Experiences running wiki on Zaurii

[LadyBug]

We have been experimenting with different SW combinations for getting
a personal Wiki running on our family Zaurii (my C760, my husband\'s SL-5500). My need was also to find a Wiki that I could run both in my
Zaurus and also on a group server and the just sync the data with
unison.

Here are the various server/wiki combinations we tried:

- thttpd & AwkiAwki: small, fast.
  Beware of thttpd with a broken POST.
- boa & AwkiAwki: needs tweaks to work
  Boa runs CGIs from the boa config directory etc.
- thttpd and QuickiWiki: works, fast
  Needs perl. My husband liked this.
- Apache+PHP and PhpWiki: works OK
  From the performance point of view,
  PhpWiki 1.2.2 is much faster than 1.3.7.
  The latter version has much more functionality,
  though. BTW, 1.2.2 requires
  \"php_flag register_globals on\" in httpd.conf.
- Apache+PHP and MoinMoin: works, slow.
  MoinMoin uses Python and loads of
  python modules, so you have to install
  half a dozen or so python packages to
  get all the necessary stuff.
- boa and MoinMoin: Works, still slow.
  Front page takes about 7 seconds.
  The problem is the python execution,
  not the web server speed/size.
- perl + Zwiki: works, fast.
  Zaurus Wiki, not Zwiki as in Zope
  Wiki. Only text content, no pictures.

Other options that we did not try:
 - Zope
 - http://digit.que.ne.jp/visit/file/WalWiki2...wal.4.3_arm.ipk

Summary:

If you want just a small fast personal wiki easily and don\'t care
about pictures or major functionality, do the Zwiki.

If you want real functionality or to run the same SW in Zaurus
and in a real server somewhere, I\'d suggest PhpWiki. On my
760 the first phpWiki Home Page execution takes about 3.5
seconds measured from the phpWiki debug mode display. It gets
down to 2.5secs afterwards. I\'m running phpWiki 1.3.7.

QuickiWiki is a good compromise between those two approaches.
In a 5500 home page load times are about 4 seconds when
outswapped, and it gets to 1-2 seconds afterwards.

Any other experiences?

[totaln00b]

Hi Ladybug,

I found your discussion of the various wikis really interesting. I have decided to try phpwiki out, and seem to be having a few problems getting it working correctly, so I wonder if you could clear a few things up for me.

Version 1.2.x requires register_globals to be ON, but in my version of apache and php (the one packaged for zaurii in the software index) I don't have a php.ini file to set this in. Did you use .htaccess files, or add it to httpd.conf? Neither of these approaches seem to have made any difference to me ( I can get the index page that creates all the additional pages, but clicking on the links sends me straight back to the index page again).

I couldn't get anywhere with Version 1.3.9 (the earliest version that I could find).

If you have any suggestions, or instructions aimed at complete beginners I'd be very grateful.

Thanks

Jo

[totaln00b]

(Blush)
Answered my own question in the end by reading ladybug's post properly!
Phpwiki 1.2.4 seems to work very well though I'm only learning...

Jo

[kopsis]

Note that you can speed up MoinMoin dramatically by using it's built in Python based HTTP server instead of Apache or Boa. Python itself is pretty speedy on the Zaurus, it's just the initial loading of all the various modules when a Python process starts that takes forever.

To do this you need to copy moin_config.py from your moin data dir (usually /usr/share/moin) into $PYTHON_DIR/site-packages/MoinMoin. Edit moin_config.py to make sure all the paths are set up correctly. Then just kick off $PYTHON_DIR/site-packages/MoinMoin/httpdmain.py as a background process.

The MoinMoin Python CGI scripts will execute in the context of the server which conveniently keeps all of the various Python modules cached up. Using that technique MoinMoin page loads (after the very first) usually happen in under 3 seconds.

--
    Dave Kessler

[JohnKiniston]

I'd suggest trying MiniRubyWiki

I used it on my Zaurus before my SD card started to go bad, It was quick and seemed to have a lot of features, has its own webserver built in.

You need to install Ruby on the Zaurus to use it.

[iamasmith]

Wow, this is so useful!

I set up phpWiki 1.2.4 on a couple of systems and unison to sync, it's a really useful thing to be able to sync a knowlege base like this and Apache-PHP +phpWiki is PDQ on my SL-C860 w'Cacko.

Has anyone noticed though that the Z version of unison screws up the date/timestamp - I think this may be a byte ordering issue and I will take a look when I get the time.

Thanks for the pointers and all the legwork LadyBug.

[iamasmith]

BTW: if anyone did want to get hold of phpWiki 1.3.7 you can get it from...

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/phpwiki....7.tgz?download

It has dropped from the SF index but it's still on the mirrors.

[fpp]

Although not technically a Wiki, ELOG is a very versatile tool that can be useful on a Z (esp. if synchronization with another instance on a server is required). It is its own http server, requires no database engine, and consists of only one C source file, which makes it easy to compile, install and run, and quite lightweight in terms of system resources.

For the curious, the ELOG homepage is here : http://midas.psi.ch/elog/

and a ready-made binary of the server (elogd) for the Zaurus can be found on this page : http://fredp.lautre.net/Z/

[ShiroiKuma]

Hi:

I've searched all over the web, but can't find it.

Where can I get phpwiki 1.3.7 for the zaurus?

[w14]

There is no specific version for the Zaurus. Install apache+php and mysql, both available via www.killefiz.de/zaurus, download phpwiki from the phpwiki site and follow the installation instructions.

Mike.

[ShiroiKuma]

I'd suggest trying MiniRubyWiki

I used it on my Zaurus before my SD card started to go bad, It was quick and seemed to have a lot of features, has its own webserver built in.

You need to install Ruby on the Zaurus to use it.

Where can you download MiniRubyWiki for the Z?

I found this page but the link to How To Set It Up is dead.

Any pointers?

[ShiroiKuma]

There is no specific version for the Zaurus. Install apache+php and mysql, both available via www.killefiz.de/zaurus, download phpwiki from the phpwiki site and follow the installation instructions.

Mike.

OK, I installed apache with php and mysql.

Downloaded the phpwiki, untarred it to a directory on a CF card.

And what do I do now?

I've never done this.

How do I go about creating and editing pages in wiki now? What do I open?

This might seem elemental/ but I've never worked with wiki/ wanna learn.

Thanks.

[zenyatta]

In general, you need to:

1. look for a file named 'httpd.conf' where you
2. indicate where your phpwiki code is located and other parameters; then you
3. look for a file named 'apachectl', run 'apachectl start' and
4. try connecting to http://localhost/ with some browser.

All of this must be elaborated in the phpwiki documentation, I'm sure. Just check their website.

z.

[ShiroiKuma]

1. look for a file named 'httpd.conf' where you
2. indicate where your phpwiki code is located and other parameters; then you
3. look for a file named 'apachectl', run 'apachectl start' and
4. try connecting to http://localhost/ with some browser.

Hi:

I did all the above steps. but I must've gone wrong somehow in step two, since I can check that mysql is running, and it is, but when I open http://localhost/ in the browser I only get the standard apache page, saying: Index of /
and it's empty, i.e. no sql error, nothing.

I changed:
DocumentRoot "/home/www/htdocs"
to:
DocumentRoot "/mnt/cf/phpwiki-1.3.7"

and further down:
<Directory "/home/www/htdocs">
to:
<Directory "/mnt/cf/phpwiki-1.3.7">

but this is probably not it.

Where am I going wrong?

[ShiroiKuma]

OK, I think the problem is with Apache, or something that I've done.

When I isntalled Apache and tried to run, I got

Code: [Select]

/home/www/bin/apachectl: /usr/local/apache/src/httpd: not found /home/www/bin/apachectl start: httpd could not be startedSo I created the /usr/local/apache/src/ directory and in tlaced a symlink to /home/www/bin/httpd

Now httpd start gives

Code: [Select]

/home/www/bin/apachectl start: httpd startedhowever if I run httpd restart right away after this, I get:

Code: [Select]

/home/www/bin/apachectl restart: httpd not running, trying to start
/home/www/bin/apachectl restart: httpd startedSo obviously, it's not running.

What's the problem?