Installing Drupal 6

Drupal version: 6.x

January 17, 2008

Similar

This video shows you how to Install Drupal 6 and shows off the new, improved installer. It walks you through all the steps, including downloading Drupal, putting it on your site with FTP, setting up a database and running the installation script. It also looks at some common roadblocks and how to get around them.

Please note that in 6.3 the way the settings.php file is created has been changed from what is shown in the video. It is no longer automatic and you now need to manually create the settings.php file before continuing with installation.

by addi
play
12 min
38.5 MB

Comments

Software?

On January 17th, 2008 seand (not verified) said:

Please share with me what software you were using in place of Finder and also which FTP client? Thanks!

Hi seand

On January 17th, 2008 addi said:

I use PathFinder (http://www.cocoatech.com/) as a Finder replacement (one of the reasons I do is because of the show hidden files feature) and YummyFTP (http://www.yummysoftware.com/) for my FTP client.

Good FTP clients for

On January 17th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Good FTP clients for Windows:

http://www.smartftp.com/ (free)
http://www.wsftp.com/ (not free, but very advanced client)

FileZilla

On January 17th, 2008 BryanSD (not verified) said:

FileZilla is my favorite FTP client.

Homepage: http://filezilla-project.org/

* Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
* Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX and more

Good quality. No hype. Much thanks :-)

On January 17th, 2008 Ron (not verified) said:

Thanks for a quality, no-hype demonstration.

Great demo; can you do one on upgrading from 5.x?

On January 17th, 2008 slojo (not verified) said:

That was a great demo. It definitely takes the fear out of the install process. When 6 is released I'll be in desperate need of something similar for the upgrade path from 5.x.

Yep!

On January 17th, 2008 addi said:

An upgrade video is next and should be out the beginning of next week.

download

On January 17th, 2008 frederick (not verified) said:

I'm having some trouble with downloading your file (which is the only way I can use it, 'cause I am in a restricted bandwidth environment). I'm running Windows with Firefox. When I click the "download" tab (http://www.lullabot.com/node/315/download), instead of downloading I just get a Quicktime launch that presents a window with the Lullabot icon and looks like its trying to play a video, though there's no sound or motion. Any tips on dealing with this?

Thanks.

Go to

On January 18th, 2008 Mastering Drupal (not verified) said:

Go to http://www.lullabot.com/files/Install-D6.mp4
Then hit Ctrl+S (or File > Save page). Then you can specify where to download the mp4 video file (since the current page = the video file)

Thank you!

On January 23rd, 2008 frederick (not verified) said:

Thank you!

Great video. Yes, one

On January 18th, 2008 ferrangil (not verified) said:

Great video.
Yes, one showing the upgrading process from drupal 5 will be probably more useful. If I'm installing drupal6 from scratch, I don't mind to have problems: I can start again. But if you are going to version 6 from 5, with content and modules... it's a bit scary :)
Thanks!

Upgrade from 5

On January 18th, 2008 David (not verified) said:

I couldn't agree more! I have a few modules and a lot of content I moved from a blogging package a year or so ago. I keep putting the upgrade off because I think I'll mess it up and no one would probably care but me but I do not want to zap what content I have!

REQUEST

On January 18th, 2008 Todd (not verified) said:

REQUEST: Can we have a podcast dedicated to upgrading to 6 from 4 or 5 when the old version resides on a remote host? Everyone keeps telling me its possible to run 5 and 6 on a Media Temple Grid account, but I cannot make it work ( not root access ).

Yes, it should work fine

On January 18th, 2008 addi said:

Hm, I have had MT grid accounts and had no problems with installing or upgrading Drupal (5 and 6). You don't need root access at all. All you will need is database access (to make backups) and FTP to put the new files up. If you are having particular problems on MT I would suggest that you search and, if needed, make a post in the Support forum on drupal.org to get folks that are familiar with MT to help you out.

That said, a new video on upgrading is coming.

Upgrading video

On February 11th, 2008 addi said:

For folks that had requested the upgrading video, there is now one available that was made by Greg Knaddison.

http://drupal.org/node/220377

Thanks so much

On March 18th, 2008 Chris Simkins (not verified) said:

Your videos have been a massive help. I have wanting to start using Drupal for a while but have been put off by the initial stress of getting a server running (I'm no techy) but your videos have got me up and running in a couple of hours!

great stuff

On April 3rd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

how do i implement in my drupal system, an ftp server and video server?
i want my advanced users to upload their stuff on their specific folder or
directories and unprivelege users can download those stuff.

is there any template for this?

many thanks!
jack

on a mac!!?!? nooo!!!!

On April 10th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

on a mac!!?!? nooo!!!!

VIDEO NOT AVAILABLE

On April 17th, 2008 Rob (not verified) said:

What happened to the Drupal 6 installation video? It's not loading. Since this is the ONLY installation instruction available from drupal.org, I really, really, really hope you can fix it soon.

Cheers
- Rob

It plays fine for me

On April 18th, 2008 addi said:

It is playing fine for me both here and at the drupal.org FTP address (http://drupal.org/videocasts/installing-6), which are on two totally different servers so it is not just one version that isn't playing for you.

Perhaps you are having problems with your quicktime player. You can also try watching the Flash version of it on blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/635200/.

Place a Test Drupal on server

On April 30th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Please can you inform me what I can do to place a test drupal site on my server where my partner and I can develop and then later copy it to a folder for the public?

Thank you,
Tony

...Looks like a helpful video

On June 27th, 2008 Mark Griffith (not verified) said:

...Looks like a helpful video. Shall watch again tomorrow.

Just a quick thought. Any special reason installing Drupal needs to be this complicated?

One of the great video

On July 24th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

One of the great video walkthroughs for installing Drupal that I've seen! For once, something that shows the installation steps from the very start to finish, and with tips too. Awesome!

Video Comment

On July 30th, 2008 Frankie (not verified) said:

I found your video after I had installed for a client, but I still found it very useful. Excellent video.

One thing that I did come across that was not in your video. I needed to create a settings.php file within the sites/default/ folder and make that writeable during the installation.

Again...really great video. :-)

Thanks

On July 31st, 2008 addi said:

Yeah the note up in the post about 6.3 changing things up is the difference that you noted. I am going to try to redo that section of the video when I get a chance.

Thank you ...

On August 18th, 2008 Karen (not verified) said:

Hi Addison,

I loved and am so grateful for your video; without it I would never have figured out how to install Drupal. I have very limited experience in web design and use a template for my own website. When I decided to take it a membership type format I was told Drupal was the easiest and most common so I jumped in. Following your video enabled me to not only install it but set up the database with mysql as well.

You are definitely are a life saver and for me a money saver. Thank you!

Cheers,
Karen

No more Quicktime, for the love of God

On September 25th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Please stop using the Quicktime format. A flash video works just as well.

On the Todo

On September 25th, 2008 addi said:

That's on the todo list, along with a complete makeover for our video section, but frankly we haven't had the time to focus on a new workflow and site changes. You can find a flash version of this video on blip.tv.

I'm not asking for you all

On October 24th, 2008 Kristin (not verified) said:

I'm not asking for you all to do my homework or anything. But is there any other way to view hidden files that's just native to OSX? Without installing a new application? The only thing I've found is doing some command line trickery....which scares me. And maybe I'm just a little too old school mac, but using a different finder application almost seems like I'm cheating (as in adultery).

If there is nothing you know of off the top of your head...then that is fine. If you trust PathFinder, than I can too.

And thanks for all the great Drupal training and tips, you all are great.

Kristin

Ignore that last comment, or

On October 24th, 2008 Kristin (not verified) said:

Ignore that last comment, or post it if you wish. I'm not THAT embarrased. If I had just watched a couple more minutes of your video....I would have known that I can view hidden files in my ftp client. Which I should have known already anyway.

Sorry, it's Friday.

But still, thanks for all the great info.

Kristin

GD Libarary missing or out dated

On November 20th, 2008 Keith (not verified) said:

Hi; Great stuff, I installed drupal 6.6 on localhost using wamp5 1.7.4 . Everything installed fine databases sync,etc. Logged into drupal looked at the reports and the only error is the GD library missing ????

Clean URLs are tough now

On December 9th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

You´d mentioned re-doing that part of your video, Addi (w/the settings.php file). Is there any way you could also go step-by-step on how to enable clean url´s in 6.6? In your video, it´s enabled by default so you whiz right by that part. What do those of us do who get to that page & are like ¨uh oh, how do i enable this?¨

Thx for all your great vids!

migs

Really about server configuration

On December 9th, 2008 addi said:

Hi migs, to enable clean URLs in Drupal 6 you only need to click the radio button to turn them on. You can can find this setting in the admin section at Administer > Site configuration > Clean URLs if you need to change the setting after installaton. If Drupal doesn't do this for you on installation, there are typically two main "issues" that can cause that:

1. You didn't copy Drupal's .htaccess file into your installation so Drupal can't do clean URLs. Remember, it is a hidden file so you need to double-check that you really got it on to your server. Or,
2. It means your server needs some configuration to use the .htaccess file properly. That would need to be a totally separate video from just basic installation, since that isn't really a Drupal thing, but a webserver thing, and the answer can vary depending on how your server is set up. You can read up on clean URLs and various configurations in the Drupal.org handbook. I'll add this to my list of videos but it may be a while before I get some time to work on it.

Drupal

On December 9th, 2008 Rene (not verified) said:

i am downloading Drupal on a mac i am at the point were i need to see that hide file
i am not seeing how to show the file and also how can i host a drupal test sie on my server

omg - i heart addison

On January 15th, 2009 wendy (not verified) said:

thank you so much for this great video . . . i was going round and round yesterday with my new server host and the "fantastico" installer . . . for whatever reason, i wasn't getting the install to work properly.

after watching your excellent video - it's installed and is in development now :)

thank you thank you thank you!!
lullabot rocks
-w