@lo.voltage oh wow that looks pretty good. Have attempted to upgrade previously but failed miserably. thanks for posting
really hate the way mediawiki works with respect to data input / updating / extensions but reading or retrieving my notes … soooooo much better
@lo.voltage Thank you very much for taking the time to provide such a details write up.
I will give this a try this week. 
@LTS_Tom did you removed the VM from your website?
@fred974 It’s not that difficult to setup Mediawiki from a clean install (much harder to upgrade). The latest Mediawiki now has the visual editor included in case that is what you are looking for.
@neogrid so In order to get a simila version of what @LTS_Tom is provide is it just a case of installing Mediawiki on a VM and copy the settings from LocalSettings.php?
Just like Tom, I want to restrict the app to authorised user only via VNP access behind pfSense
I had this and this bookmarked, I’ve installed mine in a vm on headless debian 10. If you can setup LAMP, there are numerous guides on the web then it’s relatively painless.
During the install (I don’t fully recall) somewhere you need to ensure you don’t have an open wiki, so that you need a username and password to access the site. Once setup you can also enable 2FA from the wiki.
The last step you need to copy over the localsettings file that mediawiki generates. I use webmin which is a GUI for a headless machine that runs in a browser, which make it a bit easier to see the file structure.
All - hope you find the info usable. Posting it here was a challenge as the way I format my build/upgrade notes is interferes with the way the board software allows post to be formatted. Basically, I am old school and use Text editor as I don’t like anything messing with my ingrained ways of doing things. My raw notes use the same items used in mark down language. The other thing is I make sure to include in my build notes URL links for reference and in many cases to cite my references, and because I forget, so I’m not pulling things out of my @$$ lol. The URL links had to be removed. In the future for things like this, namely my build sheets, will consider posting my raw notes to something like pastebin.
While there is a lot of info here, it really doesn’t take long to do. It took longer to post the steps by a factor of 4 then it did to actually preform the upgrade.
If something is broken, please let me know and I will do my best to either correct it or help you work thru it.
@LTS_Tom Thanks for everything you do, was on the live chat this past Thursday. Giving back for all the things you have given us.
Yes the “documentation” on the MediaWiki website is a mess. Spent a few whole days sifting thru everything last year trying to understand the info to build my own MW server from scratch. I did reverse engineer Tom’s build to see how it was constructed. Combined what I knew about building Invoice Ninja instances and others into creating my own MW server from scratch on Debian 10.
You are correct that the MW VM is (at this moment) no longer available. In recent videos, Tom says they have moved the web host in house (IIRC). I have the image and could post it from Google Docs. Maybe @LTS_Tom will put the old one back up?
In the coming days I want to post my build sheet for constructing a new Debian 10 server MediaWiki build from scratch. Building the MW server from scratch is not too bad, just need edit out my swearing, clean up the formatting, grammar and spelling a bit.
@neogrid The LocalSettings.php can be edited with Webmin. It can be done with Nano or Vi (VIM) in the terminal as outlined in the steps above. Being I’m a Linux shop, I use SFTP to grab the file and modify it with Geany if I really needed too. I think WinSFP for Windows based users would work too. Configuring the “open wiki” happens during the first run of a new instance, during the setup wizard.
Enjoy!
There is a turnkey solution from Cloudron I have been previewing. Its a pretty sweet system and the bar to entry for both business and personal are very affordable. Its is a paid thing but does have a free version that supports 2 apps. Looking at this being one of our small business solutions especially for new businesses
For Docker Devs
Seems to be professionally run, is actively supported and seems to have a polish that similar offerings do not have. Also they have an online live demo
@lo.voltage Thank you very much for taking the time to provide this information. I had a quick look and it seem to be a neat system. I will give that a try as soon as I can
Completed a guide for applying minor revision updates to MediaWiki
It is here on the forums at MediaWiki - Applying Minor Revision Updates
Thanks for that it’s really helpful. Not done an upgrade as yet but it’s on my to do list.
MediaWIki version 1.36.1 has been released and I have posted a new guide on updating from 1.35.xx to 1.36 here at
MediaWiki release info here at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/mediawiki-announce@lists.wikimedia.org/message/YR3X4L2CPSEJVSY543AWEO65TD6APXHP/
@LTS_Tom could you share the original VM that you had available when you created the youtube video?
I know its out of date etc but i’ll like to look at the config to see how you managed to lock it down to be private. I am looking to use it as our documentation platform.
They have a guide on their site for configuring the system
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access
Thank you for the quick reply. Are you still using MediaWiki for your documentation? Or have you found an alternative way?
For now we are using MediaWiki until we find a better solution.
Thank you so much for this detailed write-up of the upgrade. I used it and was able to upgrade mine with only minor adjustments to the syntax - specifically the items below:
Just to avoid error warnings about a package that can be upgraded but never does (even though we don’t need it anymore), I had to unhold the parsoid package from being upgraded (apt-mark unhold parsoid) and removing the parsoid entry under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
When adding the new extensions to the LocalSettings.php file, I had to re-type all of the single quote marks when copying/pasting from the forum post because it was somehow entering the wrong type of quote character, which I assume is some sort of font translation issue - nothing major.
Other than that it was a breeze and exactly as described here. My searches are more consistent now and everything is running smooth. I still have a weird issue with some of my tags disappearing after the first time I edit a new page, but that’s been something I’ve been dealing with since inception and it’s not much to re-add them since it’s always the same ones that disappear.
Thanks, again!
No problem at all, glad your found it useful.
I wish I had access to edit my previous post detailing the upgrade process but it is locked. I could reformat it for readability and correct a few issues with it.
Maybe if I ask @LTS_Tom he can throw a switch on his side and I could make the adjustments.
Ummm, really not sure how to unlock it, but I can look into it.
