Moodle iLP2.0 developer documentation

Collaborative notebook of discoveries so far in the ULCC iLP 2.0 Moodle block.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jk-HRExKDIdc9bAGehrdJ2XOo4klZLqk9io3JTfDbKg/edit?pli=1

Create a tar file

tar -cvf filename.tar /location/to/tar/

Install APC PowerChute Network Shutdown PCNS on Ubuntu

Download the Linux client from APC

Extract the files:
tar xvf pcns224Linux.tar.gz
Edit install.sh from line 278 to look like this:

Initialize() {
Echo "Initializing ..."
case "$OS" in
$VIMA)
Echo "This version of PowerChute Network Shutdown does not support VMWare ESX or ESXi. Please consult www.apc.com for the required version of PowerChute Network Shutdown."
exit 1
;;
$LINUX)
STARTUP=/etc/init.d/PowerChute
PCBE_STARTUP=/etc/rc.d/init.d/PBEAgent
PCS_STARTUP=/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcs
;;

Then at line 1194 add:

#Ubuntu specific
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc0.d/K99PowerChute
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc1.d/K99PowerChute
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc2.d/S99PowerChute
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc3.d/S99PowerChute
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc4.d/S99PowerChute
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc5.d/S99PowerChute
ln -s /etc/init.d/PowerChute /etc/rc6.d/K99PowerChute
mkdir /var/lock/subsys/

Run the configuration script.

/opt/APC/PowerChute/group1/PCNSConfig.sh

Start the service

sudo /etc/init.d/PowerChute start


Add PHP support to Apache in open SuSe 11.4

yast2 -i apache2-mod-php5

Edit /etc/apache2/sysconfig.d/loadmodule.conf

Add LoadModule php5_module                    /usr/lib64/apache2/mod_php5.so

apache2ctl stop

apache2ctl start

Then check it worked  apache2ctl -M

php5_module (shared) should be listed.

Pacha podcast

Vist http://www.pacha.com/ for the Pacha podcast, perfect accompaniment to a Monday morning coding session!

mod_rewrite on SuSe

edit /etc/sysconfig/apache2

Add rewrite inside the speech marks for APACHE_MODULES=”rewrite, other modules…”

edit /etc/apache2/default-server.conf

Change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All

apache2ctl restart

Source http://enarion.net/web/htaccess/mod_rewrite-on-suse/

Create a new MySQL user

CREATE USER ‘user1′@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘pass1′;

GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE ON *.* TO ‘user1′@’localhost’;

Source http://www.databasef1.com/tutorial/mysql-create-user.html

Twitter feed

Converting an empty MySQL database to UTF8

During the setup of a new Moodle server I got an error that the database was not UTF8. To fix this in MySQL command line: ALTER DATABASE mydatabasename charset=utf8;

Moodle course backup fails

If a backups fail when using the built in backup feature off moodle.  Check your apache error log.  I was getting ‘ALERT – configured POST variable limit exceeded – dropped variable ‘backup_user_info_resource_instance_25051′

Edit your PHP Suhosin module configuraion either withing php.ini or on SuSe Enterprise Linux /etc/php5/conf.d/suhosin.ini

Remove the ; and increase the value e.g. from:
;suhosin.request.max_vars = 200
;suhosin.post.max_vars = 200

suhosin.request.max_vars = 400
suhosin.post.max_vars = 400

Then stop and start apache for the changes to take effect. apache2ctl stop then apache2ctl start.