name. Note that if your network was set up automatically via DHCP, your server's fully qualified domain name should already be set up. You can check by running the hostname
commands below.
First we have to install the network manager since it is no longer installed by default in Ubuntu. You can use the Synaptic Package Manager to install gnome-network-admin
but the quickest way is to run the command
$sudo apt-get install gnome-network-admin
After this is installed
- Select
System
,Administration
,Network
- Click on
Click to make changes
- Enter
<wwadmin password>
and clickAuthenticate
- Click on
General
- Under
Host name
enteryour_server_name
(if it's not already there) - Then under
Domain name
enter your server's domain name, something likedepartment.school.edu
Next
- Click on
Hosts
- There should also be an entry with your server's IP address (if not you should add one)
- Select the entry with your server's IP address and click
Properties
(NOTE: with 9.04 clickingProperties
closed the window. In order to edit an entry I first had to delete and then add it back as a new entry. So here and below you may have to use that method to for editing) - Under Aliases you should see your server's fully qualified domain name, something like
your_server_name.department.school.edu
- Add or edit these entries if they are not correct
- Then click
OK
- And click
Close
to closeNetwork settings
You can check these settings by running the commands
$ hostname --fqdn
and
$ hostname
The first respond with the fully qualified domain name and the second with just your_server_name
.
If the command hostname --fqdn
returns Unknown host
do the following:
- Select
System
,Administration
,Network
- Click on
Click to make changes
- Enter
<wwadmin password>
and clickAuthenticate
- Click on
Hosts
- Select the entry with your server's IP address and click
Properties
- Under Aliases you should see your server's fully qualified domain name, something like
your_server_name.department.school.edu
- Select the entry
127.0.0.1
and clickProperties
- Under Aliases make sure you have the following entries in order
- first your server's fully qualified domain name, something like
your_server_name.department.school.edu
- second your server's name, something like
your_server_name
- third
localhost
- first your server's fully qualified domain name, something like
- Click
Add
and add an entry withIP address
127.0.1.1
and underAliases
put your server's fully qualified domain name, something likeyour_server_name.department.school.edu
- Then click
OK
- And click
Close
to closeNetwork settings
Then check again by running the commands
$ hostname --fqdn
and
$ hostname
Note that if your server can not find its fully qualified domain name, certain tools (such as the Synaptic Package Manager) will not start.
Now restart Apache
$su <root password> # apache2ctl graceful # exit $
and test your server by connecting to "http://localhost/" and/or connecting to your server from a browser on a remote machine. You should see the page It works! indicating that Apache is running.
You can check Apache's status by connecting to "http://localhost/server-status" using a browser on your machine or from a browser on a remote machine in the math.yourschool.edu domain.
Further test Apache by connecting to
"http://localhost/server-info" using a browser on your machine (or or from a browser on a remote machine in the math.yourschool.edu domain) and you will see a page listing various
information about Apache. In particular under Server Settings
you should see
Server Version: Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) mod_apreq2-20051231/2.6.0 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1
indicating that both mod_apreq2
and mod_perl
are installed.
If you have problems now or in the future, a good first thing to do is to look at the Apache error log which is located at /var/log/apache2/error.log
. In the directory /var/log/apache2/
you can "less" through the error log (less error.log
), look at the last few entires (tail error.log
) or run the command tail -f error.log
which will display new error messages as they are appended to the file. Use
^C
to break out of tail -f
.
Checking MySQL
First check that MySQL is running by
$ mysql -u root -p Enter Password: <mysql root password>
You should see something very similar to
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 33 Server version: 5.1.41-3ubuntu12.10 (Ubuntu) Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
Enter exit
to exit
mysql> exit Bye $
Reboot and Test
Now reboot the system (click on the start/stop button icon in the upper right hand corner, then select Restart
).
Now connect to "http://localhost/" using a browser on your machine and/or to your server from a browser on a remote machine. You should see the page It Works indicating that Apache is running.
This is also a good time to check that you can login your server from a remote location using SSH (non secure telnet and FTP are not allowed but secure SSH and SFTP are). If you are using "SSH Secure Shell" (now called "SSH Tectia"), a popular SSH client for PC's, you will have to add Keyboard Interactive
to the list of "Authentication methods" under "Authentication" if it's not already there.
Finally test that MySQL is running.
$ mysql -u root -p Enter Password: <mysql root password> ... mysql>
Now lets check the MySQL users.
There are three root accounts, one is root@localhost
, one is root@127.0.0.1
and the third is root@host_name
where host_name
is the name of your server. To find see name, do the following
mysql> SELECT Host, User, Password FROM mysql.user;
You will see a table with four users (three root
and one debian-sys-maint
).
You should see that all four users have passwords (which will be displayed in encrypted form).
Now exit MySQL
mysql> exit Bye $
Congratulate yourself. You are now ready for the next and hopefully easy part, installing WeBWorK.
Downloading the WeBWorK System Software and Problem Libraries
We are finally at the point where we can start downloading and installing WeBWorK. We will use Subversion to download WeBWorK. This is easy and it will also make it easy to update the system in the future. Note that the following are rather long commands; it is much easier to copy (^C
) them from this document and paste (<Shift> <Ctrl> <V>
) them in a terminal window
$ cd $ cd downloads $ svn co http://svn.webwork.maa.org/system/trunk/webwork2 $ svn co http://svn.webwork.maa.org/system/trunk/pg $ svn co http://svn.webwork.maa.org/npl/trunk/NationalProblemLibrary
The first and second download gives you the latest released version with patches.
The third download contains the WeBWorK National Problem Library. This now includes the Rochester and Union Libraries along with others as sub libraries. Your system will be loaded with many thousands of WeBWorK problems (over 22,000 currently).
The main information page about WebWork downloads is available at http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Download
The main information page about the NPL is available at http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/National_Problem_Library
Installing WeBWorK
Note the the instructions below assume you are installing WeBWorK from scratch. If you are just upgrading WeBWorK, especially if you already have existing WeBWorK courses, see Upgrading WeBWorK.
Move the System into the Required Directories
As root
create a webwork
directory under /opt
, change the ownership of the webwork
directory to wwwadmin
and move directories there.
$ sudo mkdir /opt/webwork <wwadmin password> $ sudo chown wwadmin:wwadmin /opt/webwork $ mv webwork2 /opt/webwork/ $ mv pg /opt/webwork/
Now create the courses
and libraries
directories under webwork
and copy and move content there being careful not to copy the .svn directories
$ mkdir /opt/webwork/courses $ mkdir /opt/webwork/libraries $ mv NationalProblemLibrary /opt/webwork/libraries/ $ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/courses.dist $ cp *.lst /opt/webwork/courses/ $ rsync -a --exclude '.svn' modelCourse /opt/webwork/courses/
Setting Permissions
The PG installation directory and files should be owned by wwadmin
and not writable by other users:
$ cd /opt/webwork/pg $ chmod -R u+rwX,go+rX .
Most WeBWorK directories and files should also be owned by wwadmin
and not writable by other users:
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2 $ chmod -R u+rwX,go+rX .
Certain data directories need to be writable by the web server. These are DATA
, courses
, htdocs/tmp
, logs
, and tmp
. It is convenient to give WeBWorK administrators access to these directories as well, so they can perform administrative tasks such as removing temporary files, creating and editing courses from the command line, managing logs, and so on. We will create a new group called wwdata
, containing both the WeBWorK administrators and the web server.
- Select
System
,Administration
and thenUsers and Groups
- Click on
Manage Groups
- Click
Add
- Enter
<wwadmin password>
and clickAuthenticate
- For
Group name
enterwwdata
- For
Group ID
accept the default which is probably 1001 - Under
Group Members
check wwadmin and clickOK
- Click
Close
If there are other users who will also be administering WeBWorK files,
now is a good time to add them. And remember to add them to the wwdata
group as above. When finished
- Click
Close
again
Because system users are not shown by default, we can not simply use the Group Manager
to add the Apache2 webserver (which runs as www-data
) to the wwdata
group so we will do this by hand as root.
$ su Password: <root password> # cd /etc # cp group group.bak1 # gedit group
- In the gedit window scroll to the last line.
- It should look like
wwdata:x:1001:<wwadmin userid>
- Append to this line
,www-data
- Then Save and Quit
You can check that this succeeded in a terminal window by entering
# exit $ id wwadmin
and then you should see wwdata
listed under groups. Also
$ id www-data
should show wwdata listed under groups. Now we make the WeBWorK directories that need to be writable by the web server have wwdata
as their group. The following are rather long commands; you might want to copy them and paste them into your terminal window rather than typing them.
$ su Password: <root password> # cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/ # chgrp -R wwdata DATA ../courses htdocs/tmp logs tmp # chmod -R g+w DATA ../courses htdocs/tmp logs tmp # find DATA/ ../courses/ htdocs/tmp logs/ tmp/ -type d -a ! \( -name .svn -prune \) -exec chmod g+s {} \; # exit $
Configuring the Shell
To make working with WeBWorK easier, there are a couple of changes you can make to your shell environment.
Add the WeBWorK bin
directory to your path. This will allow you to run WeBWorK command-line utilities without typing the full path to the utility. Goto your home directory and backup your .bashrc
file
$ cd $ cp .bashrc .bashrc.bak1
Now edit .bashrc
$ gedit .bashrc
After the last line add the three lines:
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/webwork/webwork2/bin export WEBWORK_ROOT=/opt/webwork/webwork2 export PG_ROOT=/opt/webwork/pg
Then save the file and Quit.
Close your Terminal Window and open a new one so the above changes take effect. You can check that they have by
$ echo $PATH $ echo $WEBWORK_ROOT $ echo $PG_ROOT
Checking Module Dependancies
WeBWorK includes a script called check_modules.pl
that verifies that the needed programs and Perl modules are installed on your system. Run this script to make sure you have installed the required programs and Perl modules.
$ check_modules.pl apache2
Scroll up and look through the listing. It should find everything except tth
which is a deprecated display mode. If something is missing (flagged by **
), look back through these instructions and/or look at Installation Manual for 2.4 to find where it should have been installed and install it. Note you may have to search in Installation Manual for 2.4 to find out what package it is contained in.
Configuring WeBWorK
Making Copies of the Distribution Configuration Files
Before configuring the system, you must make local copies of the global.conf
and database.conf
configuration files, located in /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/
.
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ cp global.conf.dist global.conf $ cp database.conf.dist database.conf
Global Configuration
Most WeBWorK configuration is done in the file /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/global.conf
. This file provides system-wide configuration settings, and defaults for course settings. Any setting in this file can be overridden in the course.conf
file for a particular course. To override a setting for a course, just put the new setting (using the same syntax as is in global.conf
) in the course.conf
file.
There are several options that must be set for WeBWorK to work with your system. The rest of the file consists of customization options. Now edit global.conf
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ gedit global.conf
WeBWorK uses the DateTime module. DateTime is supposed to be able to determine the local timezone itself without you having to enter it but this often fails so it is best to just set it here. For is a list of timezones recognized by DateTime go to
http://search.cpan.org/dist/DateTime-TimeZone/ . These timezones are more refined than standard timezone usage in that they include switches to daylight savings time (e.g. some parts of a time zone may make the switch and others may not). For example if your server is in the eastern US, on the list you will see DateTime::TimeZone::America::New_York
and you should enter $siteDefaults{timezone} = "America/New_York";
which is the default.
- Search for
$siteDefaults{timezone}
and enter your local timezone if it is not correct.
Since we have installed MathJax
we need to add it as a possible display mode.
- Search for
render TeX math expressions on the client side using MathJax
and uncomment whole line
so it becomes
"MathJax", # render TeX math expressions on the client side using MathJax --- we strongly recommend people install and use MathJax
We need to set a password that WeBWorK uses when it communicates with the MySQL database. Note that this is not the same as the <mysql root password>
which is the password the MySQL root user uses.
- Search for
$database_password = "";
and replace this by
$database_password = "database_password";
where of course you should replace 'database_password' with your own password. Remember this password as we will need it below.
WeBWorK sends mail in three instances. The PG system sends mail to report answers to questionnaires and free-response problems. The mail merge module is used to send mail to course participants, i.e. to report scores. The feedback module allows participants to send mail to course instructors.
To send mail, WeBWorK needs the address of an SMTP server. Normally you will use the address of your school's SMTP server. If the local machine is running an SMTP server, use localhost
. IMPORTANT: Our instructions above did not install an SMTP server so you will have to install and configue one if you do not use your school's SMTP server. When connecting to the SMTP server, WeBWorK must also send an email address representing the sender of the email (this has nothing to do with the From
address on the mail message). Edit the lines
$mail{smtpServer} = 'mail.yourschool.edu'; $mail{smtpSender} = 'webwork@yourserver.yourschool.edu';
entering the appropriate information.
If you want WeBWorK questionnaires or similar things from different courses to be mailed to a central person or persons (e.g. the WeBWorK administrator), edit the lines
$mail{allowedRecipients} = [ #'prof1@yourserver.yourdomain.edu', #'prof2@yourserver.yourdomain.edu', ];
appropriately removing the #
and using the professor(s) actual email address(es). In order to have professors from individual courses receive such email, this
should be set in course.conf (which you find in the course directory) to the addresses of professors of each course. Note that the settings in course.conf override the settings in global.conf, so if in addition you want e.g. the WeBWorK administrators to receive copies, you have to add them as well.
Finally we have to add information about the Apache2 server setup.
- Search for
$server_root_url
and edit the three lines so that they read:
$server_root_url = "http://yourserver.yourschool.edu"; $server_userID = "www-data"; $server_groupID = "wwdata";
where of course you should edit yourserver.yourschool.edu
appropriately.
Then save the file and Quit.
WeBWorK uses a single database, called webwork
, for all courses. We will create the webwork
database now.
To do this do the following (before you just copy, paste and hit <Enter>
notice that you have to replace database_password
with the password you set when editing global.conf
above):
$ mysql -u root -p mysql Enter password: <mysql root password> mysql> CREATE DATABASE webwork; mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, DROP, LOCK TABLES ON webwork.* TO webworkWrite@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'database_password'; mysql> exit Bye $
where as we said replace database_password
with the password you set when editing global.conf
above.
The database needs needs to be initialized. We do this now with the command
$ /opt/webwork/webwork2/bin/wwdb_init
You should see
... Database is up-to-date at version 3. ...
jsMath Settings
Version 2.0 of jsMath introduced a new fallback method for when the TeX fonts are not available on the student's computer. This uses images of the individual TeX characters in place of the TeX fonts. These are distributed in webwork2/htdocs/jsMath/jsMath-fonts.tar.gz
, and you need to unpack this tarball before jsMath will work properly. Use the command
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/jsMath $ tar vfxz jsMath-fonts.tar.gz
This will unpack the archive. Since there are 20,000 tiny files, it can take a little while, so the v
option is used to show you the names as they are unpacked so that you know the command is actually doing something. Once the images are unpacked, jsMath's image mode fallback (the default fallback method) will work properly.
Install MathJax
General information on MathJax can be found at http://www.mathjax.org/ and general installation instructions are at http://www.mathjax.org/resources/docs/?installation.html .
First we download MathJax. We generally recommend using the trunk version which is the latest development version. If you prefer to use the most stable version (that may not include all the latest patches and features), check the documentation above and change the svn command below accordingly.
$ cd $ cd downloads $ svn co http://mathjax.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mathjax/trunk/mathjax mathjax $ mv mathjax /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/ $ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/mathjax $ unzip fonts.zip
Configuring Apache
WeBWorK ships with an Apache config file that needs to linked into your Apache configuration process. The file is named webwork.apache2-config.dist
and located in the conf
directory. First, copy the file to webwork.apache2-config
:
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ cp webwork.apache2-config.dist webwork.apache2-config
and now link it into your Apache configuration process
$ su <root password> # cd /etc/apache2/conf.d # ln -s /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/webwork.apache2-config webwork.conf
Next we will make a few changes to Apache's default configuration. First we backup the configuration file
# cd /etc/apache2/ # cp apache2.conf apache2.conf.bak1 # gedit apache2.conf
Search for the line
Timeout 300
and replace it by
Timeout 1200
Next seach for the lines
MaxClients 150 MaxRequestsPerChild 0
Which occur under <IfModule mpm_prefork_module>
and replace them by
# For WeBWorK a rough rule of thumb is 20 MaxClients per 1 GB of memory MaxClients 20 MaxRequestsPerChild 100
where you should set MaxClients
depending on the amount of memory your server has using the above rule of thumb.
Then save the file and quit.
Finally we copy WeBWorK's icon file favicon.ico
to Apache's www
directory.
# cp /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/favicon.ico /var/www
Now restart Apache
# apache2ctl graceful # exit $
Test your configuration
- Test the
/webwork2
location by visitinghttp://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2
. You should see the WeBWorK home page with no courses listed. Actually the directory/opt/webwork/courses/
does contain themodelCourse
but themodelCourse
is not a real course so you will get an error message if you try to log into it. It will be used a as model for setting up other courses. For this reason/opt/webwork/courses/modelCourse/
contains a file namedhide_directory
and so themodelCourse
is not visible. - Test the
/webwork2_files
location by visitinghttp://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2_files
. You should see the "WeBWorK Placeholder Page". - You cannot test the
/webwork2_course_files
location until you have created a course.
If Something is Wrong
If something is wrong one of the first things to check is that the config files have been edited correctly (e.g. one time a wrapped line in global.conf
caused me problems, another time it was a missing single quote). A quick way to check this is to do a diff
between the edited and distributed versions and check that diff
reports the changes you made and only those.
# exit $ $ cd /etc/apache2/ $ diff apache2.conf apache2.conf.bak1 $ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/ $ diff global.conf global.conf.dist $ diff database.conf database.conf.dist $ diff webwork.apache2-config webwork.apache2-config.dist
If something is wrong and you fix it, you will have to restart Apache for the changes to take effect
$ su <root password> # apache2ctl graceful # exit $
Create the admin Course
Course Administration gives information about creating courses. Here we will give explicit instructions for doing this.
$ newgrp wwdata $ umask 2 $ cd /opt/webwork/courses $ /opt/webwork/webwork2/bin/addcourse admin --db-layout=sql_single --users=adminClasslist.lst --professors=admin $ exit
Now goto http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2
and should see the WeBWorK home page with Course Adninistration
listed at the top. Click on it and login with Username admin
and Password admin
. This first thing you should do is register your new WeBWorK installation. It's quick and easy, just click on Register
. The next thing you should do is click on Password/Email
and change admin
's password to something more secure than admin
.
Unless you choose oherwise, users with professor
privilges in the admin
course (i.e. WeBWorK administrators) will automatically be added to new courses with professor
privilges and the same password as in the admin
course. Initially the only such user is admin
(hopefully you are not confused by the fact that the course admin
has a user named admin
). It's usually convenient make yourself a WeBWorK administrator. To do this (assuming you are logged in as admin
to the admin
course at http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/admin
)
- Click on
Classlist Editor
in the left panel - Check
Add 1 student(s)
and clickTake Action!
- Enter the appropiate information (you can leave the last three items blank) and click
Add Students
- Click on
Classlist Editor
in the left panel again
- When you enter a new student, by default their
Student ID
is used as their password. We'll change this now. - Select yourself with a check mark and then check
Give new password to Selected users
or just checkGive new password to All users
(as a safely mechanism you can not change the password for the user you are logged in as, currentlyadmin
, this way) and then clickTake Action!
- Enter the password, check
Save changes
and then clickTake Action!
- Finally give yourself
professor
privilges by selecting yourself with a check mark, checkingEdit Selected users
and then clickingTake Action!
(or by just clicking on the "pencil" next to your login name which is a much faster way to edit classlist data for a single user) - Now at the far right change
Permission Level
fromstudent
toprofessor
- Check
Save changes
and then clickTake Action!
At some point you will probably want to hide the admin
course so that it is not listed on the WeBWorK home page. As we noted above the modelCourse
, which is already hidden, is not a real course so you will get an error message if you try to log into it. This is a good reason to hide it. The modelCourse
is very useful as a model (hence its name) for setting up other courses. The admin
course is used for administering WeBWorK and even though regular users can not log into it (you did change the admin
password, didn't you!!), it a little bit cleaner and safer to hide it from prying eyes.
To hide a course place a file named hide_directory
in the course directory and it will not show up in the courses list on the WeBWorK home page. It will still appear in the Course Administration listing. If you do this you will still be able to access the admin
course using the URL http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/admin
but you will not see a link for it on the WeBWorK home page http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2
. Let's hide the admin
course.
$ cp /opt/webwork/courses/modelCourse/hide_directory /opt/webwork/courses/admin
Now goto http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2
and no course will be listed.
Starting and Stopping Apache, MySQL and the GNOME desktop GUI
If you make changes to the system, you will have to restart apache2
before the changes take effect. On rare occasions you may need to restart MySQL
.
Starting and Stopping Apache
You have to run these commands as root
.
To start or restart (i.e. stop and then start) the apache2
webserver run the command
$ sudo apache2ctl graceful password:<wwadmin password>
You can also start apache2
by
$ sudo apache2ctl start password:<wwadmin password>
and restart it with
$ sudo apache2ctl restart password:<wwadmin password>
restart
is less graceful but more powerful than graceful
. Sometimes graceful
fails to kill all apache2
child processes.
To stop the Apache webserver run the command
$ sudo apache2ctl stop password:<wwadmin password>
You can also start or stop apache2 by using the init.d
script apache2
. Run
$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 password:<wwadmin password>
and you will get a list of allowed commands (start
, stop
, restart
, etc).
Starting and Stopping MySQL
You have to run these commands as root
.
To start the MySQL
server run the command
$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start password:<wwadmin password>
To stop the MySQL
server run the command
$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop password: <wwadmin password>
To restart the MySQL
server run the command
$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart password: <wwadmin password>
Starting and stopping the GNOME desktop GUI
The GNOME desktop is automatically started when the system boots.
To stop GNOME
so that you only have a standard terminal window run the following in a standard terminal window
$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop password: <wwadmin password>
If you stopped GNOME
and want to restart it run the following in a standard terminal window
$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start password: <wwadmin password>
Install the WeBWorK Problem Libraries
Before we create a real course we will install the WeBWorK Problem Libraries.
Install the National Problem Library
The National Problem Library
consists of both WeBWorK problems and methods for searching and selecting problems. Also it contains as sub libraries many of the other standard libraries. We have to tell WeBWork where to find it.
Edit global.conf
.
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ gedit global.conf
Search for problemLibrary
and replace $problemLibrary{root} = "";
by
$problemLibrary{root} = "/opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary";
Then save the file and quit.
Run the NPL-update
script making sure you are in the /opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary
directory. This directory contains the files loadDB2
and create_tables2.sql
.
$ cd /opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary $ NPL-update
This has to convert a lot of data for over 20,000 problems so please be patient; it can take a long time.
If at some time in the future you want to upgrade the Problem Library, the process is simpler. Optionally remove the previous copy of the library, unpack the new copy in the same place, and run NPL-update.
Finally we put a link to the National Problem Library in the modelCourse so that when we create courses copying templates from the modelCourse, the NPL will be available.
$ cd /opt/webwork/courses/modelCourse/templates/ $ ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary Library
Set up the Rochester and Union Libraries
This step is optional. It creates buttons in the Library Browser which give direct links to the Rochester and Union libraries. If you don't do this, you can find these libraries and others under the NPL Directory
button.
First we need to edit global.conf
one last time
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ gedit global.conf
Search for courseFiles{problibs}
and scroll down several lines to the lines
# rochesterLibrary => "Rochester", # unionLibrary => "Union",
Uncomment these lines (i.e. remove the #
) so they become
rochesterLibrary => "Rochester", unionLibrary => "Union",
Then save the file and quit.
We next put links to the Rochester and Union Libraries in the modelCourse
so that when we create courses copying templates from the modelCourse
, these libraries will be available. Skip this step if you usually only want to use National Problem Library. Note that the Rochester, Union and other libraries are contained in the National Problem Library and are accessible from there under the NPL Directory
button in the Library Browser. This step simply creates buttons in the Library Browser so that you can access the Rochester and Union libraries directly.
$ cd /opt/webwork/courses/modelCourse/templates/ $ ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary/Union unionLibrary $ ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary/Rochester rochesterLibrary
If you want to put another library into the modelCourse
, just do the analogous thing. If you just want the additional library in a particular course, add the link in the templates
directory of that course. If you look in the directory /opt/webwork/libraries/NationalProblemLibrary/
you might find other libraries that are not yet listed in global.conf
and these can be added in the same way as the Rochester and
Union
libraries. Finally if you add a library with non standard symbols in the name (e.g. uva-statLibrary
) you have to use single quotes when adding it to global.conf
, e.g.
'uva-statLibrary' => "UVA-Stat",
It's easier to just avoid such names.
Install and Set Up the CAPA Library
This step is optional. It installs and sets up the CAPA Library, which is a library of physics problems.
First we download the CAPA Library including required macros.
$ cd $ cd downloads $ svn co http://svn.webwork.maa.org/rochester/trunk/rochester_physics_problib
Create a CAPA
directory under /opt/webwork
and move the CAPA macros there. Then move the CAPA graphics and library files to the required locations and set the group.
$ mkdir /opt/webwork/CAPA $ cd rochester_physics_problib/macros/ $ mv CAPA_Tools /opt/webwork/CAPA/ $ mv CAPA_MCTools /opt/webwork/CAPA/ $ cd .. $ mv CAPA_Graphics /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/ $ sudo chgrp -R wwdata /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/CAPA_Graphics password: <wwadmin password> $ sudo chmod -R g+w /opt/webwork/webwork2/htdocs/CAPA_Graphics $ cd .. $ mv rochester_physics_problib /opt/webwork/libraries/
We need to edit global.conf
again
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ gedit global.conf
Search for courseFiles{problibs}
and scroll down several lines to the line
# capaLibrary => "CAPA",
Uncomment this line (i.e. remove the #
) so it becomes
capaLibrary => "CAPA",
Next search for Locations of CAPA resources
and, if necessary, edit the four following lines
so that they read as follows (cut and paste is the best way to do this)
$pg{specialPGEnvironmentVars}{CAPA_Tools} = "/opt/webwork/CAPA/CAPA_Tools/", $pg{specialPGEnvironmentVars}{CAPA_MCTools} = "/opt/webwork/CAPA/CAPA_MCTools/", $pg{specialPGEnvironmentVars}{CAPA_GraphicsDirectory} = "$webworkDirs{htdocs}/CAPA_Graphics/", $pg{specialPGEnvironmentVars}{CAPA_Graphics_URL} = "$webworkURLs{htdocs}/CAPA_Graphics/",
Then save the file and quit. Note that we are setting up the CAPA macros and graphics so that they can be used by any WeBWorK course on the server.
There is one final step that is needed. We have to put a link in the templates directory of every course that needs access to the CAPA Library. If you want to have every course you create have access to the CAPA Library (unlikely unless you are in a physics department) put the link in the modelCourse
$ cd /opt/webwork/courses/modelCourse/templates/ $ ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/rochester_physics_problib/ capaLibrary
More likely you just want to do this for individual courses. We don't have any yet. But for example after creating myTestCourse
below, to set up access to the CAPA Library from myTestCourse
, do the following
$ cd /opt/webwork/courses/myTestCourse/templates/ $ sudo ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/rochester_physics_problib/ capaLibrary password: <wwadmin password>
and do the analogous thing for every course that needs access to the CAPA Library.
Then to gain access to the CAPA Library from the course, simply go to the Library Browser
and click on the CAPA
button.
Create Your First Actual Course
Since we have edited global.conf
a lot and this is a very critical file, it would be a good idea to run
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ diff global.conf global.conf.dist
and check that you haven't made any mistakes (e.g. by introducing an inadvertent line break, etc). If there are any mistakes, correct them. Remember that any time you change
global.conf
, you must restart the Apache webserver in order for these changes to take effect.
Since we have edited global.conf
extensively and haven't restartes Apache we do so now.
$ sudo apache2ctl graceful password:<wwadmin password>
Now log into the admin
course ( http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/admin
) as yourself or admin
and
- click on
Add Course
- For
Course ID
entermyTestCourse
- For
Course Title
enterMy Test Course
- Enter your institution
- Leave
Add WeBWorK administrators to new course
checked - Add an additional instructor if you wish
- Copy templates from:
modelCourse
(the default action) - Select sql_single for the database layout (the default action)
- Click on
Add Course
- Click
Log into myTestCourse
and log in either as admin
or yourself.
At some point you will probably want to "hide" myTestCourse
from general view but you already know how to do that.
Test that Things are Working Properly
We will test out a few important parts of WeBWorK. If you run into problems, you should look at the Apache error log which is located at /var/log/apache2/error.log
.
Click on Hmwk Sets Editor
on the Main Menu
. Then select (by clicking the circle button) Import
, select setDemo.def
from the from
drop down list and select all current users
from the assigning this set to
drop down list. Then hit Take Action!
Now click on Homework Sets
on the Main Menu
and click on Demo
. Then look at the problems. Mathematical equations should be typeset. If not, edit the file Constants.pm
in the directory /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK
. Change the line $WeBWorK::PG::ImageGenerator::PreserveTempFiles = 0;
to ...::PreserveTempFiles = 1;
. Then restart Apache and view the first couple problems or some new ones. Then look in the directory /opt/webwork/webwork2/tmp/
. cd
to one of the ImageGenerator.../tmp/
directories and look at the error and log files there. When you fix the problem remember to edit ...::PreserveTempFiles = 1;
back to 0 and restart Apache or you will be saving a lot of unnecessary files. Another useful trick is to try downloading a hard copy of an assignment and then (assuming there are errors) looking at the various log files that are linked to on the output page.
When you continue looking at problems you will probably get an error when you try to look at Problem 6 because you may not have configured the CAPA macros which are required to display CAPA problems. Unless you are teaching physics you probably don't need them. Also in Problem 9 the Java applet will not load. Problem 9 was written in the 90's and used an applet on a server at The Johns Hopkins University. The server went away a long time ago but we have retained this problem for historical reasons and also because it is a example of several things (e.g. WeBWorK problems can include applets running on remote servers but this can lead to other problems).
Next click on Prob. List
to bring back the Problem List Page and click on Download a hardcopy of this homework set
. The page is a little complicated because you are a professor (students see a very simple page) but you can just scroll to the bottom and click on Generate hardcopy for selected users and selected sets
. You will get an error (because of the bad Problem 6) but just click Download Hardcopy
to get what was generated. Also you can see links to various
informational files that are available if you run into problems (normally these files are removed if there are no errors).
Another thing to do is to use Email
on the Main Menu
. Again this page is a little complicated because you can do a lot of things with it (including mail merge) but at this point just select yourself in the list to the right and hit Send Email
at the bottom. You should receive two emails. One is the message you just sent and the other is an email with subject "WeBWorK email sent" giving information on your mailing.
As a final test click on Library Browser
on the Main Menu
. Click Problem Library
and select a Subject
, Chapter
and Section
and then hit View Problems
. The first 20 of your selected problems will be displayed. You can also test that you can access any additional Problem Libraries that you installed.
If all the above tests work, you can be pretty confident that WeBWorK is working properly.
Go back to Hmwk Sets Editor
on the Main Menu
. Then select (by clicking the circle button) Import
, select setOrientation.def
from the from
drop down list and select all current users
from the assigning this set to
drop down list. Then hit Take Action!
. Then go through the Orientation problems. This is a good first set to use for introducing students to WeBWorK.
If you are new to WeBWorK, you should probably add a regular student to myTestCourse and log in as that student to see what the student interface looks like. It's much simpler than the professor interface.
Click on Classlist Editor
on the Main Menu
.
Then select (by clicking the circle button) Add 1 student(s)
and hit Take Action!
. Add one student, say Jane Smith, with Student ID
1234
and Login Name
jsmith
.
Jane Smith's initial password will be her Student ID
1234
. Now login as Jane Smith and play around a little.
Optional Configurations
Optional A stores WeBWorK's "temporary" files in a separate partition. Optional B installs and configures a lightweight webserver to serve static files. Optional C configures Apache so that access to WeBWorK will be through SSL.
Implement Optional A (wwtmp)
Now is the time to implement Optional A if you choose to do so. Actually you can do this at any time and your active courses will continue to function seemingly without change. The only change behind the scenes will be that temporary files will be stored in a different location. Note that if you want to use this option but did not create wwtmp
. as a separate partition, you first have to create the directory /var/www/wwtmp
.
First we set the group and permissions for the wwtmp
directory
$ su <root password> # cd /var/www # chgrp wwdata wwtmp # chmod ug+w wwtmp # chmod g+s wwtmp # exit $
Next we have to edit global.conf
so that WeBWorK uses the new wwtmp
directory. Since we have a working WeBWorK system, first we make a backup copy of global.conf
.
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf $ cp global.conf global.conf.bak1 $ gedit global.conf
Now edit global.conf
. Find the lines
$webworkDirs{htdocs_temp} = "$webworkDirs{htdocs}/tmp"; $webworkURLs{htdocs_temp} = "$webworkURLs{htdocs}/tmp";
and replace them by
#$webworkDirs{htdocs_temp} = "$webworkDirs{htdocs}/tmp"; #$webworkURLs{htdocs_temp} = "$webworkURLs{htdocs}/tmp"; $webworkDirs{htdocs_temp} = '/var/www/wwtmp'; $webworkURLs{htdocs_temp} = '/wwtmp';
Next find the lines
$courseDirs{html_temp} = "$courseDirs{html}/tmp"; $courseURLs{html_temp} = "$courseURLs{html}/tmp";
and replace them by
#$courseDirs{html_temp} = "$courseDirs{html}/tmp"; #$courseURLs{html_temp} = "$courseURLs{html}/tmp"; $courseDirs{html_temp} = "/var/www/wwtmp/$courseName"; $courseURLs{html_temp} = "/wwtmp/$courseName";
Then save the file and quit. If you look at the wwtmp
directory you will find it empty but after you restart apache and then access some WeBWorK problems, you will find temporary directories and files in wwtmp
. Remember your have to restart apache for these changes to take effect.
Implement Optional B (lighttpd)
As is the case for Optional A you can implement Optional B at any time and your active courses will continue to function seemingly without change. The only change behind the scenes will be that static images and pages will be served by a light weight web server.
First we install the light weight webserver lighttpd
- Open the
Synaptic Package Manager
(selectSystem
,Administration
,Synaptic Package Manager
). - Select
Search
- Search for
lighttpd
and select it - In the pop up window
Mark additional required changes?
clickMark
to accept the requirements. - Now click
Apply
andApply
again to confirm the changes.
You can now quit the Synaptic Package Manager
.
Now we configure lighttpd
. First let's make a backup of the configuration file.
$ su <root password> # cd /etc/lighttpd # cp lighttpd.conf lighttpd.conf.bak1
Now edit lighttpd.conf
.
# gedit lighttpd.conf
Uncomment the line
# "mod_status",
so it becomes
"mod_status",
Apache2 is listening on port 80 so we need an alternate port for lighttp to listen to. Standard alternate ports for this are usually 81, 8000, or 8080. 8080 is the only port that is listed as an official alternate at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers . Note that in rare cases an installation may block httpd requests to port 8080. If any of your students report that they can not see graphics, they will have to request that access to requests to port 8080 be allowed.
Find the line
# server.port = 81
uncomment it and change 81 to 8080 so that it reads
server.port = 8080
Finally uncomment the line
# status.status-url = "/server-status"
so it becomes
status.status-url = "/server-status"
Then save the file and quit.
Now restart lighttp
$su <root password> # /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart # exit $
Note that you can just run /etc/init.d/lighttpd
to get a list of all options.
Now test your server by connecting to "http://localhost:8080/" and/or connecting to your server from a browser on a remote machine. You should see the page It works! indicating that lighttp is running.
You can check lighttp's status by connecting to "http://localhost:8080/server-status" using a browser on your machine or from to "http://yourserver.yourschool.edu:8080/server-status" from a browser on a remote machine.
The Server-Status page doesn't indicate that lighttp is the web server, but it's certainly different than apache's Server-Status page "http://localhost/server-status".
Next we configure WeBWorK to take advantage of lighttp.
First let's make a backup copy of global.conf
so that we can easily back out of these changes if necessary.
# cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf # cp global.conf global.conf.bak2
Now edit global.conf
. Note that while Optional B is independent of Optional A, we assume most people implementing Optional B will have already implemented Optional A. Therefore we give instructions for editing
global.conf assuming that Optional A has been implemented. If this is not the case, modify the instructions below accordingly. Also replace yourserver.yourschool.edu
with the correct address.
# gedit global.conf
Find the line
$webworkURLs{htdocs_temp} = '/wwtmp'
and replace it by
#$webworkURLs{htdocs_temp} = '/wwtmp'; $webworkURLs{htdocs_temp} = 'http://yourserver.yourschool.edu:8080/wwtmp';
Find the line
$courseURLs{html_temp} = "/wwtmp/$courseName";
and replace it by
#$courseURLs{html_temp} = "/wwtmp/$courseName"; $courseURLs{html_temp} = "http://yourserver.yourschool.edu:8080/wwtmp/$courseName";
Then save the file and quit.
Now restart apache and lighttp.
$ sudo apache2ctl graceful password:<wwadmin password> $ sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart
To test things go to your test course http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/myTestCourse/
. Before you login right click on the WeBWorK icon in the upper left hand corner of the login page. The click on Properties (or whatever is appropriate on your browser) and check that the image is being served from port 8080 (something like http://yourserver.yourschool.edu:8080/webwork2_files/images/webwork_rectangle.png
. Then log into your course and view a problem with typeset equations (e.g. Problem 1 of the Demo set). Again right click on the typeset equation and check that the image is being served from port 8080.
Implement Optional C (SSL)
Optional C configures apache so that access to WeBWorK will be through an encrypted Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with an https: URL. Note that if you implemented Optional B, the non encrypted lighttp server will be used for images, etc but there is no harm in that.
I cribbed these directions from several sources, the main one being http://www.akadia.com/services/ssh_test_certificate.html.
We will create and work in a tmp
directory.
$ cd $ mkdir tmp $ cd tmp
First we create an RSA Private Key.
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
When you are asked for a pass phrase
, enter a phrase which we refer to as <my pass phrase>
and then confirm it. Next generate a Certificate Signing Request
$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
Enter the requested information. Important: when you are prompted for the Common Name
enter your server's fully qualified domain name, something like yourserver.yourschool.edu
. You can leave the last two items
A challenge password []: An optional company name []:
blank.
One unfortunate side-effect of the pass-phrased private key is that Apache will ask for the pass-phrase each time the web server is started. Obviously this is not necessarily convenient as someone will not always be around to type in the pass-phrase, such as after a reboot or crash. We will remove this but you must keep this file secure.
$ cp server.key server.key.bak1 $ openssl rsa -in server.key.bak1 -out server.key
Next we generate a self-signed certificate which is good for 365 days
$ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
Now we become root, move these files, and set their group and permission.
$ su <root password> # mv server.crt /etc/ssl/private # mv server.key /etc/ssl/private # cd /etc/ssl/private # chgrp ssl-cert server.* # chmod 640 server.*
Next we enable the mod_ssl
module
# a2enmod ssl
Now we have to configure Apache to use SSL.
# cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/ # cp default default.bak1 # gedit default
Replace the first line
NameVirtualHost *
by the two lines
NameVirtualHost *:80 NameVirtualHost *:443
Now edit the next non blank line
<VirtualHost *>
changing it to
<VirtualHost *:80>
Next copy the entire section
<VirtualHost *:80> ... </VirtualHost>
(that is the whole VirtualHost section to the end of the file) and paste it into the file at the end of the file. Now we edit this new pasted section. Edit the new second
<VirtualHost *:80>
changing it to
<VirtualHost *:443>
Now at the end of the file just above the line
</VirtualHost>
add the three lines
SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/private/server.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/server.key
Then save the file and quit. Finally we restart Apache
# apache2ctl graceful
and test things. Connect to https://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/myTestCourse You will be asked to accept the certificate. After you do so things should work just as before except that all the connection will be via https (except for images, etc if you using lighttp).
Assuming that everything is working, the last thing we do is set things up so that requests to http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/ are automatically redirected to https://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/.
# gedit default
In the
<VirtualHost *:80>
section just above the line
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
add the line
Redirect permanent /webwork2 https://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2
where of course you should edit yourserver.yourschool.edu
appropriately.
Then save the file and quit.
Restart Apache
# apache2ctl graceful
and try connecting to http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/. The real connection should be through https://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/.
Updating WeBWorK files
If you want to update a single WeBWorK file, e.g. /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/Utils/FilterRecords.pm
you can just do
$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/Utils
First do
$ svn status -u
This gives you the status of all files in the directory. For an explanation of the output see http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.ref.svn.c.status.html.
To update the file use
svn update FilterRecords.pm
If you want to update all files in a directory and in all its subdirectories, run the command
$ svn update
from the directory.
Where to go From Here
You should play around with myTestCourse
e.g. click on Library Browser
and browse the Problem Library
and also the Rochester
and Union
libraries.
Look at http://webhost.math.rochester.edu/webworkdocs/docs/courseadmin/usingwebwork
Read Course Administration for more information about creating courses.
Consult for other WeBWorK documentation for system administrators.
-- Main.ArnoldPizer - 15 Dec 2009