====== nanoweb installation in Ubuntu 10.10 ======

[[http://nanoweb.si.kz/|nanoweb]] is an HTTP (web) server written in php, and consequently runs on any platform with php. It is small and relatively simple to install and configure. Its latest version is now (Nov. 2010) two years old, so I guess we could say it is **stable**.

One can, as the site says,

> [[http://nanoweb.si.kz/downloads/dist/|Download]], then extract it. Read INSTALL, run install-sh.

However, I chose to use the Ubuntu Software Center, to facilitate eventual removal (or updates) if and when desired. 

The Ubuntu Software Center offers nanoweb pieces in **four** packages, whereas the authors' zip or tgz archive contains everything. It is a mystery to me why it is //"better"// to split ''nanoweb-doc'' and ''nanoweb-contrib'' (16.1 KB) for separate delivery. Even ''nanoconfig'', which is optional and a potential security risk if used on a public server, is only 93.4 KB and could well be left in the bundle, with a warning to deactivate in the ''install'' file. Instead, what happens with the Canonical install is

^ the server and demo default site work, but neither the link to the **manual** nor the link to the **configuration assistance** work. ^
|  even though they are installed and where they should be!!  |

===== Fixes =====

==== Fixing the broken links ====

The way to fix the broken links (''manual'' and ''nanoconfig'') is fairly simple: it consists of uncommenting two lines in ''/etc/nanoweb/nanoweb.conf''. Open a terminal (console), then type (if gedit is your text editor, otherwise substitute the name of your text editor)

  sudo gedit /etc/nanoweb/nanoweb.conf

enter your superuser password.

  [sudo] password for suitable:

In your editor, around line 217, uncomment (remove the leading %%#%% from)

  Alias             = /manual/ /usr/share/doc/nanoweb-doc/html/
  Alias             = /nanoconfig/ /usr/share/nanoweb-nanoconfig/
  
then save and exit. The links should now work, once one restarts one's nanoweb server. 

What has apparently happened is that, because the manual is __optional__ in the Synaptic package system, this path has been deactivated in the configuration file. ''nanoconfig'' is also optional--as it is in the authors' distribution--so its path, too is deactivated.

==== Restarting nanoweb ====

This is another problem area: ''nanoctl'' can stop the nanoweb http server, but can't start nor restart it, and nevermind executing any of the ''status'' calls! The two obvious problems with this script (located at ''/usr/sbin/nanoctl'') are
  - it tries to start ''/usr/sbin/nanoweb.php'' but the server has been renamed simply ''nanoweb'' **without the ''.php''!!**
  - it tries to display status information using ''lynx'' browser, whether or not it is available.

Once solved, the operations are

  sudo nanoctl stop
  sudo nanoctl start
  
or
  
  sudo nanoctl restart
  


==== Fixing nanoctl start|restart ===

First, to make nanoctl capable of starting and restarting the http server,

  sudo gedit /usr/sbin/nanoctl

to edit the ''nanoctl'' script to remove ''.php''; 

  # SERV='/usr/sbin/nanoweb.php'
  SERV='/usr/sbin/nanoweb'

save and exit. 

> __Update__ Alternatively, as recommended in this [[http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com/msg2419373.html|bug report comment]], simply add a symlink to alias the renamed file:\\    sudo ln -s /usr/sbin/nanoweb /usr/sbin/nanoweb.php

^ Note | The bug report, and this here page, both refer to Ubuntu 10.10, but the problem existed with 10.04--I encountered it in an installation on another machine a few months ago but neglected to write down what I'd learned and what I'd done to fix it so DokuWiki would run on it--and possibly earlier. Lack of earlier bug reports could be due to ''nanoweb'' not being installed often from repositories (via aptitude or Synaptic).  |

==== Fixing the nanoctl status calls ====

To fix (the easiest way) the calls to ''status'':

  sudo apt-get install lynx

to install the lynx text-only browser.  One can then execute

  nanoctl status

to see whether the http server is already running. And play with web surfing in ascii/terminal mode.


  sudo nanoctl start

or simply

  sudo nanoctl restart