[Techtalk] Mandrake/Linux newbie deep in confusion about apache/advx

[Will Duffay]

I have installed Mandrake 8.0 on an old machine, and have put apache 1.3.27, PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.51 on it. Apache seems to work okay, (in that if I do 'apachectl stop', then localhost can't find anything), but localhost comes up with a welcome page for something called ExtraNet, not the apache page I am used to with Windows. This ExtraNet thing seems to be a *helpful* Mandrake add-on, but one that is causing difficulties.

The problem arose when I tried to run a sample php script which I had put in /usr/local/apache/htdocs, as I would do in Windows and as is specified in httpd.conf. The URL couldn't be found. Strange I thought. So I tried a simple HTML file and also one of the pre-existing apachel HTML files. None could be found.

So I had a root (no pun intended - I too far from loving Linux to start any of that nonsense) around the various directories and files, and discovered a completely different httpd.conf sitting in /etc/httpd/conf and that the welcome to ExtraNet apache' HTML file is in /home/httpd/html.

So I wondered to myself: 'what's going on?'. Because I had carefully installed apache and PHP according to the online instructions (PHP not with an rpm, by the way, but from source), got through problems with bison and apxs, and had checked the httpd.conf file for the various AddModule and AddType stuff and everything should be okay. I probably need to know where to find this Advanced ExtraNet, or advx, on my machine so that I can remove it. I haven't yet worked out how to use 'find' (I was rather hoping to learn how to use Linux by using it rather than by reading acres of dry documentation), 'whereis' comes up with nothing, and so does slocate. I discovered a half bit of info elsewhere which suggests that advx doesn't support PHP4, so I certainly want to get rid of it. It's not obviously sitting in a directory called Extranet or advx.

I that's enough/not too much information, and somebody can identify my problem. Perhaps I should simply try using this new httpd.conf and dump all my php files in this new html directory, but that doesn't seem right.

Thank you very much in advance.

Will

(As a side issue: from a newbie's point of view, man/info is rather less than helpful (especially when combined with those miracles of intuitive usability vi and emacs: I like the irony of reading the man pages for vi in vi) and it is difficult to find good online support for Linux which doesn't assume that users were all born speaking bash script, or whatever. Hopefully one of you can put me back on the path to open-source nirvana, before I turn back completely to the dark side... I really should buy a book about it.)




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