XAMPP: Apache, MySQL and PHP on linux
Tips N Tricks January 17th, 2010
For those who do not want to configure their own webserver, sql server and modules to quickly test a random PHP code, XAMPP provides an easy bundled package to get things up and running quickly.
Adding apache server in your linux installation is easy using XAMPP. It was earlier called LAMPP and is now being called the XAMPP. The understanding is that
it stands for X (linux), A (apache), M (mysql), Php (php).
This is a nice way to develop php websites locally on your computer before wanting to deploy it online. You can even make your server visible to the internet by putting XAMPP online and open to the Internet. Doing that will allow you to run your own server. Some help from DynDNS will help you map a domain name to the ip address of your XAMPP on your computer. These will not be discussed here but lets continue towards linux installation of XAMPP.
Steps :
1) Download the XAMPP package:
2) (Important) Extract ONLY using the following command
sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.3a.tar.gz -C /opt
Warning: Please use only this command to install XAMPP. DON’T use any Microsoft Windows tools to extract the archive, it won’t work.
Good News: XAMPP is now installed below the /opt/lampp directory.
3) Start the server using :
/opt/lampp/lampp start
Good News if you see :
Starting XAMPP x.x.x…
LAMPP: Starting Apache…
LAMPP: Starting MySQL…
LAMPP started.
4) Test the server by opening firefox and typing
http://localhost
The document root will be called “www” in the /opt/lampp folder.

