Before installing MediaWiki you should also install Apache2, the PHP5 scripting language and Database a Management System. MySQL or PostgreSQL are the most common, choose one depending on your need. Please refer to those sections in this manual for installation instructions.

To install MediaWiki, run the following command in the command prompt:

sudo apt-get install mediawiki php5-gd

For additional MediaWiki functionality see the mediawiki-extensions package.

The Apache configuration file mediawiki.conf for MediaWiki is installed in /etc/apache2/conf.d/ directory. You should uncomment the following line in this file to access MediaWiki application.

# Alias /mediawiki /var/lib/mediawiki

After you uncomment the above line, restart Apache server and access MediaWiki using the following url:

http://localhost/mediawiki/config/index.php

Once the configuration is complete, you should copy the LocalSettings.php file to /etc/mediawiki directory:

sudo mv /var/lib/mediawiki/config/LocalSettings.php /etc/mediawiki/

You may also want to edit /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php in order to set the memory limit (disabled by default):

ini_set( 'memory_limit', '64M' );

The extensions add new features and enhancements for the MediaWiki application. The extensions give wiki administrators and end users the ability to customize MediaWiki to their requirements.

You can download MediaWiki extensions as an archive file or checkout from the Subversion repository. You should copy it to /var/lib/mediawiki/extensions directory. You should also add the following line at the end of file: /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php.

require_once "$IP/extensions/ExtentionName/ExtentionName.php";