My new online project is to build static websites with WordPress. Just to see if it can be a viable alternative to the light Typesetter CMS, which I’m currently using for some static websites. For that I needed a local server on my Linux Mint machine. On Linux you can choose between two alternatives: The first is called LAMPP, a locally installed server package with an Apache2 server MySQL and PHP. That demands an endless number of entrys on the command line – with uncertain results. Not my path. I chose XAMPP, a solution with graphical interface, that brings you Apache, MySQL, PHP and PHPMyadmin by just a few clicks. I found an howto at Squarenoid, which worked for me, with some minor supplements:

After Installing XAMPP I had to create a new database for my project before installing WordPress. It’s a doodle in PHPMyadmin. After installing XAMPP and WordPress, I was shutting down my computer. Restarting the machine brought a bad surprise: I couldn’t connect to my server nor my WordPress installation. Solution: I had to restart my server manually.

~$ sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

This command sets my server up and running. For reasons of security it would be wise to shut the local server down after working on it.

~$ sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop

XAMPP is not suitable for use as a public server without some further configurations. In MySQL root has no password protection and phpmyadmin is freely accessable in your local network. But online in your local network.