Installing and Configuring Lampp (the simple guide) on Ubuntu

It may not surprise you if you read the posts around here, but I am a very lazy person when it comes to configuring and installing stuff on anything other than Windows OS. I will avoid anything that involves popping open terminal and putting commands in myself, unless I've found them on a forum somewhere.
So, when I was searching the Ubuntu forums for how to make lampp start with Linux, I just wished that someone would post with a clear step by step guide about how to do basic stuff with lampp.

I've decided to create this post in the hope that anyone else trying to configure lampp on Ubuntu Linux doesn't have to look in completely different places to find the answers they are looking for. Note: I'm installing on a clean copy of Ubuntu Linux release 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", with lampp version 1.6.4.
(By the way - non Ubuntu users: you should really give Gutsy Gibbon a spin, even if you are a Windows person like me.)

Step One - Get Lampp

Get lampp. So, you'll need a direct link to the Sourceforge.net lampp download page. Make sure that file is downloaded to your Ubuntu desktop, or at least move it there when it's done, or the commands I'm telling you to paste into terminal won't find the file.

Step Two - Install It

Yes, I know there's a perfectly good guide on the lampp site, but it isn't exactly the same for installing it on Ubuntu. So, I'll include the (very slightly) modified version for you to paste into terminal below.

sudo tar xvfz Desktop/xampp-linux-1.6.4.tar.gz -C /opt

That's it. Lampp installed. (Might take a minute or two to extract it all, but it will get there)

Step Three - Starting and Testing

Still in terminal, paste:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

Now you can pop open firefox, and type "localhost" into the address bar.
Note: It should most definately work, but in some cases it doesn't. I'm afraid this article just assumes that the install went fine, you'll have to scour the Apache Friends Network Lampp Documentation for help. Sorry :-(

Step Four - Running Lampp At Boot

Sure, if you don't want to make it run at start-up skip to step five by all means. So, to make lampp auto run when you boot up your computer, firstly paste the below into terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc.local

When the text editor opens, paste the following just below the "#! /bin/sh" line:

opt/lampp/lampp start

After you have inserted this line, hit the "Save" button, and close the text editor.
So, now lampp will start when you boot your linux box up. At this point I would recommend trying it out, by restarting your computer.

Step Five - Security

For one thing, it is outlined in the Lamp install instructions that your installation should be secure. So, either follow the instructions on the page above, or just paste the following into terminal:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp security

The steps are pretty straightforward, and mostly all you have to do is enter a password and hit enter.

Step Six - Fixing Stuff

I did find some problems with the normal use of lampp, mainly with the configuration of ProFTPD. For one thing connecting via FTP over my LAN took absolutely ages to connect, hanging before it had even processed my credentials. So, after looking on numerous forums, I found that it was trying to do a reverse lookup on the client's IP address (or something like that). The way to disable it is to get on gedit and change the proftpd.conf file. So, get on terminal and paste:

sudo gedit /opt/lampp/etc/proftpd.conf

Now, paste these two lines anywhere in the document, and click save:

IdentLookups   off
UseReverseDNS   off

I messed about with the settings to let me have read access to the whole server, which is obviously not advised. I also changed the ftp username from "nobody" to "alan".
Well, that's basically it. The lampp server is now ready to be used, so have a play around with it.
Below are the screenshots that I was going to use for this post, then decided against them. (They're showing stuff like running terminal etc)

Oh, and if you're wondering why all of the screenshots are in 1024x768, I took them all over the VNC server (post), and I have it at that resolution so I can see both my Windows and Ubuntu desktop at the same time, so VNC doesn't fill the whole screen.