LimeSurvey is an open source survey software written in PHP. LimeSurvey source code is hosted on GitHub. This guide will show you how to install LimeSurvey Community Edition (CE) on a fresh FreeBSD 12 FastCloud instance.
Requirements
- Minimum 180 MB disk space
- Nginx version 1.1 or greater
- PHP 7.0.0 or greater is recommended, with the following modules and libraries enabled:
- MBstring, PDO database driver for MySQL or PostgreSQL, GD-Library, IMAP, LDAP, ZIP
- MySQL version 5.5.3 or greater
Before you begin
Check the FreeBSD version.
uname -ro
# FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE
Ensure that your FreeBSD system is up to date.
freebsd-update fetch install
pkg update && pkg upgrade -y
Install the necessary packages.
pkg install -y sudo vim unzip curl wget bash socat git
Create a new user account with your preferred username. We will use johndoe.
adduser
# Username: johndoe
# Full name: John Doe
# Uid (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Login group [johndoe]: <Enter>
# Login group is johndoe. Invite johndoe into other groups? []: wheel
# Login class [default]: <Enter>
# Shell (sh csh tcsh nologin) [sh]: bash
# Home directory [/home/johndoe]: <Enter>
# Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Use password-based authentication? [yes]: <Enter>
# Use an empty password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Use a random password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Enter password: your_secure_password
# Enter password again: your_secure_password
# Lock out the account after creation? [no]: <Enter>
# OK? (yes/no): yes
# Add another user? (yes/no): no
# Goodbye!
Run the visudo command and uncomment the %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL line, to allow members of the wheel group to execute any command.
visudo
# Uncomment by removing hash (#) sign
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
Now, switch to your newly created user with su.
su - johndoe
NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.
Set up the timezone.
sudo tzsetup
Install PHP
Install PHP, as well as the necessary PHP extensions.
sudo pkg install -y php72 php72-mbstring php72-tokenizer php72-pdo php72-pdo_mysql php72-openssl php72-hash php72-json php72-phar php72-filter php72-zlib php72-dom php72-xml php72-xmlwriter php72-xmlreader php72-pecl-imagick php72-curl php72-session php72-ctype php72-iconv php72-gd php72-simplexml php72-zip php72-filter php72-tokenizer php72-calendar php72-fileinfo php72-intl php72-phar php72-soap php72-xmlrpc php72-opcache php72-mysqli php72-bcmath php72-gmp php72-imap php72-ldap
Check the version.
php --version
# PHP 7.2.19 (cli) (built: Jun 20 2019 01:25:01) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
Soft-link php.ini-production to php.ini.
sudo ln -s /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini
Enable and start PHP-FPM.
sudo sysrc php_fpm_enable=yes
sudo service php-fpm start
Install MariaDB
Install MariaDB.
sudo pkg install -y mariadb102-client mariadb102-server
Check the version.
mysql --version
# mysql Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.2.25-MariaDB, for FreeBSD12.0 (amd64) using readline 5.1
Start and enable MariaDB.
sudo sysrc mysql_enable="yes"
sudo service mysql-server start
Run the mysql_secure_installation script to improve the security of your MariaDB installation.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
Log into MariaDB as the root user.
mysql -u root -p
# Enter password:
Create a new MariaDB database and user. Remember the credentials for this new user.
CREATE DATABASE dbname;
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;
Install and configure Nginx
Install Nginx.
sudo pkg install -y nginx
Check the version.
nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.16.0
Enable and start Nginx.
sudo sysrc nginx_enable=yes
sudo service nginx start
Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/limesurvey.conf and set up Nginx for LimeSurvey.
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name example.com;
root /usr/local/www/limesurvey;
index index.php index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_index index.php;
try_files $uri =404;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Now we need to include limesurvey.conf in the main nginx.conf file.
Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add the following line to the http {} block.
include limesurvey.conf;
Test the configuration.
sudo nginx -t
Reload Nginx.
sudo service nginx reload
Install LimeSurvey
Navigate to /usr/local/www/.
cd /usr/local/www/
Download the latest stable LimeSurvey CE ZIP package and unpack it.
sudo wget https://download.limesurvey.org/latest-stable-release/limesurvey3.17.7+190627.zip
sudo unzip limesurvey3.17.7+190627.zip
sudo rm limesurvey3.17.7+190627.zip
Navigate to the document root folder.
cd /usr/local/www/limesurvey
Change ownership of /usr/local/www/limesurvey folder to user www.
sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/limesurvey
Open your site in a web browser and follow the LimeSurvey web installer.