Intranet/Intranet Installation

This page documents installing MediaWiki, some basic customisation and an upgrade process. This process builds upon Intranet Reference Build Ubuntu

  • Install from Git
  • Use symlinks to keep code and data separate
  • Database backup method
  • Simple, safe upgrades
  • Auto created users matching web server authentication scheme
  • Visual Editor
Documentation test log
Date OS MW version Notes
16 Nov 2017 Ubuntu "Xenial" (18.04) 1.31.0-wmf.6 (Git) Everything appears to work OK up to and including DB backups

23 Nov 2017

Ubuntu "Xenial"

1.31.0-wmf.7 (Git)

Update process tested and slightly amended. VE included

8 Dec 2017

Ubuntu "Xenial"

1.31.0-wmf.11 (Git)

Removed tarball "stable" bits from this article to avoid confusion and complexity. Works rather well.

17 Jan 2018 Ubuntu "Xenial" 1.31.0-wmf.16 OK (clarification update to this article - no process change)
7 Jul 2018 Ubuntu "Xenial" 1.32.0-wmf.10 Initially works fine but VE seems broken at this time. Source editing seems OK.
14 Feb 2019 Ubuntu "Bionic" (18.04) 1.33.0-wmf.16 Fully operational apart from notifications/notices
9 May 2019 Ubuntu "Bionic" (18.04) 1.34.0-wmf.4 All working apart from notifications/notices
9 Oct 2019 Ubuntu "Bionic" (18.04) 1.35.0-wmf.1 Several of my locally maintained extensions have been converted to wfLoadExtension and I had to use

$wgShowExceptionDetails = true; in LocalSettings.php to diagnose why my wiki failed to run several times

14 Apr 2020 Ubuntu "Bionic" (18.04) 1.35.0-wmf.27 Local AdminLinks extension changed to wfLoadExtension
10 Aug 2020 Ubuntu "Bionic" (18.04) 1.35.0-wmf.41 CirrusSearch now wfLoadExtension

ExternalData MySQL connections need a table prefix setting - even ''. eg $edgDBTablePrefix['mydb'] = '';

Graphviz no longer supported - status unknown

21 May 2021 Ubuntu "Focal" (20.04) 1.37.0-wmf.6 VE now using the MW provided Parsoid service rather than an additional service
10 Feb 2022 Ubuntu "Focal" (20.04) 1.38.0-wmf.21 No problems so far
29 Apr 2022 Ubuntu "Focal" (20.04) 1.39.0-wmf.9 DynamicSidebar extension removed
20 Jul 2022 Ubuntu "Focal" (20.04) 1.39.0-wmf.21 No issues
02 Jun 2023 Ubuntu "Jammy" (22.04) 1.40.0-wmf.27 No issues but update.php emits a warning to use run.php instead - presumably a wrapper for all maint scripts
24 Jul 2023 Ubuntu "Jammy" (22.04) 1.41.0-wmf.18 No issues
17 Jan 2024 Ubuntu "Jammy" (22.04) 1.42.0-wmf.14 Old code was still being referenced, rather than honouring the symlink. The homepage would not display. This needed $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; in LocalSettings.php to diagnose, which was alluded to in the error message. The problem was obvious because the paths were shown. In future, remove or move older code branches away.

In this article, locally maintained extensions are those that I have downloaded or checked out with git and loaded into MediaWiki myself. This is the code that I store under local-extensions<name_of_extension> in this article. The majority of extensions that I use are those that are included with the MediaWiki software itself.

Initial MediaWiki Installation edit

Settings edit

This table shows the settings I have chosen. You can pick your own but make sure you are consistent!

Setting Meaning
hostname Name of the host running Mediawiki - here wiki.example.co.uk
(webroot) Directory where the web server defaults to storing pages - /var/www/html/
mediawiki Location (under webroot) for Mediawiki code Maintained as a symlink
/wiki Short URL for wiki articles (matches Wikipedia)
/w Short URL for API access (matches Wikipedia)
mediawiki Name of the database in MySQL/MariaDB
mediawiki Username to access the database
random_string Password for wiki database user. Generate with something like $ md5sum a_randomly_chosen_file or use a password manager to create one

Filesystem layout edit

The directory structure you end up with is outlined in the following table. We use symlinks to switch between versions whilst keeping the webserver configuration constant:

Base path Directory/File Purpose
/var/www/html ./mediawiki/ -> <version> Symlink to code
./local-extensions/ Checked out extensions in subdirectories of this directory
./logo.gif Logofile
./LocalSettings.php Real LocalSettings.php file
./mediawiki/LocalSettings.php -> .LocalSettings.php Symlink to LocalSettings file
./<version> Checked out copy of the code

Pre requisites edit

  • Install PHP modules
# apt install php-mbstring php-xml php-mysql php-apcu php-intl
# systemctl restart apache2
  • Install git
# apt install git
  • Imagemagick (for image thumbnails)[1]
# apt install imagemagick
  • Setup database. Set a suitable password (line 4 below) 'random_string'. The password will be put in the LocalSettings.php that will be generated later in this process but keep a note of it.
# mysql -u root -p

MariaDB [(none)]> create database mediawiki;
MariaDB [(none)]> create user 'mediawiki'@'localhost' identified by 'random_string';
MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on mediawiki . * to 'mediawiki'@'localhost';
MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
MariaDB [(none)]> \q

Install MediaWiki software edit

To help you decide what version to run, check the official release status [2] , check what version Wikipedia is using [3] look at change logs for development status [4]

MediaWiki software edit

# cd /var/www/html
  • Find a version using git ls-remote:
# git ls-remote --heads https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/core
....
f5a748cda402d61641e6da72a3544f6005c0409f        refs/heads/wmf/1.31.0-wmf.5
433022fdf2b2b0b82fdedec5623462af739d8629        refs/heads/wmf/1.31.0-wmf.6 <---- Chosen version
cd3ceb4540f735de003a771d134ce427d230bdf5        refs/heads/wmf/1.31.0-wmf.7
  • Clone the chosen version
    # git clone --depth=1 --single-branch --branch wmf/1.31.0-wmf.6 https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/core.git 1.31.0-wmf.6
    
  • Update the submodules and Composer managed libraries
    # cd 1.31.0-wmf.6
    # git submodule update --init --recursive
    

Web based Installer edit

  • This is just the initial install. We will change the URL to access MW later.
# cd /var/www/html
# ln -s mediawiki-1.29.2 mediawiki    .... downloaded release ....
.... or ....
# ln -s 1.31.0-wmf.6 mediawiki        .... downloaded using git ....
  • Browse to https://wiki.example.co.uk/mediawiki and the first run wizard will start. Keep the settings to a minimum and do not enable any modules. At the end, download the provided LocalSettings.php file and upload it to the web server's filesystem at /var/www/html. Create the symlink to it from the wiki folder.
# cd /var/www/html/mediawiki
# ln -s /var/www/html/LocalSettings.php
  • Disable the Minerva Neue skin in LocalSettings.php to get the wiki to load until it is no longer dependent on MobileFrontend[5]. Edit LocalSettings.php and towards the end put a # in front of wfLoadSkin( 'MinervaNeue' );

Move images out edit

# mkdir /var/www/html/images
# chown www-data:www-data /var/www/html/images
# cd /var/www/html/mediawiki
# rm -Rvf images
# ln -s /var/www/html/images

Short URLs edit

  • Add two Alias statements outside of the virtual host definition. These are the final short URLs:
    # /etc/apache2/sites-available/local.conf
    
    ServerName wiki.example.co.uk
    
    <VirtualHost _default_:443>
    ...
    </VirtualHost>
    
    Alias /wiki /var/www/html/mediawiki/index.php 
    Alias /w    /var/www/html/mediawiki
    
  • Change $wgScriptPath and add $wgArticlePath in LocalSettings.php to match the short URL:
    ...
    $wgScriptPath  = "/w";      
    $wgArticlePath = '/wiki/$1';
    ...
    
# systemctl restart apache2

edit

  • Copy a logo file into /var/www/html and rename it to logo.gif (or.png or whatever) and reference it in LocalSettings.php
    $wgLogo = "/logo.gif";
    

Cache edit

  • This enables a simple filesystem based cache which will help speed up page load times. Create a cache directory for the wiki to use:
    # mkdir /var/cache/mediawiki
    # chown www-data:www-data /var/cache/mediawiki
    
  • Add this to LocalSettings.php:
    $wgCacheDirectory= "/var/cache/mediawiki";
    

Cronjob for runJobs edit

  • Add the following to LocalSettings.php to disable runjobs[6]
    # Run jobs via cron
    $wgJobRunRate = 0;
    
  • Add this to crontab (change the timings to suit - this example runs every seven minutes)
    # crontab -u www-data -e
    2-59/7 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/mediawiki/maintenance/runJobs.php > /var/log/mediawiki/runJobs.log 2>&1
    
  • Create a directory for the log
    # mkdir /var/log/mediawiki
    # chown www-data:www-data /var/log/mediawiki
    
  • When you are happy that runJobs is working correctly then either use something like logrotate to handle the ever growing log file or disable it by removing the redirection in crontab.

Enable wikieditor[7] edit

  • Edit LocalSettings.php and add this at the bottom:
    # End of automatically generated settings.
    # Add more configuration options below.
    
    wfLoadExtension( 'WikiEditor' );
    
    # WikiEditor
    $wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar']     = 1;
    $wgDefaultUserOptions['usebetatoolbar-cgd'] = 1;
    $wgDefaultUserOptions['wikieditor-preview'] = 1;
    $wgDefaultUserOptions['wikieditor-publish'] = 1;
    # WikiEditor
    
  • Try editing a page. if the editor does not appear then hold down shift and press the reload button in your browser to clear the cached page.

Authentication and authorisation edit

Auth_remoteuser[8] edit

The reference build that this article is part of sets REMOTE_USER via Kerberos.

  • Create local-extensions area. This avoids our locally maintained extensions from being overwritten by upgrades
    # mkdir /var/www/html/local-extensions
    # cd /var/www/html/local-extensions
    
  • Get the latest code
    # git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/Auth_remoteuser
    
  • Enable and configure the extension. This extension appears to break CirrusSearch and isn't needed when running maintenance scripts, so it is conditionally disabled. Setting $wgExtensionDirectory and then resetting it back to default enables the wfLoadExtension() call to work.
    # Locally managed extensions
    if ( !$wgCommandLineMode ) {
        $wgExtensionDirectory = '/var/www/html/local-extensions';
        wfLoadExtension( 'Auth_remoteuser' );
        $wgExtensionDirectory = '$IP/extensions';
    }
    
    # Auth_remoteuser
    $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount']     = false;
    $wgGroupPermissions['*']['autocreateaccount'] = true;
    
    # This allows switching to "Admin"
    $wgAuthRemoteuserAllowUserSwitch         = true;
    $wgAuthRemoteuserRemoveAuthPagesAndLinks = false;
    # Auth_remoteuser
    
  • You should now be logged into an automatically created wiki account based on your AD username when you access the wiki.

Visual Editor [9] edit

The Visual Editor extension. PHP-Curl is required for VE to work at all. Installing curl itself is optional but useful for testing from the local command line.

# apt install php-curl curl

Enable the Extension and Parsoid by adding these lines towards the bottom of LocalSettings.php but before the auth_remoteuser configuration.

wfLoadExtension( 'VisualEditor' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Parsoid', 'vendor/wikimedia/parsoid/extension.json' );

# Visual Editor
$wgDefaultUserOptions['visualeditor-enable'] = 1;
# Visual Editor

Add AllowEncodedSlashes to the Apache virtualhost configuration and reload Apache. This enables editing of subpages:

# /etc/apache2/sites-available/local.conf

<VirtualHost _default_:443>
...
    AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode
...
</VirtualHost>

Visual Editor will make a connection from the system's IP address and not its loopback address to the REST API ie /w/api.php. If authentication is in use in a <Location /> block as is documented here, then this will cause a 401 error when trying to edit. Add the additional RequireAll block, replacing 10.10.10.10 with the real IP address of the system, this will allow that IP address to connect without authentication:

# /etc/apache2/sites-available/local.conf
...
<Location />
...
    <RequireAny>

...
        <RequireAll>
            Require ip 10.10.10.10
        </RequireAll>
...

This is not a very elegant solution and I will look for a better one Gerdesj (talk) 11:00, 21 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Database Backups edit

  • This script is really designed for ad hoc use because you will be backing up the entire system anyway
    # mkdir /var/lib/mediawiki-backups
    
  • Create backup script in /usr/local/bin/mediawiki-backup.sh
#!/bin/sh

L="/var/www/html/LocalSettings.php"
B="/var/lib/mediawiki-backups"

D="`cat ${L} | grep DBname     | cut -d '"' -f 2`"
U="`cat ${L} | grep DBuser     | cut -d '"' -f 2`"
P="`cat ${L} | grep DBpassword | cut -d '"' -f 2`"
F="${D}-`date +%F-%T`"

mysqldump --databases ${D} -u${U} -p${P} --add-drop-table > ${B}/${F}.sql
  • Make the script executable
    # chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mediawiki-backup.sh
    
  • Run it and verify that you have a database backup file. There should be a file named wiki-<datestamp>.sql - check its contents to verify that it really is a backup
    # mediawiki-backup.sh
    # ls -l /var/lib/mediawiki-backups/
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1981071 Nov 16 11:40 wiki-2017-11-16.sql
    # less /var/lib/mediawiki-backups/wiki-2017-11-16.sql
    -- MySQL dump 10.15  Distrib 10.0.31-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64)
    --
    -- Host: localhost    Database: wiki
    -- ------------------------------------------------------
    -- Server version       10.0.31-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.16.04.2
    
    /*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */;
    /*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */;
    /*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */;
    /*!40101 SET NAMES utf8mb4 */
    ....
    

Updating edit

It is possible to avoid the downtime associated with snapshots and waiting for the code to download but this process is designed to be as safe as possible.

Before updating edit

  • Perform pre-upgrade change control process
  • Check backups
  • Shutdown the system and take a snapshot
  • Start the system

Update the code edit

  • Do the MediaWiki installation section of this article to get the new code, for example:
# cd /var/www/html
# git ls-remote --heads https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/core

... pick a version ...

# git clone --depth=1 --single-branch --branch wmf/1.42.0-wmf.14 https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/core.git 1.42.0-wmf.14
# cd 1.42.0-wmf.14
# git submodule update --init --recursive
  • Create symlinks
# cd /var/www/html/1.42.0-wmf.14   .... check the version carefully
# rm -Rv ./images
# ln -s /var/www/html/images
# ln -s /var/www/html/LocalSettings.php

Switch to the new code edit

  • Stop the web server (systemctl stop apache2)
  • Make the wiki read-only. Put this at the bottom of LocalSettings.php:
$wgReadOnly = 'This wiki is currently being upgraded.';
  • Start Apache (systemctl start apache2)
  • Remove and re-point the symlink.
# cd /var/www/html
# rm mediawiki
# ln -s 1.41.0-wmf.18 mediawiki
  • Make the wiki read/write. Delete or comment out $wgReadOnly in LocalSettings.php
# $wgReadOnly = 'This wiki is currently being upgraded.';
  • Update local extensions. In general, cd into each directory and run git pull
  • Run update.php
# cd /var/www/html/mediawiki
# /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/mediawiki/maintenance/run.php update

Sometimes you will get an error when running update.php that points to one or more lines in LocalSettings.php. If that line relates to module loading with the old style, then try converting it to the newer wfLoadExtension(); format.

  • Test the new code
  • Notify users that the wiki is available again
  • Perform post-upgrade change control process

Notes edit

  • Upgrading from 1.34.4 to 1.35.1 required upgrading the ExternalData extension on my wiki. I use ED (#get_web_data) to show the versions of the live MW and WP websites to compare against the locally running version. After upgrading, my homepage generated an error, which needed $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; in LocalSettings.php to provide a clue to the real fault.
  • Keep an eye on which of your locally maintained extensions have been ported to the newer loading format using wfLoadExtension. For me, recently on updating them from git, I had to move GraphViz and MyVariables over to the newer load format
  • Removing the Parsoid package caused a generic error when invoking VE. I had to add a wfLoadExtension for Parsoid. I've included it above. See Extension:VisualEditor#Troubleshooting for additional help if you are still in trouble
  • My test MW had an extra Skin/theme from the wizard that needed removing from LocalSettings before update.php could run
  • update.php should not be run directly and instead called via run.php

References edit

  1. Manual:Image administration - Installing third party tool in the MW Manual
  2. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki - MW website
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Version - WP version page
  4. phab:source/mediawiki/branches/ - Development branches
  5. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Minerva_Neue - Documentation on the Minerva Neue skin
  6. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Job_queue Job Queue documentation
  7. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WikiEditor - Wikieditor extension documentation
  8. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Auth_remoteuser - Auth_remoteuser extension documentation
  9. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor - Visual Editor