How to Install Textpattern with Apache on Ubuntu Linux

This article provides comprehensive instructions on how to install Textpattern CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support. The lightweight and elegant nature of Textpattern CMS makes it popular among publishers, designers, and developers, and a good alternative to WordPress. The tutorial covers setting up the Apache2 HTTP Server, installing MariaDB and PHP 7.2, configuring Textpattern Site, protecting the site with Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates and installing Textpattern. The post closes with the steps to create, save and delete the backend admin setup details.

This article describes installing Textpattern CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support.

Textpattern is a lightweight and elegant content management system for publishers, designers, and developers who have been around for many years. It’s a great alternative to WordPress and other popular CMS in use today.

If you’re a current WordPress user and wish to try another CMS, try Textpattern and see if it fits your needs. It’s based on the same LAMP or LEMP stack as WordPress, so the technology shouldn’t be much different than you already know.

When you’re ready to get Textpattern working, continue with the steps below:

How to install Textpattern CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Apache

As described above, Textpattern is a lightweight and elegant content management system for publishers, designers, and developers who have been around for many years.

Below is how to install it.

Install Apache

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. So, install it since Textpattern needs it.

To install Apache2 HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

To test the Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address, and you should see the Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.

http://localhost

Install MariaDB

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers for Magento.

To install MariaDB run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: Enter password
Re-enter new password: Repeat password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

Type the commands below to log into the MariaDB server to test if MariaDB is installed.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. If successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message.

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 isn’t available on Ubuntu’s default repositories. So to install it, you must get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-soap php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Apache2.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Then save the changes on the following lines below in the file. The value below is an ideal setting to apply in your environment.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, please save the file and close it out.

After installing PHP and related modules, you must restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations.

To restart Apache2, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in the Apache2 root directory by running the commands below

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Save the file. Then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

Create Textpattern Database

Once you’ve installed all the packages required for Textpattern to function, continue below to start configuring the servers.

First, run the commands below to create a blank Textpattern database.

To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called Textpattern.

CREATE DATABASE textpattern;

Create a database user called textpatternuser with a new password

CREATE USER 'textpatternuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON textpattern.* TO 'textpatternuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download and Install Textpattern

Run the commands below to download Textpattern latest. Then create a directory tor for Textpattern and unzip the content there.

cd /tmp && wget https://textpattern.com/file_download/75/textpattern-4.6.2.zip
sudo unzip textpattern-4.6.2.zip
sudo mv textpattern-4.6.2 /var/www/html/textpattern

Next, run the commands below to change the root folder permissions.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/textpattern/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/textpattern/

Configure Apache2 Textpattern Site

Finally, configure the Apache2 configuration file for Textpattern. This file will control how users access Textpattern content.

Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called textpattern. conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/textpattern.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/textpattern/
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/textpattern/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.

Enable the Textpattern Site and Rewrite the Module

After configuring the Virtual Host above, please enable it by running the commands below, then restart the Apache2 server.

sudo a2ensite textpattern.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Install Let’s Encrypt Client

You should first install its client to get Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates on your Ubuntu machine. The client helps automate the process for you. To install it, run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache

If python-certbot-Nginx isn’t installed, you may have to add its PPA repository and install the package.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache

Obtaining your free SSL/TLS Certificates

After installing the Let’s Encrypt Certbot client module for Apache2, run the commands below to obtain your free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate in the domain specified. Make sure to replace example.com with your domain.

sudo certbot --apache -m admin@example.com -d example.com -d www.example.com

After running the above commands, you should get prompted to accept the licensing terms. If everything is checked, the client should automatically install the free SSL/TLS certificate and configure the Apache2 site to use the certs.

Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A

Choose Yes ( Y ) to share your email address.

Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about EFF and
our work to encrypt the web, protect its users and defend digital rights.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Y)es/(N)o: Y

This is how easy it is to obtain your free SSL/TLS certificate for your Apache2-powered website.

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2

Pick option 2 to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. This is important!

After that, the SSL client should install the cert and configure your website to redirect all traffic over HTTPS.

Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://example.com and
https://www.example.com

You should test your configuration at:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=example.com
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.example.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
   Your key file has been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
   Your cert will expire on 2018-02-24. To obtain a new or tweaked
   version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again
   with the "certonly" option. To non-interactively renew *all* of
   your certificates, run "certbot renew"
 - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:

   Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt:   https://letsencrypt.org/donate
   Donating to EFF:                    https://eff.org/donate-le

The highlighted code block should automatically be added to your Apache2 Textpattern configuration file by Let’s Encrypt certbot. After that, your Textpattern site is ready to be used over HTTPS.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/textpattern/
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/textpattern/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =example.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.example.com
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

A new configuration file for the domain should also be created named /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com-le-ssl.conf. This Apache2 SSL module configuration file should contain the defined certificate definitions.

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
   ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/textpattern/
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/textpattern/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

You’ll have to renew the certificates manually. You’ll get an email reminder to reset when the certificates are about to expire. To test the renewal process, run the commands below.

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

To set up a process to automatically renew the certificates, add a cron job to execute the renewal process.

sudo crontab -e

Then add the line below and save.

0 1 * * * /usr/bin/certbot renew & > /dev/null

The cron job will attempt to renew 30 days before expiring

After that, open your browser and browse your domain name to launch the Textpattern configuration wizard.

You should see the Textpattern setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

https://example.com/textpattern/setup

You should see the Textpattern setup wizard. Choose your language and click Submit.

Next, type in the database connection info you created above. And click Next.

After that, you should be prompted to create a new file in the textpattern directory called config.php with the content of your database settings.

Run the commands below to create a new file with the content.

sudo nano /var/www/html/textpattern/textpattern/config.php

Then paste the content into the file and save.

<?php
$txpcfg['db'] = 'textpattern';
$txpcfg['user'] = 'textpatternuser';
$txpcfg['pass'] = 'new_password_here';
$txpcfg['host'] = 'localhost';
$txpcfg['table_prefix'] = '';
$txpcfg['txpath'] = '/var/www/html/textpattern/textpattern';
$txpcfg['dbcharset'] = 'utf8mb4';
?>

Afterward, go to the next page and create a new admin account for the backend. Then continue.