Installing WeBWorK on a Red Hat Linux 8.0 System
For WeBWorK version 1.8
Samuel Hathaway <sh002i@math.rochester.edu>;
Arnold Pizer <apizer@math.rochester.edu>;
This document details the setup and configuration of Red Hat 8.0 for use with
WeBWorK. Use it along with the Installing WeBWorK on a Linux System
document. Before beginning the installation, you should also consult the Red Hat
8.0 Installation Guide at http://www.redhat.com/docs/.
Step 1: During the Red Hat installation
While installing Red Hat Linux, there are several options that are important
to WeBWorK. These are listed below with recommended settings.
Install Type: This affects which packages we will need to
install later. We recommend "Server".
Firewall Configuration: If you choose to install a firewall,
keep in mind that WeBWorK requires incoming HTTP connections, and you may
benefit from allowing other types of inconming connections (such as telnet, SSH,
FTP, or SCP) for professors. SSH and SCP servers are installed by default on the
"Server System" install type, so opening those ports in your firewall
configuration will enable those services.
Account Configuration: Make sure you create at least one
user account, in addition to the root account. You can use this user account as
the "regular user account" in the setup of WeBWorK.
Package Group Selection: This option is only shown if you
choose the "Server System" install type. Here are our recommended selections:
- the "X Window System" package
- the "GNOME Desktop Environment" package
- the "Editors" package
- mozilla in the "Graphical internet" package
- the "Authoring and Publishing" package
- the "Server Configuration Tools" package
- the "Web Server" package
- the "Development Tools" package
- the "Administration Tools" package
Also check "Select individual packages" at the bottom. Install the following
individual package.
| package | directory | package names |
|---|
| gd-devel | Development->Libraries | gd-devel |
Also select any other packages you want to install at this time (e.g. your
favorite editor if it wasn't listed in the "Editors" package). When RedHat checks for dependencies, accept the default of
installing additional packages to resolve all dependencies (if any).
Step 2: system configuration
You can use RedHat's system configuration tools to replace several of the
command-line operations in the Installing WeBWorK on a Linux System
document. To access these tools, click Main Menu and then System or Server Settings (you will
be asked for the root password). In the Red Hat User Manager, under Preferences, uncheck
"Filter system users and groups" so you can see all users, e.g. apache.
| shell task | configuration tool |
|---|
useradd, usermod, userdel | System Settings->Users and Groups->Add User |
groupadd, groupmod, groupdel | System Settings->Users and Groups->Add Group |
/etc/init.d/httpd, adding apache to rc files | Server Settings->Services |
Step 3: Starting apache
- Click Main Menu, Server Settings, Services (you will
be asked for the root password).
- Select
httpd from the list of services.
- Click "Start". It is at the top of the panel. After a moment, there should be a message that apache has started.
- Check the "Start at Boot" checkbox.
- Click "Save" and then close Service Configuration
Apache is now started, and will start whenever the computer is rebooted. To
verify that apache is working, open Mozilla and open
http://localhost/. You should see a page titled "Test Page".
Step 4: Read Installing WeBWorK on a Linux System
At this point, begin reading the Installing WeBWorK on a Linux
System document. Keep the following in mind:
Step 5: Install CGI.pm
CGI.pm is a core module and is supposed to be contained in a stardard perl installation
but it is not part of Red Hat's perl. To install it simply add CGI to the list of modules
CPAN installs:
# perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install HTML::Parser Net::SMTP MIME::Base64 CGI
Step 6: Install GD.pm
First if you missed installing gd-devel-1.8.4-9.i386.rpm in the initial set up, install it now. It's on the second installation diskette
psyche-i386-disc2. Next link libpng and libjpeg. As root
# cd /usr/lib
# ln -s libpng.so.3 libpng.so
# ln -s libjpeg.so.62.0.0 libjpeg.so
Now we are ready to install the GD module. Currently (Fall 2002) if you use CPAN to install GD, it will
install the 2.01 version of GD.pm which requires the beta 2.0.1 version of gd.
Unfortunately there is a known bug in gd 2.0.1 which prevents it from drawing horizontal dashed
lines. We recommend using gd 1.8.4 and GD 1.33. gd 1.8.4 is on your system. For GD, go to
http://stein.cshl.org/WWW/software/GD/.
As a normal user, download the tar/gzip archive for version 1.33 (or 1.29) and untar it:
> tar -xzf GD.pm.tar.gz
then cd to the GD-1.33 subdirectory, make a copy of Makefile.PL, and then edit
Makefile.PL replacing lines 6 and 7
my @INC = qw(-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/gd);
my @LIBPATH = qw(-L/usr/lib/X11 -L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/X11/lib -L/usr/local/lib );
by
my @INC = qw(-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/local/include/gd);
my @LIBPATH = qw(-L/usr/lib/X11 -L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/X11/lib -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib);
Now run the commands:
> perl Makefile.PL (select JPEG but not FreeType or XPM support for WeBWorK))
> make
Then, as root, install it.
# make install
Note that we suggest you do not run make test as this will
show all tests failing, but the installation is OK. You can test this by
viewing graphs in WeBWorK or by running one of the sample
perl scripts contained in the GD documentation.
Step 7: Install dvipng
First download dvipng from John Jones's site
<a
href="http://hobbes.la.asu.edu/webwork-stuff">http://hobbes.la.asu.edu/webwork-stuff
.
Then install it by running the following commands as root:
# tar -xzf for-dvipng.tar.gz
# cd for-dvipng/
# cd preview
# make install
# cd ../dvipng/
# cp dvipng /usr/bin/
# cd /usr/bin
# ldd dvipng
Good luck!
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