Apr 2, 2008 Posted by Gubbi on Apr 2, 2008 | 2 comments

Movable Type Open Source Hosting.

I searched a lot for a free hosting service where I can test run a movable type 4 open source blog. You can access the installed blog here.

The problem I faced was file size limitation in most free web hosts, which is usually 300KB. After a lot of looking around I found this very good web host which provides free plan with lots of advanced features at x10hosting. This host has much higher file size limits, provides cPanel and Fantastico, CGI, PHP, 3 MySQL, 3 domains, 3 sub domains, and lots more.

Below are the steps I followed for installing the above blog. (Usual disclaimers apply. I do not guarantee that the below steps will apply for everyone. They are just what worked for me. Please keep a backup of all files somewhere. Read through the entire how-to before deciding to proceed with it or not.)

1. Download MT4.11 nightly build and extract it.

2. Create a MySQL DB on x10hosting and associate an user name with it.

3. In the extracted folder, rename mt-config.cgi-original to mt-config.cgi.

4. Open mt-config.cgi file in an editor and change the following lines:

• CGIPath    <URL>

  Where <URL> is the url from where the movable type directory will be accessible. If you follow step 6-7 as mentioned, this url will be http://<domain_name>/cgi-bin/mt/. Also note the ‘/’ at the end. See step 6 to understand this better.

• StaticWebPath    <URL>

  Where <URL> is the url from where the mt-static directory is accessible. Based on step 8, this url will be http://<domain_name>/mt-static. See step 8 for more details.

• Under MySQL section add the DB settings (database, user, password) appropriately based DB created in step 2. Delete all other DB sections.

5. Open all .cgi files (except mt-config.cgi) one by one in an editor and just after this line
         
       use strict;

   Add

      BEGIN { $ENV{'MT_HOME'} = '/home/<userID>/public_html/cgi-bin/mt/'; }

   Where <userID> is the username taken at the hosting provider.

6. X10hosting provides a home directory inside which there are these 2 directories: /public_html/cgi-bin and /www. Create
   a directory called mt under /public_html/cgi-bin.

7. Copy all the contents inside the extracted directory  on your PC to /public_html/cgi-bin/mt. Now, mt directory will be accessible using http://<domain_name>/cgi-bin/mt/.

8. Copy just the mt-static directory under /www directory. This mt-static directory will be accessible using http://<domain_name>/mt-static url.

9. Change the permission of all .cgi files in /public_html/cgi-bin/mt/ to 755.

10. Open the url http://<domain_name>/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi in browser. This should begin the Movable type blog installation.

After this, its all easy and simple to setup the blog. Let me know how it goes

Tags: movabletype4, mtos, movabletype open source, free hosting, hosting, x10hosting, installation

2 Responses to “Movable Type Open Source Hosting.”

1. Pavan Metri says:

   April 25, 2008 at 9:45 am

   The results will not be shared unless you put the survey on yopur blog site.
2. jeniliaa says:

   August 8, 2009 at 12:48 am

   I registered my website Domain name in the site http://www.tucktail.com/