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Note: posting here, because ServerFault's description is "For professional administrators". Also chat seems unavailable currently.


I am trying a stab at making a website. I installed Ubuntu Server 14.04 on a box at home, installed the LAMP stack and then wordpress, as per this guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WordPress

Everything went fine until the step

sudo bash /usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup-mysql -n wordpress localhost

I don't understand this step, neither the later ones. I setup a dns service to point to my external IP, and the router to forward packets on port 80 to said box. Apache test page works great, but no visual whatsoever of wordpress.

I did a lynx http://localhost/wordpress and created some account on the "Famous 5-minute Wordpress setup". However, now trying to log in, results in messages like

Accept invalid cookie path=/wordpress/wp-content/plugins as a prefix of '/wordpress'?(n)

and the login is unsuccessful.


I suspect this is an XY question, but really cant figure out X. Please point me to a general strategy (what resources to study), leading to displaying to the web a basic Wordpress page. I have zero experience with Apache, php, wordpress, dns. I have limited experience with the GNU Linux command line.

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  • type ls -altr /usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/ and make sure "setup-mysql" is in there first of all. What error do you get when you run that command? Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 19:58
  • @BrianFolan, setup-mysql -n wordpress localhost command works fine, but in the tutorial they advise to give the actual url instead of localhost if I know it. I do but the modified command fails to ping the page. Manual ping fails as well. On the other hand, typing the url in firefox on another machine yields the apache default page "It works!".
    – Vorac
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 20:44
  • Dropping this introductory link here for initial reading.
    – Vorac
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 10:08

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This may sound harsh, but if you don’t understand what you are doing at this point, then you should ask or hire someone who does to set this up for you. Administering a basic site is already difficult enough, but running a complex CMS like wordpress requires solid skills, otherwise it will end in disaster.

  • You need to know at least the fundamentals of shell scripting. What does that setup-mysqlscript do? You don’t know? Then how can you possibly know that it doesn’t work? And how can you trust it? You are running it as root, after all. Also, how will you recover if something doesn’t work on your particular setup?

  • How are you going to debug your web server configuration if you have zero experiences in administering a web server? Before you have any chance at getting your setup to work, you need some degree of knowledge how your web server (be it Apache or any other) works and how it expects to interact with PHP.

  • Do you have a reasonably safe environment in which to test your setup? I understand that you’re still learning, but you will make mistakes at first, so you need to be prepared for them. Especially, you do not want to do this with a public IP unless you really know what you’re doing.

If this is your first venture into a LAMP setup, then you certainly have bitten off way more than you can possibly chew. Before assembling the whole, you have to understand each of the parts. Once you have the basics in place, you’ll be able to ask the right questions and, more importantly, you’ll be able to understand the answers you’ll be getting.

To be honest, I do want to discourage you from doing this—at least at your current experience level. First of all, find someone who can help you learn. Your chances of success will go up exponentially. Then, try to get a static site to work. Try to understand Apache’s configuration, or nginx’s, or whatever web server you want to use. Only then try to get PHP to work, for which you’ll then have a better vantage point. Meanwhile, you’ll learn about logfiles, security and basic Unix skills, which’ll allow you to debug when (not if) something goes wrong.

Learning all this takes too long? Of course it does: I’ve basically described an admin’s apprenticeship. But administering any complex system is bloody difficult, otherwise it wouldn’t be a complex system, it requires a good chunk of experience, but today’s harsh climate in the world wide web has made it much more difficult to acquire that experience than, say, ten years ago. A badly managed site will be hacked in minutes, the worms are already waiting and probably already probing your IP right now.

So let’s start the downvoting, but I’ll stay by my point: The last thing the internet needs is yet another badly managed, worm-infested Wordpress cesspit. The only valid answer right now is to not do it.

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  • By "I'm trying a stab" I was hoping to convey the idea that this is a learning experience, and not an actual business action. I can see you are advising me to RTFM, as always linux people do. But you see, studying a number of big technologies before I get any result is against the rules of self motivation - it just won't work. For example I didn't read setup-mysqul, as I didn't generally read the source code of programs I use. In the light of the above, I find the following part of your answer helpful: ` try to get a static site to work.`. Thanks for the time :)
    – Vorac
    Commented Oct 25, 2014 at 5:29
  • This was not a very nice reply from Vucar. I am an experienced admin, and I just got this error, it's related to cookie paths. The poster might be a newbie, but this is a legit problem. Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 20:56

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