1. Objective
  2. Install Docker
    1. Windows
      1. Solutions to possible problems
    2. macOS
    3. Ubuntu Linux
  3. Start the container!
    1. Windows
      1. Automated guide
      2. Manual guide
        1. (Optional) Create a .htaccess file inside the html folder
    2. Linux / Mac
  4. Place your files in the directory and start developing!

Objective

Sometimes your FEUP server, gnomo.fe.up.pt, can misbehave or your area in particular be misconfigured (some students have been encountering such issues this year).

If you encounter Forbidden errors or any other mysterious stuff, but want to get some work done, try Docker to set a Apache + PHP Container in your local machine (you need Admin rights!).

Install Docker

Several instruction guides are here to help you install Docker on any platform.

Windows

Download the Docker Desktop Installer and run it.

Solutions to possible problems

Some possible errors have been listed here to point you towards a possible solution. Not everyone will encounter these errors.

  • Lack of virtualization support

Virtualization

Remember to turn on Virtualization Support (or VT-x) on your computer’s BIOS/ UEFI (press Delete/F2 before Windows Starts) in order to run virtualization apps like Docker or a VM Hypervisor. See more here.

  • WSL2 Linux Kernel message

If you get this when installing Docker, click the link in blue, follow the necessary instructions and then press the ‘Restart’ button.

Wsl2

  • Windows Firewall warnings

When Docker first starts on Windows, you may get this prompt. Select ‘Allow Access’.

Firewall

macOS

Simply download the Docker Desktop Installer and run it.

Ubuntu Linux

I have compiled a script for easy installation.

  1. Fire up the Terminal,
  2. Run sudo -i and type user password
  3. exit the root command line
  4. Paste the script found here in the Terminal.

Start the container!

Windows

Automated guide

  1. Download this zip file.
  2. Unzip the file into a folder of your choice.
  3. You will see a folder called docker-scripts-for-windows after unzipping the file.
  4. Inside docker-scripts-for-windows, you will see a folder called html, and 4 files:
    • 2 PowerShell Scripts (.ps1 extension) ← DO NOT TOUCH THESE
    • 2 Windows Batch Files (.bat extension) ← We will use these to start and stop our container
  5. To start the container, run the start-container.bat file.
  6. Test your container, by navigating your browser to http://localhost:8080. You should see this:
    • Hello world page
  7. To stop the container, run the stop-container.bat file.

Manual guide

  1. Create a new folder html at the root of your hard drive for your website files: C:\html

  2. Open a terminal (cmd.exe) with administrator privileges and run:

    1
2
3

     ```cmd
 docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -it --name=php -v C:\html:/var/www/html quay.io/vesica/php73:dev
 ```
(Optional) Create a .htaccess file inside the html folder

This is optional, but will allow the web server to generate nice file listings for easy navigation. To turn this on, go to the Server Root and create a new file called .htaccess, including the dot. The contents of the folder should be this:

Options +Indexes

After saving the file, point your browser to http://localhost:8080. You should see this:

Indexes Enabled

Linux / Mac

  1. Create a new html folder for your web files: mkdir -p ~/html (~ means your home folder)
  2. Open a terminal and run: 
    1

     docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -it --name=php -v ~/html:/var/www/html quay.io/vesica/php73:dev
  3. (Optional) Create the .htaccess file inside the ~/html folder.
  4. Point your browser to http://localhost:8080.

Place your files in the directory and start developing!

From now on, whatever you put in the html Folder, should be accessible in the browser via the link http://localhost:8080.