Installation Manual for 2.3 on CentOS 5

This article has been retained as a historical document. It is not up-to-date and the formatting may be lacking. Use the information herein with caution.

This deprecated feature should no longer be used, but is still available for reasons of backwards compatibility.

This feature was deprecated in version 2.6. For up-to-date information view Github. 9

See also: History of WeBWorK version control

These instructions cover the installation of the CentOS 5 Linux operating system and WeBWorK 2.3 from scratch.

They are more detailed (but offer fewer choices and often less background information) than the general InstallationManualV2pt3 and are aimed at non unix experts. Readers may want to quickly scan InstallationManualV2pt3 to get an overview of the installation process and then carefully read and follow these instructions.

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>, <F6>, 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. uuid-perl - 1.5.1-2.fc7.i386 rather than the more general =uuid-perl - xxx.i386. In most cases you should be able to use the latest stable version but we have only tested the versions listed.

Installing the CentOS 5 Linux Operating System

Installation DVD

Obtain the installation DVD/CD set. Connect to http://www.centos.org/ for information. For example you can use wxDownload Fast or BitTorrent to download an ISO image of the installation DVD and then burn your own installation DVD. If you download ISO images, make sure that you verify the integrity of the downloaded files by comparing the MD5 checksums of the downloaded files with the MD5 checksums listed at your download site. wxDownload Fast automatically calculates the MD5 checksums which is convenient. I have had good luck using mirrors.kernel.org (http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/5.0/isos/i386/) but your experience may differ. These instructions will assume you have such a DVD but installing from a commercial DVD/CD set or a downloaded CD set should be essentially identical.

Place the installation DVD in your DVD drive and boot 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.

You will see a list of options.

1. Hit <Enter> to select Install or upgrade an existing system
2. If you checked the md5 checksum you can probably Skip the media test as it is quite a time consuming process. If you have doubts run the test
3. Click Next to continue unless you want to read the Release Notes
4. On the language page select English(US) and click Next
5. On the keyboard page select U.S. English and click Next
6. If you have an existing CentOS installation, you will be asked whether you want to Install or Upgrade. Select Install CentOS 5 and click Next
7. On the partitioning page you should be able to accept the defaults (unless you are dual booting operating systems, etc. but then you are not a novice user and you are on your own for that part)

Now we configure the network. Your network interface may be set up automatically via DHCP. If this is true, you can skip the rest of this paragraph. Otherwise you will have to enter your machine's static ip address, etc. To do this

1. Click Edit
2. Under Enable Ipv4 support check manual configuration (which will deselect Use dynamic IP configuration (DHCP))
3. Enter the IP Address under Address in the IPv4 line
4. For the Prefix (Netmask) you probably want to enter 255.255.255.0 but another possibility may be 255.255.0.0
5. Unless your school is employing the IPv6 protocol, remove the checkmark from Enable IPv6 support
6. Then click OK
7. Under Hostname check manually and enter your hostname, e.g. yourserver.yourdepartment.yourschool.edu
8. Under Miscellaneous Settings enter the ip address of your Gateway and the ip addresses of your nameserver(s). At a minimum you have to enter the ip address of the Primary DNS
9. Then click Next

Now we continue with the installation

1. Now choose a timezone and click Next
2. Enter the password for the root user and click Next. It doesn't say so, but "Do not forget what you enter here".

On the default installation page leave Desktop - Gnome, checked, check ... ? the additional repositories space blank, leave Customize later checked and then click Next.

1. Click Next to begin installing CentOS 5
2. Sit back and relax while the installation takes place --- this may take awhile

Continue Installation

After this finishes the system will eject the DVD and ask you to reboot. Click Reboot.

1. Click Forward to continue the installation process
2. Under Firewall check Secure WWW (HTTPS) and WWW (HTTPS), leave SSH checked, click Forward and then click Yes to confirm
3. Under SELinux select Disabled, click Forward and then click Yes to confirm
4. Set the Date and Time and if you want enable the Network Time Protocol. Then click Forward
5. Next I just clicked Forward choosing not to send my hardware profile and confirmed my choice
6. Now enter yourself as a regular user and click Forward
7. If you have a sound card you will be asked if you want to test it
8. Finally click Finish and OK to reboot

1. Log into your regular account but
2. Before you do anything, wait several minutes to allow the system to check for Updates
3. You will see a pop up window. Click View updates. You will have to enter the <root password>. Then after the update information is retrieved click Apply updates and click continue to accept any dependencies. Follow any instructions, e.g. you may be asked to import a key for gnome and/or if you install a new kernel, you may be told to reboot as soon as the installation is completed (to reboot, select Reboot now in the pop up window). Note that if you don't choose to install the updates at this time, you will see the update pop up window every time you reboot.

Test Browser and Keyboard

After reboot and login, click on Applications, Internet, Firefox Web Browser and you should be connected to the world. Goto http://devel.webwork.rochester.edu/twiki/bin/view/Webwork/InstallationManualV2pt3forCentOS5 where you can view this document and, if you want, copy commands that you need (see below).

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, System Tools 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>). However typing yourself using command completion is probably just as fast except if a command is long.

Finally perhaps a safer way to run commands as root is to use the sudo command

$ sudo <command>
Password: <root 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 <your password>. A log of all sudo commands is kept (I don't know where). 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 in order to use sudo, you must be listed in the sudoers file. To do this become root

$ su
Password: <root password>

and then

# chmod +w /etc/sudoers
# echo 'your_user_name ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
# chmod -w /etc/sudoers

where of course you replace your_user_name with your user name (you do need the two single quotes).

For our next terminal window task create a downloads directory where we will keep copies of downloaded software. We want to do this as a regular user so first we exit the root account.

# exit
$ cd
$ mkdir downloads

CentOS Software Packages

Our next task is to install a number of CentOS software packages.

1. Select Applications and then Add/Remove Software. You will have to enter the <root password>. The Package Manager window will open. Now we will actually select and install a large number of packages.
2. Under Browse (the default view), select Applications and uncheck Games and Entertainment, Office/Productivity and Sound and Video unless you really want to keep those tools
3. Select Development and check Development Tools
4. Select Servers and check MySQL Database. Uncheck Mail Server, Network Servers and Printing Support. I'm assuming you will use your institution's SMTP mail server. If not, you will have to configure your own mail server and you will want to keep Mail Server checked

Next we will search for and select a number of packages. The process is the same for all packages. I'll give an example of installing perl-Mail-Sender - 0.8.13-2.fc6.noarch and then just give the list of required packages.

1. Select Search
2. We are searching for perl-Mail-Sender - 0.8.13-2.fc6.noarch so enter perl-Mail-Sender (or something similar; you can copy and paste from this document if you want) and click on Search
3. This should result in one possibility (there will be many if you search for perl-Mail) . Find perl-Mail-Sender - 0.8.13-2.fc6.noarch and check it.
4. Then move onto the next package to search for
5. Follow this basic procedure for all the packages listed below

Here is the list of CentOS packages that need to be installed. See InstallationManualV2pt3 for a short explanation of what most of these packages do.

1. libapreq2 - 2.09-0.rc2.4.fc7.i386 (not found)
2. perl-libapreq2 - 2.09-0.rc2.4.fc7.i386 (not found)
3. mod_perl - 2.0.2-6.3.e15.i386
4. mysql-devel - 5.0.22-2.i386
5. perl-TimeDate - 1:0.37-3.fc7.i386 (not found)
6. perl-Email-Address - 1.888-1.fc7.noarch (not found)
7. perl-GD - 2.35-2.fc6.i386 (not found)
8. perl-LDAP - 1.0.33-3.fc6.noarch
9. perl-Mail-Sender - 0.8.13-2.fc6.noarch (not found)
10. perl-String-ShellQuote - 1.03-4.fc7.noarch (not found)
11. perl-XML-Parser - 2.34-6.1.2.2.1.i386
12. perl-XML-Writer - 0.602-3.fc7.noarch (not found)
13. tetex - 3.0-32.fc6.i386
14. tetex-latex - 3.0-32.fc6.i386
15. tetex-preview - 11.84-2.fc7.noarch (not found)
16. uuid-perl - 1.5.1-2.fc7.i386 (not found)

Finally search for

1. ghostscript - 8.15.2-9.1.e15.i386

and check it which will remove the red minus sign.

Now click Apply and Continue to confirm the changes. The Package Manager will check dependencies. Click Continue to accept the changes.

1. Now click OK in the Software installation and removal successfully completed window
2. In this process gedit gets removed so we have to reinstall it.
3. Search for gedit and check gedit - 1:2.18.0-3.fc7.i386
4. Click Apply and Continue and accept any dependencies.
5. Now click OK in the Software installation and removal successfully completed window and close the Package Manager

That completes the set up of your base CentOS system.

Installing Perl Modules

We now have to install one additional Perl module (XML::Parser::EasyTree) which is unfortunately not available from the CentOS package system.

Testing Perl Modules

To test if a Perl module is installed and working on your system, issue the following command in a terminal window, 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 /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8
...

Installing Additional Perl Modules from CPAN

Be aware that in rare cases you might have to as root run

$ su
Password: <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
Password: <root password>$
# perl -MCPAN -e shell

Since this is the first time you are using CPAN it will ask you Are you ready for manual configuration? Respond no 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. 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 XML::Parser::EasyTree

cpan> install XML::Parser::EasyTree 

and in case you are prompted accept all defaults by just hitting <Enter>. Note that if you have more than one module to install, you can 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 CentOS 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 modules version , Module::Build , Class::Singleton , DateTime::TimeZone and DateTime::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 search 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

Next we make a copy of the apache configuration file for safekeeping.

$su
<root password>  
# cd /etc/httpd/conf
# cp httpd.conf httpd.conf.bak1

Next we will edit the apache configuration file httpd.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 httpd.conf.

# gedit httpd.conf

In the gedit edit window near the end of the file uncomment (i.e. remove the # 's from) the operational lines below. Leave the obvious comment lines (# Allow server status reports ... domain to enable. and # Allow remote server configuration reports... domain to enable.) commented.

The original lines are

#
# Allow server status reports generated by mod_status,
# with the URL of http://servername/server-status
# Change the ".example.com" to match your domain to enable.
#
#<Location /server-status>
#    SetHandler server-status
#    Order deny,allow
#    Deny from all
#    Allow from .example.com
#</Location>

#
# Allow remote server configuration reports, with the URL of
#  http://servername/server-info (requires that mod_info.c be loaded).
# Change the ".example.com" to match your domain to enable.
#
#<Location /server-info>
#    SetHandler server-info
#    Order deny,allow
#    Deny from all
#    Allow from .example.com
#</Location>

Now in both places replace Allow from .example.com by Allow from localhost. If in addition you want to allow access to server information from e.g. your department domain, add new lines Allow from .math.yourschool.edu below the two Allow from lines where of course you should edit .math.yourschool.edu appropriately. The code (except for yourschool) should look like

#
# Allow server status reports generated by mod_status,
# with the URL of http://servername/server-status
# Change the ".example.com" to match your domain to enable.
#
<Location /server-status>
    SetHandler server-status
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from localhost
    Allow from .math.yourschool.edu
</Location>

#
# Allow remote server configuration reports, with the URL of
#  http://servername/server-info (requires that mod_info.c be loaded).
# Change the ".example.com" to match your domain to enable.
#
<Location /server-info>
    SetHandler server-info
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from localhost
    Allow from .math.yourschool.edu
</Location>

Then save the file and quit (Save and File, Quit).

Just to be sure you changed what you wanted do run

# diff httpd.conf httpd.conf.bak1
# exit
$

diff should report the changes you made and only those.

Now start Apache

$su
<root password>
# /etc/init.d/httpd 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 Fedora Test Page indicating that apache is running. Connecting to "http://yourserver.yourdepartment.yourschool.edu/" on your server where yourserver.yourdepartment.yourschool.edu is the hostname for your server gives the same page.

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.

%RED% Note: I had to use the URL "http://yourserver.yourdepartment.yourschool.edu/server-status" on the server or on a remote machine in the math.yourschool.edu domain since using "http://localhost/server-status" resulted in an error message that I didn't have permission to access the page. %ENDCOLOR%

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/2.2.4 (Unix) DAV/2 mod_apreq2-20051231/2.6.1 mod_perl/2.0.3 Perl/v5.8.8

indicating that both mod_apreq2 and mod_perl are installed.

%RED% Note: I had to use the URL "http://yourserver.yourdepartment.yourschool.edu/server-info" on the server or on a remote machine in the math.yourschool.edu domain since using "http://localhost/server-info" resulted in an error message that I didn't have permission to access the page. %ENDCOLOR%

Configure Apache so that it starts at bootup.

1. Select System, Administration and then Services
2. Enter the <root password>
3. Scroll down until you find httpd
4. Check the checkbox next to httpd; this will start Apache automatically at bootup
5. Click Save
6. Close the Service Configuration window

You can also use this Service Configuration window to stop, start, or restart Apache

Configuring MySQL

First become root and install the MySQL database.

>su
<root password>
# mysql_install_db --user=mysql
# exit
>

Start the MySQL service and configure it so that it starts at bootup.

1. Select System, Administration and then Services
2. Enter the <root password>
3. Scroll down until you find mysqld
4. Check the checkbox next to mysqld; this will start MySQL automatically at bootup
5. Click Start to start MySQL
6. The MySQL service should start so just click OK to acknowledge the message
7. Click Save
8. Close the Service Configuration window

You can quickly check that MySQL is running by

> mysql -u root

You should see

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2
Server version: 5.0.37 Source distribution

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> 

Enter exit to exit

mysql> exit
Bye
>

Reboot and Test

Now reboot the system (System, Shut Down..., Restart) and login.

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 Fedora Test Page 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
...
mysql> 
mysql> exit
Bye
$

Currently the MySQL password is empty so we didn't need a password. We will take care of that now.

MySQL Security Issuses

As initially set up, MySQL is a very open system. There are anonymous accounts with full privileges for some databases and the root accounts are not password protected. See e.g. http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/default-privileges.html for information on this. We recommend removing the anonymous accounts and giving passwords to the root accounts. There are two root accounts, one is root@localhost and the other is root@host_name where host_name is the name of your server. To find this name, do the following

$ mysql -u root
mysql> SELECT Host, User, Password FROM mysql.user;

You will see a table with four entries. For localhost you will see two Users, root and one with an empty name (the anonymous user). The other listed Host (with the same two users) is the name of your server which we will denote by host_name.

First we will remove the anonymous accounts.

mysql> DELETE FROM mysql.user WHERE User = ;
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Now using the up arrow key repeat the command

mysql> SELECT Host, User, Password FROM mysql.user;

and you should get a table with only two users (both root).

Now we will assign a password to these root accounts.

In the second command below, replace host_name with the name of the server host. In both commands replace newpwd with 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 CentOS linux system root user. Below we refer to this as <mysql root password>

mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET password=PASSWORD('newpwd') WHERE host='localhost' and user='root';
mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET password=PASSWORD('newpwd') WHERE host='host_name' and user='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Now use your up arrow key to again run the command

mysql> SELECT Host, User, Password FROM mysql.user;

and you should see that the two root users now have (encrypted) passwords.

Then exit MySQL

mysql> exit
Bye
$

and test that all is well:

$ mysql -u root -p 
Enter Password: <mysql root password>

You should see

Welcome to the MySQL monitor ...
mysql>

Enter mysql> SELECT Host, User, Password FROM mysql.user; and you should see encrypted passwords for all two accounts. Now exit MySQL mysql> exit Bye $

Finally we secure the MySQL server by disallowing access via TCP/IP. To do this we have to edit the MySQL configuration file my.cnf .

>su
<root password>
# cd /etc
# cp my.cnf my.cnf.bak1
# gedit my.cnf

1. Under the line old_passwords=1 add the new line
2. skip-networking

Then save the file and Quit. And exit from the root account

# exit
>

That's it. Now the only access to the MySQL server is via the mysql.sock file. Test that all is well:

> mysql -u root -p 
Enter Password: <mysql root password>

You should see

Welcome to the MySQL monitor ...
mysql>

Enter mysql> exit Bye >

and 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 CVS to download WeBWorK. This is easy and it will also make it easy to update the system in the future. General instructions can be found in the WeBWorKCVSReadOnly topic but the following will get the job done. 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

$ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.webwork.rochester.edu:/webwork/cvs/system checkout -r rel-2-3-dev webwork2 pg
$ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.webwork.rochester.edu:/webwork/cvs/rochester checkout rochester_problib 
$ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.webwork.rochester.edu:/webwork/cvs/union checkout union_problib
$ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.webwork.rochester.edu:/webwork/cvs/asu checkout database_problems

The first download gives you the latest released version with patches (don't be misled by the dev extension --- this is not a development version). The last download contains the WeBWorK National Problem Library. This now includes the Rochester and Union Libraries along with others but some people still find it convenient to use the Rochester and Union Libraries separately. There is quite a bit of overlap between these libraries but now you system is loaded with many thousands of WeBWorK problems (over 13,000 in the National Problem Library alone).

Installing WeBWorK

Move the System into the Required Directories

As root create a webwork directory under /opt and move directories there.

$ su
Password: <root password>
# mkdir /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.

# mkdir /opt/webwork/courses
# mkdir /opt/webwork/libraries
# mv database_problems/ /opt/webwork/libraries/
# mv rochester_problib/ /opt/webwork/libraries/
# mv union_problib/ /opt/webwork/libraries/
# cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/courses.dist
# cp *.lst /opt/webwork/courses/
# cp -r modelCourse/ /opt/webwork/courses/

Setting Permissions

The PG installation directory and files should be owned by root and not writeable by other users:

# cd /opt/webwork/pg
# chown -R root:root .
# chmod -R u+rwX,go+rX .

Most WeBWorK directories and files should also be owned by root and not writeable by other users:

# cd /opt/webwork/webwork2
# chown -R root:root .
# 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.

1. Select System, Administration and then Users and Groups
2. Enter the <root password>
3. Click Add Group
4. For Group name enter wwdata and click OK
5. Click Groups and select wwdata
6. Click Properties and then click Group Users
7. Check yourself and apache and then click OK
8. Close the User Manager

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.

You can check that this suceeded in a terminal window by entering

# exit
$ id <your userid>

and then you should see wwdata listed under groups. Also

$ id apache

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 logs tmp
# find DATA/ ../courses/ htdocs/ logs/ tmp/ -type d -a ! -name CVS -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 two lines:

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/webwork/webwork2/bin
export WEBWORK_ROOT=/opt/webwork/webwork2

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

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 PHP::Serialization which is only required if you plan to use WeBWorK with Moodle and tth which is a deprecated display mode. If something is missing (flagged by **), look back through these instructions to find where it should have been installed and install it.

Note that when I did this I got the message DateTime not found in @INC. I'm almost certain that I installed it but maybe not or somehow maybe the initial installation failed. So I had to

1. Select Applications and then Add/Remove Software
2. Enter the <root password>
3. Select Search
4. Search for DateTime
5. Check perl-TimeDate - 1:0.37-3.fc7.i386
6. Then click Apply and Continue
7. Finally after the installation succeeds click OK and close the Package Manager

Then I ran

> check_modules.pl apache2

again and everything was OK.

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/ . Since these are owned by root

$ su
Password: <root password>
# 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/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

1. Search for $externalPrograms{tar} = "/usr/bin/tar"; and replace this by
   $externalPrograms{tar} = "/bin/tar";
2. Now directly below this add the new line
   $externalPrograms{gzip} = "/usr/bin/gzip";
   or edit it appropriately if it's already there.

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 replace $siteDefaults{timezone} = ""; by $siteDefaults{timezone} = "America/New_York";

1. Search for $siteDefaults{timezone} = ""; and enter your local timezone.

At this point TtH is a deprecated display mode which we didn't install so we have to remove it from the listof possible display modes.

1. Search for formattedText and comment out the line = "formattedText", # format math expressions using TtH=

so it becomes

#   "formattedText", # format math expressions using TtH

We need to set a password that WeBWorK uses when it communicates with the MySQL database.

1. 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).

1. Edit the lines $mail{smtpServer} = 'mail.yourschool.edu'; and
2. $mail{smtpSender} = 'webwork@yourserver.yourschool.edu';

entering the appropiate 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 where you should use 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 to the addresses of professors of each course.

Then save the file and Quit.

Now become a regular user again

# exit
$

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.

WeBWorK 2.3.0 introduces an automatic database upgrade system. Rather than manually issuing SQL commands to make changes to the database, or using ad-hoc scripts like wwdb_addgw, there is a single script called wwdb_upgrade that applies any necessary updates. It should be run when creating a new database, and any time you upgrade WeBWorK.

$ /opt/webwork/webwork2/bin/wwdb_upgrade -v

You will get the error message

An error occured while running the course upgrade code for version 2 on course modelCourse:
...
Ignore this error and go on to the next course? [y/N]

You should enter Y to ignore the error. This error occurs because wwdb_upgrade isn't smart enough to realize modelCourse isn't a real course as we explain below.

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

$ su
Password: <root password>
# 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.

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

# cd /etc/httpd/conf.d
# ln -s /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/webwork.apache2-config webwork.conf

Then restart Apache

# /etc/init.d/httpd graceful
# exit
$

Test your configuration

1. Test the /webwork2 location by visiting http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2. You should see the WeBWorK home page with no courses listed. Actually the directory /opt/webwork/courses/ does contain the modelCourse but the modelCourse 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 named hide_directory and so the modelCourse is not visible.
2. Test the /webwork2_files location by visiting http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2_files. You should see the "WeBWorK Placeholder Page".
3. 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). 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
Password: <root password>
# /etc/init.d/httpd graceful
# exit
$

Create the admin Course

The CourseAdministrationManual gives information about creating courses. Here we will give explicit instructions for doing this.

$ su
Password: <root password>
# newgrp wwdata
# umask 2
# cd /opt/webwork/courses
# /opt/webwork/webwork2/bin/addcourse admin --db-layout=sql_single --users=adminClasslist.lst --professors=admin
# exit
# 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 to click on Password/Email and change admin 's password to something more secure than admin .

Unless you choose otherwise, 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 )

1. Click on Classlist Editor in the left panel
2. Check Add 1 student(s) and click Take Action!
3. Enter the appropiate information (you can leave the last three items blank) and click Add Students
4. Click on Classlist Editor in the left panel again

1. When you enter a new student, by default their Student ID is used as their password. We'll change this now.
2. Select yourself with a check mark and then check Give new password to Selected users or just check Give new password to All users (as a safely mechanism you can not change the password for the user you are logged in as, currently admin, this way) and then click Take Action!
3. Enter the password, check Save changes and then click Take Action!
4. Finally give yourself professor privilges by selecting yourself with a check mark, checking Edit Selected users and then clicking Take 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)
5. Now at the far right change Permission Level from 0 (an ordinary student) to 10 (an esteemed professor)
6. Check Save changes and then click Take 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.

$ cd
$ gedit hide_directory

Now you don't really have to put any verbiage in the file but I suggest you put:

Place a file named "hide_directory" in a course or other 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.

Save the file and quit. Now copy the file to the admin course.

$ sudo cp hide_directory /opt/webwork/courses/admin
password:<your password>

Now goto http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2 and no course will be listed.

Starting and Stoping 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 ocassions you may need to restart MySQL.

Starting and Stoping 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 /etc/init.d/httpd graceful
password:<your password>

To stop the apache webserver run the command

$ sudo /etc/init.d/httpd stop
password:<your password>

You can also start,stop or restart apache2 by using the GUI interface.

1. Select System, Administration and then Services
2. Enter the <root password>
3. Scroll down to httpd and select it
4. The Status window will give the status of apache2
5. Click Start, Stop or Restart
6. Click OK to acknowledge the message

Starting and Stoping MySQL

You have to run these commands as root.

To start the MySQL server run the command

$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysqld start
root's password:<root password>

To stop the MySQL server run the command

$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysqld stop
root's password:<root password>

To restart the MySQL server run the command

$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
root's password:<root password>

You can also start,stop or restart MySQL by using the GUI interface.

1. Select System, Administration and then Services
2. Enter the <root password>
3. Scroll down to mysqld and select it
4. The Status window will give the status of apache2
5. Click Start, Stop or Restart
6. Click OK to acknowledge the message

Starting and stopping the GNOME desktop GUI

The GNOME desktop is automatically started when the system boots.

%RED% NOTE: The following instructions work in Debian but not in CentOS 5. I haven't found an easy way to stop and start the GNOME desktop GUI in CentOS 5. %ENDCOLOR%

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:<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:<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. Normally this library is referred to as the ProblemLibrary but the downloaded CVS directory for it is named database_problems. So the first thing we do is to link ProblemLibrary to database_problems.

$ cd /opt/webwork/libraries/
$ sudo ln -s database_problems ProblemLibrary
password:<your password>

Next we have to edit global.conf.

$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf
$ su
Password: <root password>
# gedit global.conf

1. Search for problemLibrary and replace $problemLibrary{root} = ""; by
   $problemLibrary{root} = "/opt/webwork/libraries/ProblemLibrary";

Then save the file and quit. And return to a regular user

#exit
$

We now create a database, called ProblemLibrary, for for the Problem Library. To do this do the following:

$ mysql -u root -p mysql
Enter password: <mysql root password>
mysql> CREATE DATABASE ProblemLibrary;
mysql> GRANT SELECT ON ProblemLibrary.* TO webworkWrite@localhost;
mysql> exit
Bye
$ 

Run the installation script making sure you are in the /opt/webwork/libraries/ProblemLibrary directory. This directory contains the files loadDB2 and create_tables2.sql.

$ cd /opt/webwork/libraries/ProblemLibrary
$ ./loadDB2  <mysql root password>

This has to convert a lot of data 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 loadDB.pl.

Set up the Rochester and Union Libraries

First we need to edit global.conf one last time

$ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf
$ su
Password: <root password>
# gedit global.conf

1. Search for courseFiles{problibs} and scroll down several lines to the line
   # rochesterLibrary => "Rochester",
2. Uncomment this line (i.e. remove the #) so it becomes
   

         rochesterLibrary => "Rochester",

1. Directly below this line add the line
   

         unionLibrary => "Union",

1. Search for macrosPath and scroll down several lines to the line
   $pg{directories}{macros},
2. After this line add the two lines:
   '/opt/webwork/libraries/union_problib/macros',
'/opt/webwork/libraries/union_problib/parserOrientation',

Then save the file and quit.

Since we have edited global.conf a lot and this is a very critical file, it would be a good idea to run

# exit
$ diff global.conf global.conf.dist

and check that you haven't made any mistakes (e.g. by introducing an inadvertant line break, etc).

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.

$ cd /opt/webwork/courses/modelCourse/templates/
$ sudo ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/union_problib/ unionLibrary
Password:<your password>
$ sudo ln -s /opt/webwork/libraries/rochester_problib/ rochesterLibrary

Create Your First Actual Course

Now log into the admin course ( http://yourserver.yourschool.edu/webwork2/admin ) as yourself or admin and

1. click on Add Course
2. For Course ID enter myTestCourse
3. For Course Title enter My Test Course
4. Enter your institution
5. Leave Add WeBWorK administrators to new course checked
6. Add an additional instructor if you wish
7. Copy templates from: modelCourse (the default action)
8. Select sql_single for the database layout.
9. Click on Add Course
10. 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.

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 the CourseAdministrationManual for more information about creating courses.

Consult the WeBWorKDocs topic for other WeBWorK documentation.

-- Main.ArnoldPizer - 21 June 2007 Initial version based on Sam Hathaway's InstallationManualV2pt3