How To Install Gibbon LMS

Gibbon LMS is a flexible, open source school management platform designed to make life better for teachers, students, parents and leaders.

The LMS was created by teachers to solve real problems encountered by educators every day. And because it is free, open source and flexible Gibbon can morph to meet the needs of a huge range of schools.

Gibbon LMS Server Requirements

1. Apache with mod_rewrite installed
2. Latest PHP version with PDO, gettext, CURL, GD, ZIP. (recommended to turn display_errors off.)
3. MySQL 5 (collation set to utf8_general_ci)
4. a hosting package that allows allow_url_fopen=On directive. Our AdaptiveSelector hosting package https://dashboard.webhostingmagic.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=6 allow you to use PHP even old unsupported versions securely.

1-Click Gibbon LMS Installation

The easiest way to install Gibbon LMS is to use our popular, time-tested Softaculous installer which every customer on our hosting platform has access to.

Softaculous is a 1-click script that helps you focus on using web applications rather than spending time on installing them.

With Softaculous, you can install, update, backup, restore, clone applications without the need to touch a code-base, create a database or deal with all those pesky technical things that often confront anyone seeking to build a website.

To start:

Log in to your cPanel with your username and password.

Once you have successfully logged in, scroll down to the Software section of your cPanel interface.

Click on the Softaculous icon. The page and bring you to the 1-click application installer page.

To find Gibbon LMS, either type to search or click on the "Education" menu.

Select and click Gibbon LMS.

This is where you can either choose to check out the demo, install, see reviews/ratings or import an existing Gibbon LMS installation into your cPanel.

Now click on the Install Now button.

• Choose the Installation URL where you want to install the software. This can be on the main domain, sub-domain or a directory.
• Type in your Site Name
• Type in your Organization Name
• Fill out other fields as may be required. They are all easily understandable that you can figure out what is required for each field.
• Type your name on the first and last names
• Type in your Admin Username
• Type in your Admin Password
• Type in your Admin Email. Make sure that this has been created afore-hand before you start.
• Click on the Advanced Options.

Here you can make changes to:

• Database Name … that is the name of the database to be created for the installation.
• DB Table Prefix
• Select Auto Upgrade which automatically upgrades your Gibbon LMS to the latest version when available.
• Select Backup Location. Softaculous allows you to back up your website data using various methods including Google Drive, Dropbox, local machine or on a local folder.
• Select the Backup Rotation. If the backup rotation limit is reached Softaculous will delete the oldest backup for this installation and create a new backup. The backups will utilize your space so choose the backup rotation as per the space available on your server.

If you want to send the installation details to your developer, fill in the details on the "Email installation details to" field.

Manual Gibbon LMS Installation

After download and unzipping:

1. Visit https://gibbonedu.org/download/ and download the latest version.

   Note: If you want to help test and develop Gibbon, you can select the cutting edge code option in the installer. This allows you to run the latest code from GitHub repo. This is not recommended for production environments.

2. Copy all the files to your cPanel server, choosing either the root directory, sub-domain or a sub-folder within it.
3. Navigate via your browser to the folder on your server where Gibbon files are located.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions in Gibbon’s new installer.

Post-Install & Server Config

1. Set permissions of all Gibbon files so they are not publicly writeable (e.g. chmod -Rv 755). This is done automatically if you use Softaculous or hosting on our platform.
2. Create folder /uploads and set file permissions for to allow writing by web server (avoid chmod 777 for security reasons).
3. To improve security and reliability, magic_quotes_gpc should be turned off in php.ini. This is supposed to be deprecated in PHP 5.3, but experience shows sometimes it is better to turn it off anyway.
4. Turn PHP register_globals off. This is already done for you on our system. But if you are with another host, use .htaccess php_flag register_globals off to do this
5. Turn folder browsing off. Use cPanel >>> Advanced >>> Indexes or add to your .htaccess Options -Indexes
6. Set PHP’s max_file_uploads to at least the number of students in a class.
7. Set PHP’s error to be error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE or less aggressive
8. Set PHP to allow URLs as files (otherwise Calendar overlay in TT will not work). allow_url_fopen=On
9. Set PHP’s max_input_vars setting to 5,000 (otherwise Manage Permissions breaks)
10. On systems that use selinux make sure to run setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail 1 to enable Gibbon to send mail.