In the spirit of giving back, once a month I will write a tutorial on things I’ve learned from using free open source.

This website runs wordpressmu with the buddypress plug-in. It also uses mediawiki to run The Stasi Files. On my home PC, which runs ubuntu I have XAMPP, WordPress and Buddypress installed so that I can play with the themes.

This tutorial will explain how I set up the local test environment and as I’m a noob I will try and keep Terminal to a minimum as really it’s a pain when you are used to Windows.
The versions I’m installing are:
XAMPP 1.72
Wordpressmu 2.8.5.2
Buddypress 1.1.2

XAMPP, this is needed as this creates databases on ubuntu which allows you to run wordpress and buddypress.
Steps:
1. Download it from Apache Friends
2. Once it’s downloaded go to Applications >>Accessories>>Terminal
3. Now in Terminal type in sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.2.tar.gz -C /opt and enter your password
This should extract, if it does not and comes with error saying no file exists, make sure you have terminal location e.g yourname@desktop:~$ the same place where you downloaded the file. I find it’s always easier to move the file rather than trying to get terminal to point to the right location.
4. Extraction successful
5. Still in Terminal, type sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start
6. In your browser, type in localhost and hopefully you will see this:

7. Select your language and lets enter XAMPP.

8. Lets sort out some security. In Terminal enter sudo /opt/lampp/lampp security Note, it’s not proper security but I use the the same password for all the next steps.
8.1 Password write yes and type and retype your password
8.2 MySQL accessible via network. Do you want to turn it off? write yes
8.3 The MySQL/phpMyAdmin user pma has no password set!!! write yes and type and retype your password
8.4 MySQL has no root passwort set!!! write yes and type and retype your password
8.5 The FTP password for user ‘nobody’ is still set to ‘lampp’. write yes and type and retype your password
8.6 Done
8.7 Refresh your browser in XAMPP and it will ask you for a user name and password. The user name is lampp

9. In your browser, select from the left menu under tools phpmyadmin. The user name is root.
You will now see this screen:

10. Enter a name for your database, mine is called testwpmu, and press create
11. Finished

Now lets install WordPressmu

1. Download it from mu.Wordpress.org
2. Extract it
3. Now in Terminal write gksudo nautilus and enter your password and in that new file window get to where you extracted the folder and copy it.
Can’t find it? Try going to the top level, then home, then yourname and downloads
4. Copy all the files in extracted wordpress-mu folder and paste it into opt>>lampp>>htdocs
5. Still in the file browser go to the top level and then etc>>hosts and open with gedit
6. Add the line 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain save and exit
7. Open a new instance of terminal and write sudo chmod 777 /opt/lampp/htdocs/wp-content/
8. Now we can install wordpressmu in the browser
8.1 In your browser enter localhost.localdomain
8.2 Blog Addresses – select Sub-directories (like example.com/blog1)
8.3 Database Name testwpmu (from point 10 above)
8.4 Username is root, password is the password from 8.4 above
8.5 Leave everything as they are and change the Site Title to whatever you want. I’ve called mine “My test place” and I entered my email on the next line and press Submit
8.6 There will be whole bunch of writing but as long as it says “Congratulations! Your WordPress µ site has been configured” thats all that matters

9. Remember!!!! to take a note of the admin and the wordpress generated password before you press log in.
10. Now log in.
11. Run the upgrade across all the blogs, highlighted in yellow at the top of the dashboard to keep wordpress happy
12. In Site Admin >Options and at the very bottom enable plugins by ticking the box and pressing Update options

Now lets install Buddypress

1. Lets close all the terminals and file windows down so that we can start with an uncluttered desktop apart from the opened dashboard in wordpress.
2. Download buddypress in another tab from Buddypress.org
3. Extract the folder.
4. In Terminal write gksudo nautilus and enter your password and in that new file window get to where you extracted the folder and copy it.
5. Copy the folder to opt>>lampp>>htdocs>>wp-content>>plugins
6. Now in the folder opt>>lampp>>htdocs>>wp-content>>plugins>>bp-themes cut the two folders bp-default and bp-sn-parent paste them in opt>>lampp>>htdocs>>wp-content>>themes.
7. In your wordpress dashboard, go to Plugsins>>Installed and activate Buddypress. Do not do it for sitewide.
8. Now in the wordpress dashboard, go to Site Admin >> Themes and select no for all Themes apart from BuddyPress Default
9. In the wordpress dashboard, go to Appearance >> Themes and activate BuddyPress Default.
10. Your work is done, and if you right-click visit site in the top left hand corner and open in a new tab, you will see the Buddypress Theme.

Last thing: Remember after a reboot, you always need to run in Terminal, type sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start else wordpress doesn’t run.

Enjoy and if you find any errors or something is unclear or…. please let me know.