Mahara is an open source e-portfolio system that aims to provide users with a platform to showcase their skills, experiences, and achievements. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Mahara on an OpenBSD machine.
Before proceeding, make sure that you have access to a machine running OpenBSD with root access privileges. Additionally, you will need an internet connection to download Mahara and its dependencies, and a web server, such as Apache or Nginx, to host the application.
Mahara requires PHP to be installed on your machine. To install PHP on OpenBSD, run the following commands in your terminal:
$ doas pkg_add php
Once the installation is complete, verify that PHP is installed by running the following command:
$ php -v
You will also need a web server to host Mahara on your machine. Apache and Nginx are popular web servers that can be used for this purpose. To install Apache, run the following command:
$ doas pkg_add apache-httpd
To install Nginx, run the following command:
$ doas pkg_add nginx
Once the installation is complete, start the web server using the following commands:
For Apache:
$ doas rcctl enable apache
$ doas rcctl start apache
For Nginx:
$ doas rcctl enable nginx
$ doas rcctl start nginx
To install Mahara, you can download the latest stable release from the Mahara website, or use the following command to download and extract the tarball:
$ wget https://launchpad.net/mahara/21.04/21.04.0/+download/mahara-21.04.0.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz mahara-21.04.0.tar.gz
Once the files are extracted, move the Mahara folder to the document root directory of your web server. For Apache, the document root is usually located at /var/www/htdocs/, while for Nginx, it is located at /var/www/.
$ mv mahara-21.04.0 /var/www/htdocs/mahara
To configure Mahara, you will need to create a new database and user in your OpenBSD machine. You can create a new database by running the following command:
$ doas su - _postgresql -c "createdb mahara"
Next, create a new user and grant it access to the Mahara database:
$ doas su - _postgresql -c "createuser -P mahara"
$ doas su - _postgresql -c "psql mahara -c 'grant all privileges on database mahara to mahara;'"
After creating the database and user, you will need to configure the Mahara configuration file by copying the config-dist.php to config.php and editing it to include the database credentials:
$ cp /var/www/htdocs/mahara/config-dist.php /var/www/htdocs/mahara/config.php
$ vi /var/www/htdocs/mahara/config.php
In the config.php file, locate the following section and update it with your database credentials:
$cfg->dbhost = 'localhost';
$cfg->dbname = 'mahara';
$cfg->dbuser = 'mahara';
$cfg->dbpass = 'yourpassword';
After completing the above steps, you should now be able to access Mahara by visiting the URL of your OpenBSD machine in a web browser. For example, if your machine's IP address is 192.168.1.100, you can visit http://192.168.1.100/mahara to access the Mahara installation page.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process, and you should now have access to your very own Mahara e-portfolio system!
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Mahara on an OpenBSD machine, configure it, and access it using a web browser. With Mahara, you can now showcase your skills and achievements in a professional e-portfolio that can be shared with potential employers, colleagues, and clients.
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