Development Environment

This page contains detailed instructions on how to build a Linux development environment, based on CentOS 7. Eventually this will cover hosting two different versions of Drupal on the same box, so that, for example, you can work on Drupal 7 and Drupal 8.

• Create a new VM in Virtual Box
  • Attach two network adapters, first one using NAT, second using Host-Only
• Download CentOS 7 DVD
• Attache CentOS 7 DVD to CD drive of new VM
• Start the VM
• It will boot off CD
• Click in VM to give it control
• Select Install CentsOS 7
• On "Welcome to CentOS 7" screen choose English: English (United Kingdom), click Continue
• Installation Summary: Localization should be correct, click "Network & Hostname"
  • Turn both network adapters on
  • Make sure they both have "Automatically connect" checked in their configuration, set the name if you wish
  • set the hostname, I used: centosvm.localdomain
  • click Done
• click "Installation Destination"
  • click Done
• click "Software Selection"
  • Select "Development and Creative Workstation" with "FTP Server", "MariaDB Database Server", "PHP Support"
  • Click Done
• wait while the changes verify
• Click "Begin Installation"
• Click "User Creation", enter details
  • make sure "Make this user administrator" and "Require a password" are both checked
  • click Done
• Click "Root Password" and set a root password
• wait while the installation completes.... (it runs while you set the users up)
• when the progress bar at the bottom has finished and displays "Complete!" the Reboot button is visible, click it to reboot
• don't select any options during the reboot, you will then get to a "License Information" screen
• accept the license and then click "Finish Configuration"
• leave the Kdump options at default unless you want to change them, click Forward
• click the username entered earlier and login with the password
• Confirm your chosen Language and Input Source during the GNOME Initial Setup, enter a cloud account if you wish and then click "Start using CentOS"
• close the GNOME Help
• Applications -> System Tools -> Software Update, let it process for a minute and then click "Install Updates"
• after a bit you will need to click "Yes" to trust the source of the updated packages, do so and enter your password
• a prompt will say a restart is required, just close this
• Close Software Updates and reboot
• Login
• start a Terminal Session
• su # so we become root
• yum install gcc [press y to install dependencies]
• yum install kernel-devel [press y to install dependencies]
• from the VirtualBox menu select Devices -> Insert Guest Additions CD Image
• cancel the autorun prompt
• cd /run/media/geoff/VBOXADDITIONS_4.3.18_96516 [the exact numbers will change with different versions of Virtual Box]
• sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
• now we have cursor integration working which is so much nicer
• see /media for shared folder mounts, if you have any, if not this is where they will appear
• usermod -a -G vboxsf geoff
• usermod -a -G apache geoff
• reboot, this will implement the group changes, which are needed later
• On the bottom right of the screen there should be a number 1 in a blue circle, click this. then click the floppy disk/usb stick icon and eject the Virtual Box Guest Additions CD
• systemctl start httpd.service #starts until reboot
• systemctl enable httpd.service # the autostarting command
• systemctl start mariadb.service #starts until reboot
• systemctl enable mariadb.service # the autostarting command
• mysql -u root # by default there is no password, so just login
  • use mysql
  • update user set password=PASSWORD('new_password') where User='root'; # this updates all root users!
  • select host, user, password, super_priv from user;
  • exit
• systemctl restart mariadb.service # seems we need this after changing root password for phpMyAdmin to work
• yum install epel-release
• yum install phpmyadmin
• In /etc/httpd/conf.d/phpMyAdmin.conf you might need to remove the 127.0.0.1 restrictions (see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/mod/mod_authz_core.html)
• systemctl restart httpd.service
• login to http://localhost/phpMyAdmin as root
  • CREATE DATABASE drupal7 CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
  • CREATE USER 'drupal7adm'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'the_password';
  • GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'drupal7adm'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'the_password' WITH MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS 0;
  • GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `drupal7`.* TO 'drupal7adm'@'localhost';
• cd /var/www
• chown -Rv apache:apache ./html # R = recursive, v = verbose
• chmod -v -R 775 ./html
• vi /etc/php.ini
  • post_max_size = 12M
  • upload_max_filesize = 12M
  • save changes
• vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
  • find the section regarding Directory "/var/www/hitml"
  • change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All
  • save changes
• systemctl restart httpd.service
• start a new Terminal Session as your user account
• cd ~/Downloads
• wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-7.34.tar.gz
• cd /var/www/html
• tar --strip-components=1 -xzvf ~/Downloads/drupal-7.34.tar.gz
• chown -Rv geoff:apache .
• cd ./sites/default/
• cp default.settings.php settings.php
• chmod 664 settings.php
• chown geoff:apache settings.php
• mkdir files
• chown -R geoff:apache ./files
• chcon -Rv --type httpd_sys_rw_content_t ./files/
• Start Firefox and browse to http://localhost/
• Follow the Drupal installer
• Once finished we need to secure settings.php
• chmod 644 settings.php
• chcon -v --type httpd_sys_content_t ./settings.php
• Load Applications -> Sundry -> Firewall
  • select the "public" zone
  • check http and https
  • check ftp if you use this
  • change the Configuration to "Permanent"
  • select the "public" zone
  • check http and https
  • check ftp if you use this
  • exit, saving is automatic, this is done twice to update the current config and the persisted config