I've gone through the Apache installation a couple of times now and just can't get the darn thing to display the "It works!" message when I hit the localhost in my browser. Can't seem to find any simple beginner troubleshooting guide either - everything out there assumes that you've successfully installed Apache and focuses on post-install configuration.
As someone who is getting his hands dirty with the LAMP stack for the first time - I was wondering if there are any sites, articles that can assist me?
Remember, I'm a FIRST TIME user looking for step-by-step instructions... :(
Answers
Add AnswerCheck out www.binami.org - its a great service that packages oss apps which can be downloaded and installed in a matter of minutes. They have the LAMP and MAMP stack pre-packaged - so that should have you up and running pretty quickly.
I don't know any troubleshooting guide, but Apache must run OK without any additional configuration or something.
If you have finished the installation process, just make sure that it is started and running:
ps aux | grep httpd | grep-v grep
If you get nothing, start it with
apachectl start
If you get a message "apachectl: program not found", you have no Apache installed. In this case step-by-step instructions highly depend on the way you installed it, i.e. was it some binary package or compiling from source, what distro etc.
If ps command above outputs the line with owner, process number etc, but you don't see the "It works!" message, you have to read all those post-install configuration instructions :)
Typo:
ps aux | grep httpd | grep -v grep
Oh, one more thing: if you type apachectl start and see nothing (it is OK), but ps still outputs no line (httpd process doesn't start), read the Apache error.log to find the reason. The log file is usually located in /var/log/httpd or /var/log/apache or /usr/lib/apache, depending on distro or configure script options.
PS 2 developers: it would be great if I could edit my messages..
Sorry, typo on my earlier response - it is www.bitnami.org
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