IWRAP FAQ

Installation and configuration

Where do I download MediaWiki?

Click here to download the latest stable release of MediaWiki. Files are supplied in a .tar.gz archive. MediaWiki can also be obtained direct from our Subversion repository.

How do I install MediaWiki?

Installing MediaWiki takes between 10 and 30 minutes, and involves uploading/copying files, and running the installer script to configure the software - see Installation.

Full instructions can be found in the INSTALL file supplied in the distribution archive.

How do I add extra namespaces?

To add a namespace, modify your LocalSettings.php file, and add namespaces via $wgExtraNamespaces. You can add the following code to add a "Portal" namespace, and its corresponding discussion namespace:

$wgExtraNamespaces = array(100 => "Portal", 101 => "Portal_talk");

Template:Note Be sure to add underscores instead of spaces, such as in Portal_talk. Otherwise, the namespace will not be declared properly!

How do I enable embedded math formulas?

MediaWiki allows embedded math formulas via a helper program called texvc that uses LaTeX to render the formulas. See Manual:Math for setup instructions.

Possible solutions:

• Set the value of $wgMimeDetectorCommand, e.g. under Unix or Linux, this would be

  $wgMimeDetectorCommand = "file --brief --mime";

• Compile/install the fileinfo PHP extension
  • Fedora - yum install php-pecl-Fileinfo

See Manual:Mime type detection for more information.

Initial user was not created by installer

Sometimes, the installer fails to create the default user, or the user table is lost for some reason. There are a couple of options for solving this: