How to Install MediaWiki on Your Breeze

By Admin · Mar 2, 2026 · Updated Apr 23, 2026 · 30 views · 3 min read

How to Install MediaWiki on Your Breeze

MediaWiki is the open-source wiki software that powers Wikipedia and thousands of other knowledge bases worldwide. It is designed for collaborative editing and is excellent for internal documentation, company wikis, community knowledge bases, and technical documentation. This guide walks you through installing MediaWiki on your Breeze instance.

Prerequisites

A Breeze instance with Ubuntu 22.04 or later
Apache or Nginx web server
PHP 8.1+ with required extensions
MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+ (or PostgreSQL/SQLite)
At least 1 GB RAM

Step 1 — Install PHP Extensions

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-intl php-gd php-curl \
    php-json php-apcu php-opcache

Step 2 — Create the Database

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE mediawiki_db;
CREATE USER 'wiki_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mediawiki_db.* TO 'wiki_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 3 — Download and Extract MediaWiki

cd /tmp
wget https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.42/mediawiki-1.42.0.tar.gz
tar -xzf mediawiki-1.42.0.tar.gz
sudo mv mediawiki-1.42.0 /var/www/mediawiki
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mediawiki

Step 4 — Configure Apache

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/mediawiki.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName wiki.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/mediawiki

    <Directory /var/www/mediawiki>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/mediawiki_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/mediawiki_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite mediawiki.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5 — Run the Web Installer

Navigate to http://wiki.yourdomain.com in your browser. The MediaWiki installer will guide you through:

Language selection for the wiki interface
Database configuration with the credentials from Step 2
Wiki name and admin account creation
Optional settings like email, uploads, and skins

At the end of the installation, MediaWiki generates a LocalSettings.php file. Download it and place it in the MediaWiki root:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/LocalSettings.php /var/www/mediawiki/
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php

Step 6 — Enable Short URLs

For clean URLs like /wiki/Page_Name instead of /index.php?title=Page_Name, add to LocalSettings.php:

$wgArticlePath = "/wiki/$1";
$wgUsePathInfo = true;

Add an Apache rewrite rule in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^wiki/(.*)$ /index.php?title=$1 [QSA,L]

Recommended Extensions

VisualEditor — WYSIWYG editing for non-technical users
Cite — reference and citation management
ParserFunctions — conditional logic in wiki templates
ConfirmEdit — CAPTCHA to prevent spam
MultimediaViewer — lightbox-style image viewing

Maintenance

Run maintenance scripts periodically to keep your wiki healthy:

cd /var/www/mediawiki/maintenance
php update.php         # Apply database schema updates
php rebuildall.php     # Rebuild search index and link tables
php runJobs.php        # Process the job queue

How to Install MediaWiki on Your Breeze