How to Install via SSH
Most open source products like Joomla are available in a tar.gz file. On some
servers, you can find Fantasitco scripts that install Joomla and many others
with a few clicks. If you didn't have Fantastico, don't want to use it or are
just want to install something on your own, here are the basics:
First requirement: SSH Access
Not all hosters will give you SSH access to your site. If that's the case, then
the following will not be all that useful to you. To test it, install a copy of
Putty and try it. (you would connect using the
same ID and password that you would use for cPanel)
If you see something like this after you enter the ID and password, it means you
have SSH access. (It's possible that if SSH is not allowed you will not even get
a LOGIN prompt)
Download the SSH Package (tar.gz)
Yes, this is not a Joomla package but the point is, you want to download the
tar.gz version, not the ZIP.
Upload the SSH file via FTP
We recommend FileZilla... You will upload to the directory where you
want the application to run. If it's Joomla for the main site, then
you would put the file in public_html or whatever the public root is.
Note: After you upload the file, if the filename
is long, rename it to something simple as this will save you a few moments of
typing pain later. Below is an example of the MediaWiki file that we rename
to wiki so that later during the SSH session, there's less keys to push:
Connect via SSH to decompress the tar file
Enter this command after you have logged into the site AND after you are
in the directory where the tar file exists. In our example, we are decompressing
the file called wiki:
tar xvfz wiki.tar.gz
Then tar finishes running, you should see something like this:
Next, change dir permissions (chmod 777 * -R)
When you have finished with CHMOD, you can close the SSH session.
Create the DB via cPanel
You could have stayed in SSH and done this, but because there are usually
other chores that need to be handled via cPanel, we normally would switch
to this interface to complete the installation.
After of course you have logged in to cPanel, you would select the mySQL icon.
(Some cPanels will have a wizard script
to walk you through it, some don't) Once you create the DB, user and assign rights
you're ready to install the application.
Run the installer
Almost all mature open source products of any size, have some type of installer.
In most cases, as with Joomla, it will appear when you access the directory
where the application will reside.
DISCLAIMER
Not everything is explained here. If you don't know what SSH, tar and
ftp mean, then this material is not intended for you.