Trying to set up Kirby 3 on my local machine - Chromebook

I’m not a coder, but I thought that once I’d got an install of Kirby I’d be OK. However, I only have a Chromebook, which can run Linux (beta) . I’ve managed to install all sorts of things… Terminal, Files, Atom, Virtual Box. For some reason I can’t get Xampp to install.
I’m struggling to understand where anything is.

So maybe I should give up and go for hosting on Siteground (where I have used WordPress before) but the instructions are a bit vague " 2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file into your server’s web root"

If I don’t understand this, should I just give up with Kirby? I watched the zoom meet a couple of nights ago, and it looked doable, once I’ve got an installation.

Hi, and welcome to the forum :~)
I opened a thread a while ago about Kirby development on Linux. While I have to say it was more complicated to set up a working development environment than on Mac OS, I followed @sebastiangreger’s tip and managed to get Valet working on my machine. The great thing about Kirby is that it doesn’t require a complicated database setup (XAMPP or the likes).

I used to also not be a coder… My advice: Don’t give up! It might be complicated to get a local server running at first, but once that step is done, using Kirby is an absolute bliss :slight_smile:

Also using Valet Linux on Ubuntu, worked out of the box, no experience with Chromebook though.

The webroot also called docroot is the folder on your hosting, where you have to put your website project to be publicly accessible.

When you download a Kirby Starterkit, you get a ZIP file, this ZIP file needs to be extracted, then all the unzipped files and folders must be moved to this webroot folder, including the invisible .htaccess.

But I wouldn’t recommend using a remote server for development, a working local dev environment is the better option.

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Thanks for your encouragement. As far as I can see Valet is only for Mac OS. https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/valet#installation

So, as it’s very easy to remove and add Linux (beta) from my Chromebook, can someone explain what all the little apps do, how to put them in order, why I need them etc. So far I have a Terminal, then Files, Atom, Virtual Box, Crostini, Node.js, Homestead, Vagrant and more… I’m sure I don’t need half this stuff, I’m just following random "how-to"s on the web, and I can’t find any beginner info. How do people learn this stuff?

Coming from ChromeOS, which updates itself when I switch it off and on again, this is taking me back to Windows days, and it’s hard.

So, from the Terminal…what do I need to have to make Kirby work?

UPDATE I have a localhost:8000 with a working website! I used Local Dev environment recipe 4 PHP’s built-in server

So then I went to localhost:8000/panel to get to the admin, but found 2 errors:

The panel cannot be installed

1* The MB String extension is required
2* The CURL extension is required

error 1 I find: Thumbs not generated, Panel not working

If you use PHP’s built-in server (not recommended), you have to start it up with Kirby’s router:

php -S localhost:8000 kirby/router.php

I tried that in the Terminal, but nothing happened

Later, after closing the Terminal, I can’t get the website working again:

jonathan@penguin:~$ php -S localhost:8000 kirby/router.php
PHP 7.3.19-1~deb10u1 Development Server started at Thu Dec 17 18:47:07 2020
Listening on http://localhost:8000
Document root is /home/jonathan
Press Ctrl-C to quit.
[Thu Dec 17 18:47:13 2020] PHP Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0
[Thu Dec 17 18:47:13 2020] PHP Fatal error: Unknown: Failed opening required ‘kirby/router.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/share/php’) in Unknown on line 0

see here: Valet Linux | A fork of Laravel Valet to work in Linux.

Once I got Valet to work on my Linux install, there have been no issues whatsoever. See the thread I posted as a first reply if you should run into any issues with installing – in my case, those have been due to the PATH variable not configured properly.

@JonathanDHolden You have to be inside your project folder when calling php -S localhost:8000 kirby/router.php, not in your home folder. So cd into your project, then enter that command again.

Personally, while the built-in server does a good job for quick testing, it’s not really that performant when you do more complicated stuff.

Hurrah! Back at the panel… but sadly the same errors:

The panel cannot be installed

  • The MB String extension is required
  • The CURL extension is required

No info in the docs about CURL

Those are PHP extensions that you would have to install for your PHP version sudo apt install …), they are required as per the requirements.

Example for curl here: https://linoxide.com/linux-how-to/install-curl-php-linux/

Hurrah… I’m in!

I’ll play about and then see about getting Valet or somesuch…