How to Install Mahara on FreeBSD Latest?

Mahara is a popular open source e-portfolio system designed primarily for students and educators to showcase their education and career achievements. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Mahara on FreeBSD, the free and open-source operating system.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation process, you will need:

• A FreeBSD system with root access
• A web server installed, such as Apache or Nginx
• PHP 7.3 or later, including required extensions
• MySQL or MariaDB database server

Step 1: Install Dependencies

1. Before installing Mahara, we need to install some dependencies, including Apache, PHP, MySQL, and PHP extensions. You can install them using the following command:

pkg install apache24 php73 php73-mysqli php73-pdo_mysql mod_php73 mysql57-server

2. After installing the required packages, we need to enable Apache and MySQL to start automatically at boot time. You can do this using the following commands:

sysrc apache24_enable="yes"
sysrc mysql_enable="yes"

3. Finally, we need to start Apache and MySQL using the following commands:

service apache24 start
service mysql-server start

Step 2: Download and Extract Mahara

1. Next, download the latest version of Mahara by visiting the following URL: https://mahara.org/download/

2. Once the download is complete, extract the downloaded archive using the following command:

tar xvzf mahara-X.X.X.tar.gz -C /usr/local/www/

3. Rename the extracted folder to mahara using the following command:

mv /usr/local/www/mahara-X.X.X /usr/local/www/mahara

Step 3: Create a Database for Mahara

1. Login to MySQL server using root user:

mysql -u root -p

2. Create a new database and user for Mahara:

CREATE DATABASE mahara_db;
CREATE USER 'mahara_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mahara_db.* TO 'mahara_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4: Configure Mahara

1. Open Mahara configuration file using the following command:

nano /usr/local/www/mahara/config.php

2. In the config.php file, update the database details with the details you created earlier in Step 3. You can use the following lines:

$dbtype   = 'mysqli';
$dbhost   = 'localhost';
$dbname   = 'mahara_db';
$dbuser   = 'mahara_user';
$dbpass   = 'your_password';

3. Save and close the config.php file.

Step 5: Set Up Mahara in a Web Browser

1. Now, open your web browser and navigate to your FreeBSD server's IP address or domain name followed by "/mahara". For example, http://server_ip_or_domain/mahara.

2. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up Mahara. You will need to create an administrator account, configure some basic settings, and connect to your database.

3. After completing the installation process, you can log in to Mahara with the administrator account and start using it.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Mahara on FreeBSD Latest. You can now create accounts, portfolios, and showcase your educational and professional achievements.

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