MyBB Forum Install

Installed a forum, or bulletin board as they used to be called, and thought I would add the how-to for posterity’s sake.

I’m gonna assume you have an Ubuntu server running a stable stack. We’ll start by creating the database and user for the forum.

Log in to MYSQL as root:

mysql -u root -p

Create a database. (Remember all SQL commands should end with a semi-colon.)

CREATE DATABASE FORUM_DATABASE_NAME;

Create a specific user to use this database and assign it a password in one line:

CREATE USER ‘DATABASE_USER’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘PASSWORD’;

Grant the user access to the database:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON FORUM_DATABASE_NAME.* TO ‘DATABASE_USER’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘PASSWORD’;

Implement the changes and exit the MySQL interface:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

Next, followed these steps:

1. 1. Download latest version of MyBB
   2. Unzip it
   3. Create folder for the forum in public_html (may be www, depending on your server setup)
   4. chmod that folder to 755
   5. Upload the contents of the /uploads folder to the forum folder you just created
   6. Rename /inc/config.default.php to /inc/config.php
   7. Apply the necessary permissions, executed from your root MyBB directory:
      chmod 666 inc/config.php inc/settings.php
      chmod 777 cache/ cache/themes/ uploads/ uploads/avatars/

      As an option, you can also apply the following permissions:
      chmod 666 inc/languages/english/*.php inc/languages/english/admin/*.php
      chmod 777 cache/ cache/themes/ uploads/ uploads/avatars/ admin/backups/

      If you are using FileZilla you can right click on a file or directory and click File Attributes to modify the permissions of that file.

   8. Go to the install page @ YOURSITE.com/FORUM_FOLDER_NAME and set it up
      1. 1. Input database info from above to set up the database
         2. Click next 3 times until you get to Board Configuration
         3. Configure the board with the appropriate information for your site You can set the ACP Pin to whatever you want. (It doesn’t have to be a number.)
         4. Create the Admin account

      Click next twice

   9. Delete the /install folder from the forum folder on your server
   10. You can now login or go to /admin for the admin panel

Not all that difficult if ya ask me!  (Or even if ya don’t.)