Installing Andromeda on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

These are the complete instructions for installing Andromeda onto Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support). These instructions are meant to require minimal knowledge of Linux.

Preliminary Step

Go to the command line and add yourself to the www-data group:

sudo usermod -a -G www-data your_ubuntu_login_id

Then log out and log back in.

Step 1: Install Packages and Make Directories

Step 1.1 Install Packages. Enter the following command to install all required packages from Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install php php5-pgsql php-pear postgresql-8.1 pgadmin3 perl postgresql-plperl-8.1 subversion

Step 1.2 Install Pear Packages. This command installs a package we need from the PEAR repository:

sudo pear install Net_SMTP

Step 1.2-2 Install JSON Extension. Ubuntu 6.06 has only version 5.1 of PHP, and so we must install the PECL JSON extension:

sudo pear install php5-dev
pecl install json

Step 1.3 Install Perl Packages. This command installs a nifty Email sender used by the password reset programs.

sudo cpan -i Net::SMTP

Step 1.4 Enable Apache Modules. Now we must enable the Rewrite Apache module. Note carefully that the command below must end with a trailing backslash.

sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/rewrite.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/

Step 1.5 Prepare Andromeda Directory. These commands get the directory ready for Andromeda:

cd ~
mkdir public_html
chgrp www-data public_html
chmod 0750 public_html
cd public_html
mkdir andro_root
chgrp www-data andro_root
chmod 6770 andro_root

Step 2: Edit Configuration Files

Step 2.1 Change PHP Configuration. PHP by default only allows a script to run for thirty seconds. A database build can sometimes take up to 5 minutes on very complex databases, so we need to expand the time allowed. Also, since Andromeda makes some very complex databases, we will also need to increase the memory limit to 128 megabytes.

sudo gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for the setting "max_execution_time" (on my system it was line 267) and change it to 300.

Search for the settings "magic_quotes_gpc" and "magic_quotes_runtime" and set them to "Off".

Search for the setting "memory_limit" (on my system it was 2 lines beneath the above edit in the same section) and change it to 128M

Step 2.2 Change Postgres Configuration file pg_hba.conf. Open the file /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_hba.conf:

sudo gedit /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_hba.conf

...and replace it with this:

local       all       postgres                 ident andromeda
host        all       +root     127.0.0.1/32   password
local       all       +root                    password
local       samename  all                      password
local       samegroup all                      password

Step 2.3 Change Postgres Configuraton file pg_ident.conf. Open the file /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_ident.conf:

sudo gedit /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_ident.conf

...and replace it with this:

andromeda     postgres          postgres
andromeda     root              postgres

Step 2.4 Change Postgres Configuraton file posgresql.conf. Open the file /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/postgresql.conf:

sudo gedit /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/postgresql.conf

...and uncomment the line that sets "listen_addresses='localhost'".

Step 2.5 Change An Apache Setting. Open apache's userdir configuration file and allow anything to be overridden by .htaccess:

sudo gedit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf

...and change the line that says "AllowOverride" to read "AllowOverride All".

Step 3: Restarts and Final Commands

Step 3.1 Restart Postgres and Apache. Type in the following two commands to restart Apache and Postgres:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.1 restart

Step 3.2 Create Andromeda Superuser. Now it is time to enter the Postgres command line utility and create your superuser account and create an empty database for Andromeda. Remember the username and password you pick here, you will need it for many Andromeda activities.

sudo psql -U postgres

# create role root nologin;
# create user USER_NAME superuser password 'PASSWORD';
# grant root to USER_NAME;
# create database andro;
# create language plperlu;
# create language plperl;
# \q

Step 4: Two Program Settings

Step 4.1 Firefox Hotkey Setting. Open Firefox. In the address bar type in "about:config". In the "filter" box type "ui.key.contentAccess" and change the value from 5 to 4. This allows the HTML ACCESSKEY attribute to work with the ALT key instead of the brain-damaged CTRL+ALT that they recently changed it to.

Step 4.2 Setup pgAdmin3. On the Ubuntu menu to go "Applications: System Tools: pgadmin3". On the menu chooose "File: Add Server".

Fill out "localhost" for Address, and "Local Machine" for description. Fill in the superuser name and password you selected in Step 3.2. Click on "OK". You now have the graphical tool pgAdmin3 available to work with your databases.

Step 5: Install Andromeda

Go to the Andromeda sourceforge download site:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/andro

...and download Andromeda to your directory public_html/andro_root, and then extract it there with this command (be sure to use the 'p' option in the tar command):

cd ~/public_html/andro_root
tar xzvpf ---andromeda-file-name---

Point your browser to:

http://localhost/~UBUNTU_LOGIN/andro_root/andro

...and follow the instructions on-screen to initialize and begin using Andromeda!