Portable Headless Wi-Fi Raspberry Pi LAMP Web Server.md

Portable Headless Wi-Fi Raspberry Pi LAMP Web Server

Here's documented how a portable headless webserver could be made out of a Raspberry Pi. This guide has been made in case the setup needs to be redone, for whatever reason. It is written for Raspbian Jessie Lite, but should work for any Raspbian. Other ditros might need different commands and/or different file locations.

This guide describes how to set up a Raspberry Pi as a webserver (Apache with PHP and MariaDB/MySQL) which you can attach to any network without the need of a display (ever) nor a network cable. It also contains steps to set up a Samba share (to easily access the web server files from a work station), set up X11 (to get graphical interfaces on your workstation of applications running on the Pi) and make the Pi easily discoverable on the network by its hostname, including subdomains (to host multiple websites on the Pi).

The following hardware is assumed:

Raspberry Pi
Wi-Fi (Pi3 or USB)
Power
(Micro) SD-Card
Windows computer capable of writing an (Micro) SD-Card

A network cable is not necessary, but could speed up the process.

Some keywords are used in this guide:

Pi: the Raspberry Pi that will be set up
workstation: a windows computer
device: a device, a smartphone for example, that can set up a hotspot

0. Preparing the workstation

Install this software (each optional, depending on how/what will be set op)

Paragon ExtFS: Either install this, or attach the Pi to a network cable
Xming: For the X11, Xming is an X11 server for windows
Putty: To SSH to the Pi. Not needed ff you're not going to use X11 and got Git already installed on the workstation (contains SSH.exe).
USB Image tool or any other tool to write an image to the (Micro) SD-card

Download a Raspbian image onto your pc (I used the latest Raspbian Lite from raspberrypi.org)
Write the Raspbian image to an (Micro) SD-card
Either connect your Pi to a network cable, or when ExtFS is installed:
Two disks will appear, one for boot and one contains the OS files
Open up etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf in a text editor (can be found on the card on the OS partition)

Add the following to the bottom of the file:

 network={
   ssid="name-of-your-hotspot"
   psk="password-of-the-hotspot"
 }

1. Set up the Pi

Move the SD-card to the Pi
Boot the Pi and check if it connects (some devices show when a device connects, otherwise check the appropriate file (/data/misc/dhcp/dnsmasq.leases on Android) for devices leasing an IP
Connect to the Pi (using Putty or ssh pi@ip-address). Default user/pass: pi/raspberry
Run sudo iwlist wlan0 scan to see all networks found by the Pi
Pick a network from the list and add it to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf by adding another network=... entry The order of the networks is used by the Pi. So if you've got your hotspot on frequently, you might want this on the end of the list
Shutdown your hotspot and the Pi will connect to the new network entry
Find the new IP of the Pi and reconnect
Run sudo raspi-config and

Expand the filesystem
Check and (if needed) correct the timezone settings
Change the user password
In advanced options set a unique hostname (and remember it)

Like always on a fresh Pi, run sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade
Optionally install Screen apt-get install screen. If you use a screen for running commands and a sudden connection failure appears, you can resume your session once reconnected. This can save you from some nasty experiences (like a connection failure in the middle of a apt-get upgrade).

2. Install Web server

Install Apache2, PHP7.0 and MariaDB: sudo apt-get install apache2 php7.0 libapache2-mod-php7.0 mariadb-server mariadb-client php7.0-mysql optionally add one or more of php7.0-mbstring, php7.0-mcrypt, php7.0-intl, php7.0-curl, php7.0-gd, php-imagick, php7.0-json, php7.0-imap, php-memcache, php7.0-pspell, php7.0-recode, php7.0-sqlite3, php7.0-tidy, php7.0-xmlrpc, php7.0-xsl, php-gettext, php-pear

If PHP7 can't be found by apt, you'll have to go through these steps first:

Add an additional source to apt-get: edit /etc/apt/sources.list by adding the following at the end of the file:

 deb http://repozytorium.mati75.eu/raspbian jessie-backports main contrib non-free
 #deb-src http://repozytorium.mati75.eu/raspbian jessie-backports main contrib non-free

Run these commands to add the certificates:

sudo gpg --keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu --recv-key CCD91D6111A06851
sudo gpg --armor --export CCD91D6111A06851 | sudo apt-key add -

And sudo apt-get update
During installation you will be asked to set a MariaDB root password
Test PHP: php -v should output the version of the installed PHP
Test Apache: In your browser go to the http://ip-of-pi. An Apache page should be served
Edit file /var/www/html/info.php (should be empty, because it doesn't exist yet) and add <?php phpinfo();. Save & exit
Test PHP in Apache: In your browser go to the http://hostname/info.php. An PHP information page should be served this time
Test MariaDB mysql -u root -p
Go to /var/www and run sudo chown -R www-data:www-data ./

3. Install Samba

Install Samba sudo apt-get install samba. Installing samba server allows windows clients to lookup the IP address by hostname
Set a password for your user in Samba: sudo smbpasswd -a <username>, we didn't change the username, so it should be pi

Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf, and add the following to the end of the file:

 [www]
 path = /var/www
 valid users = pi
 read only = no
 force user = www-data
 force group = www-data

Restart Samba: sudo service smbd restart
Now open up an explorer window on your local device and go to \\HOSTNAME\www. HOSTNAME is the hostname you've set on the pi and the login credentials are the same as the pi user
Open Putty, enter the hostname of the Pi, (optionally prepend pi@)

4. Install GIT

Install GIT: sudo apt-get install git
Make sure user pi has permissions: sudo usermod -a -G www-data pi

5. Set up X11 forwarding

In Putty enable X11 forwarding in Connection -> SSH -> X11 and set the display location to localhost:0. In Session enter a name for the session, Save and connect
Install GIT tools to be X11 forwarded: sudo apt-get install gitk git-gui kdiff3
Set KDiff3 as diff/merge tool: git config --global merge.tool kdiff3 & git config --global diff.tool kdiff3
You'll now be able to easily connect and use X11 GUI applications like gitk, git citool, git difftool and git mergetool

6. Add GIT aware prompt

Add a git aware prompt for more easy use of git:

download the needed script:

    mkdir ~/.bash
    cd ~/.bash
    git clone git://github.com/jimeh/git-aware-prompt.git

add the following to the top of ~/.bashrc:

    export GITAWAREPROMPT=~/.bash/git-aware-prompt
    source "${GITAWAREPROMPT}/main.sh"

search for PS1= in ~/.bashrc and comment out the two lines. Below each line add these lines respectively:

    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\] \[$txtcyn\]$git_branch\[$txtred\]$git_dirty\[$txtrst\]\$ '
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w \[$txtcyn\]$git_branch\[$txtred\]$git_dirty\[$txtrst\]\$ '

7. Make subdomains accessible

Install and configure DNS to catch subdomains:
Install DNSMasq: sudo apt-get install dnsmasq
Create an empty file /etc/dnsmasq.d/HOSTNAME (replace HOSTNAME for your hostname) and sudo chmod 766 the file

Create a file /etc/network/if-up.d/dnsmasq and enter this script:

 #!/bin/sh
 
 sh /usr/local/sbin/set_ip_in_dnsmasq > /dev/null 2>&1 &
 wpa_cli -B -a /usr/local/sbin/wpa2dnsmasq

Create another file /usr/local/sbin/set_ip_in_dnsmasq:

 #!/bin/sh
 
 IP=$(/bin/hostname -I)
 
 while [ -z $IP ]
 do
         sleep 1
         IP=$(/bin/hostname -I)
 done
 
 CN=`echo $IP | cut -d . -f 1,2`
 
 while [ "$CN" = "169.254" ]
 do
         sleep 1
         IP=$(/bin/hostname -I)
         CN=`echo $IP | cut -d . -f 1,2`
 done
 
 echo "address=/.HOSTNAME.local/${IP}" > /etc/dnsmasq.d/HOSTNAME
 sudo invoke-rc.d dnsmasq restart

Replace the instances of `HOSTNAME` (only the uppercase ones) for your hostname

And another file /usr/local/sbin/wpa2dnsmasq:

 #!/bin/bash
 
 case "$2" in
     CONNECTED)
         echo "Connected on $(date +"%D %I:%M") " >> /var/log/wpa2dnsmasq.log
         sh /usr/local/sbin/set_ip_in_dnsmasq > /dev/null 2>&1
         ;;
     DISCONNECTED)
         echo "Disconnected on $(date +"%D %I:%M") " >> /var/log/wpa2dnsmasq.log
         ;;
 esac

Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf where it says hosts remove [NOTFOUND=return] from that line
Configure Apache to serve for subdomains:

Create a new file /etc/apache2/sites-available/HOSTNAME.local.conf:

 <VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName HOSTNAME.local
   ServerAlias *.HOSTNAME.local
 
   # This will be the wildcarded document root. Any folder you create in /var/www$
   VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/%-3
 
   <Directory />
     Options FollowSymLinks
     AllowOverride All
   </Directory>
 </VirtualHost>

Again, replace the instances of `HOSTNAME` (only the uppercase ones) for your hostname

Enable the vhosts module: sudo a2enmod vhost_alias
Add the new vhost conf: sudo a2ensite HOSTNAME.com.conf
Restart Apache: sudo service apache2 restart
Configure workstation to use the Pi DNS:

Create two files on the workstation: - .set-wifi-dns-to-dhcp.bat

     @echo off
     netsh interface ip set dns "Wi-Fi" dhcp

- `.set-wifi-dns-to-hostname.bat`

          @echo off
          cls
        
          ipconfig /flushdns
          
          for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=[]" %%A in ('ping HOSTNAME ^| find "Pinging"') do set ipaddress=%%B
          
          IF [%ipaddress%] == [] GOTO TheEnd
          
          netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver "Wi-Fi" address=%ipaddress% index=1
          netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver "Wi-Fi" address=8.8.8.8 index=2
          
          :TheEnd

Replace `HOSTNAME` for your Pi's hostname

Add two tasks to the Task Schedular both containing a trigger on Log: Microsoft-Windows-NetworkProfile/Operational and source NetworkProfile, - one on Event ID 10000 with an action to start .set-wifi-dns-to-hostname.bat - and one on Event ID 10001 with an action to start .set-wifi-dns-to-dhcp.bat

You'll want to check the preset setting of the tasks as well to make sure they'll run as intended

8. Some tweaks

Putty can automaticly run some commands once connected. For example cd /var/www ; screen -Rd will change the directory to the folder containing the websites and re-attach the last Screen session. Saving you time and effort on commands you'll run everytime anyway

BillyNate/Portable Headless Wi-Fi Raspberry Pi LAMP Web Server.md

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