[Bug 495213] Re: Server install with LAMP asks three times for MySQL password

[Norman Perelson]

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for the detailed email. While I agree with what you have said 
I still think that you have missed something: *New users*. The first 
time I installed Hardy server I was happy to see the easy selection of a 
LAMP server and decided to leave the MySQL root password blank so that I 
would not need to remember or document it. If I needed to use MySQL 
later I presumed that I could assign the root password when required. 
But when prompted a second time it made me think that I had made a 
mistake. When prompted a 3rd time I thought either I was doing something 
wrong or the installer had a bug. I was, quite frankly, surprised to see 
that it is the same in Lucid.

If you put in a password the first time then it does not ask again. 
Would it not be better to just prompt with an 'are you sure' the first 
time you leave it blank and then remember that the blank password is 
what the user wants?

With further thought I agree with you that adding further granularity to 
the tasksel list is not a good idea. I should not have even suggested that!

By the way, what I have been doing for repeated installs, is set up one 
server, install all updates then add a whole lot of extra stuff using 
apt-get install, I also set up my own application programs and scripts, 
and then simply clone the whole drive with dd rather that starting from 
scratch. It is a lot faster. So for practical purposes I am very happy 
with the installer as it is.  I am just trying to help and will continue 
to look for things that I believe should be fixed or improved. I want 
others can get as much benefit from Ubuntu as I do.

Kind regards,
Norman

Jonathan Marsden wrote:
> Thanks for taking the time to report an issue and so help to improve
> Ubuntu.
> 
> Selecting the LAMP Server task in tasksel installs Linux (Ubuntu),
> Apache2, MySQL and PHP5.  By design.
> 
> Leaving the root MySQL password blank does not somehow uninstall MySQL.
> It just installs it in a less secure way.
> 
> To install Apache2 and PHP5 without also installing MySQL, install just
> the basic Ubuntu server, then reboot, log in, and issue the command
> 
>   sudo apt-get install apache2 php5
> 
> When installing MySQL it is *necessary* to prompt the user for a root
> MySQL password, not doing so would be insecure.
> 
> While there could be a separate task in tasksel just for an "Apache2
> plus PHP5" install, to me that seems somewhat unnecessary and it would
> make using tasksel (primarily intended for quick initial server setup)
> more complex (some people would probably then become confused by the two
> "web-server-related" choices and pick the "wrong" one for their needs,
> etc.).
> 
> If you are a more experienced Ubuntu server installer, and need a fully
> customized unattended installation, perhaps one you will repeat on many
> servers, then you may be interested in using pre-seeding to avoid all
> the installer prompts.  See Appendix B of the Ubuntu Installation Guide
> for more information on that: https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/installation-
> guide/i386/appendix-preseed.html
> 
> Given the above, I feel this bug is invalid and so am setting its status
> to Invalid.  If you feel there really is a clear case to be made for
> needing an additional tasksel task for "Apache2 and PHP5", go ahead and
> make that case and set it back to New.
> 
> 
> ** Changed in: mysql-dfsg-5.1 (Ubuntu)
>        Status: New => Invalid
> 
> ** Tags added: tasksel
> 

-- 
Norman Perelson
Shopkeeper Solutions

-- 
Server install with LAMP asks three times for MySQL password
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/495213
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