Foswiki 1.0.7 on a USB Stick

FoswikiOnAStick

I’ve updated the USB Foswiki to include foswiki 1.0.7, and updated the systray controller to be a little more slick 🙂

I’m still looking for feedback from users – Its a nice fast way to try out foswiki without needing to install anything – just unzip the archive into the root of a disk, and click start_foswiki.bat (on Windows XP the autorun should start that automatically for you)

Author: Sven Dowideit

You might remember me from tools like http://TWiki.org, http://Foswiki.org, https://github.com/docker/Boot2Docker, Docker documentation, or https://github.com/rancher/os

13 thoughts on “Foswiki 1.0.7 on a USB Stick”

  1. I think it is fantastic. I’ve successfully got this running on Dropbox, and have a personal foswiki without a usb stick! Still fuzzy on how to create an admin user so I can change config settings, but everything else seems to work flawlessly.

  2. After further testing, I managed to create an Admin user. Configure is a but tricky to use though, a perl.exe dialogue keeps on popping up saying there is no disk in the drive about 20 times before it can be closed. But if you persevere with clicking, it lets you install extensions.

  3. wow, neat.

    I was thinking of working on those dialogs for the normal use of configure anyway – this is a somewhat more significant version of the same issue – will have a play!

    makes me wonder if a dropbox version with linux, osx and windows support would be neat – even more reason to get the HTTPEngine code working 🙂

  4. How is this different from a Windows installer? Can I use this on my production server? Will there be a performance/scalability issue?

    1. I gues syou could use it on your production server – I wouldn’t, but then I wouldn’t use Windows as a production foswiki server – Windows isn’t particularly great at Perl scripts on a web server.

      Sven

  5. Hi I tried to install the Foswiki on a Stick , but after starting the apache from xampp application, I tried to start
    the start_foswiki.bat file, it is giving me an error “object not found” .
    http://localhost/foswiki/bin/view, this was the URL it took me to, The error message reads as
    “The requested URL was not found on this server. If you entered the URL manually please check your spelling and try again.

    If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster. ”

    Can you please help? Thanks

    1. start_foswiki.bat starts the xampp apache – you should not need to do anything other than insert, run start_foswiki.bat and from there use the systray icon to access foswiki.

      Hopefully you’ve solved your problem – I missed your post 🙁

      Sven

  6. I am a beginner withh Wiki’s and seting up a server in general, but I got it running from USB pretty easy! THank you very much quite good environment to play arround and test a bit. I however have some trouble in getting a plugin running… (BugTracker plugin). Can you help me out a bit? As i said I am realy a beginner with perl and servers… At the moment I have the problem that perl is not found in the base Foswiki location where I would like to execute the installer of the plugin. Probably a stubid question, so Im sorry to bother… but would be very thankful for help (^_^)

    1. ah, don’t download and install manually, use the configure user interface – which you should be able to get to using the systray menu

      Sven

  7. Question: Does this need to run from the root of a USB stick?
    Reason: I’ve extracted the files to a subdirectory of my harddisk, and it won’t run. Perhaps my work computer is too locked down to even start this.
    Details: “start_foswiki.bat” does give a very nice spash-screen (which immediately disappears) and then nothing happens. “apache_start.bat” creates a command window saying “Starting apache…” and after a while it shows “apache is not started, press any key to continue” which just closes the command window.
    Brgds!

    1. yes, there are quite a number of parts that need to be able to assume that the files are at the root of the USB stick / hard drive. XAMPP’s apache has been built with this assumption, and so has strawberry perl.

  8. I hate to appear as a complete idiot but I am very confused. I downloaded Foswiki on a USB v.05 with the intention of having a look at this to see how it works so that I can “sell” the concept to my wiki ignorant colleagues. I extract to my USB but it creates a directory Foswiki and dumps everything in there. Should I move the lot to the root (E:)? Then I cannot find a start-foswiki.bat file, just an autorun. Also should xampp and perl be set up on my C drive or on my USB? Sorry that this appear dim but using apache and servers is outside of my area? Any advice?

    1. mmm, where to start.

      yes, The Foswiki On USB Stick must be installed into the root of the drive – it is specifically built to work from a USB stick – though it will work from a HD or mapped share (for testing I often share a directory, then create a mapped drive that it can then run from.

      Sven

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