So about this project…  Well it’s a simple project really: web based, MVC2 with a MySql database. So here’s a few technical issues I ran into while building the beginnings of this application.

Choosing a Data Framework

I know some of you purists would say stick to vanilla ADO.NET; it works every time, and you have no conversion problems. Well, that’s right, but I’m a lazy typist, and I really dig LINQ. So I tested several LINQ data frameworks on mono and found that Dblinq and SubSonic3 were the most functionally supported frameworks. I tested it with Linq to NHibernate, but it didn't work. SubSonic3, after a recent bug fix, now does work in Mono! 

MVC2 Works on Mono?

Yeah it does! Well mostly and only if you pull from the trunk code or the daily tarballs. Unfortunately, it does not work with the latest public release 2.6.4 and definitely not 2.4.4 which is the latest deployed version on Ubuntu 10.04. MVC1 does work out of the box on both of those. But I’ve been spoiling myself on MVC2 while at my fulltime job, so I decided to push for MVC 2.0 for this. So what do you have to do to get it working?  You need to learn a little bit about compiling Mono on your own and installing it, which sounds more painful that it really is. I even wrote a script that works (most of the time) on Ubuntu.  There’s no guarantee that it will work for you of course.

Checkout one of my recent posts about getting Mono trunk installed.

Using MVC2 is the easy part. Just setup a new MVC2 project and ensure your reference options for the System.Web.Mvc and System.Web.Routing assemblies are set to Copy Local. Data annotations will not work, so you’ll need to rip out the model validation in the default MVC2 project; otherwise, the rest of it works like a charm.

xUnit and Dependency injection with Unity works too!

Yup, believe it or not, some of the components in the Enterprise Library do work in Mono including Unity, which works great for swapping out mock classes in test projects. I chose to use xUnit as my testing framework since it seemed to work pretty nicely in the SubSonic project. I also found a real nice breakdown of how they compare to other testing frameworks. The xunit command line runs on vanilla Ubuntu 10.04 (mono 2.4.4). However, my preferred method of running some of these tests is using the TestDriven.net runner on Windows/VS.

System Agnostic Gotchas

I’ve built and tested most of it on Windows. Which sometimes creates problems when deploying to non-Windows servers. Especially when it comes to I/O pathing.  As you go through and design it, you always have to build it in a platform agnostic manner. Duh right?  This includes simple things like case senstive paths, using the correct directory separators, etc. Typically as lazy Windows programmers (not all of us)   we would rather hard code the path separator like this.   string.Format(@“..\files\{0}”, filename);    But unfortunately that breaks Linux pathing. So by using Path.DirectorySeparator, it will automatically decide which is the correct character to use on either platform.
string.Format(“..{0}files{0}{1}”, Path.DirectorySeparator, filename);

The later versions of windows also support both slashes, so you could get away with using forward slashes in windows I/O on Vista and 7.

It can be advantageous (if working with a web application) to use System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath or System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.MapPath to get your native local path from a virtual one. So store your paths as virtual ones and let the framework convert it to a native/local one.

Image Rendering

Well, I haven’t completely dug into this, but I have briefly tested simple things like resizing images and writing them back out with Jpeg encoding. I have to say that the Mono built-in implementation of the GDI works just fine.  I even tested some other things like rendering speed as far as resizing a jpeg and writing it out. It seems using the System.Drawing as opposed to Mono’s GDK/Cairo actually works faster (only by observation; nothing official). I’ll have more detailed results on this as I get to that piece.

Wrap-Up

So if you’re interested in starting a new Mono project, I hope some of these tips will keep you out of trouble. Good Luck!

This first part will cover installing and configuring an OpenSuse 11.2 server with Apache/Mono and SSH. The second part will talk about how to setup a MySql Membership provider (with mono and Windows), and the third part is a walkthrough showing how to port a simple Asp.Net MVC site to mono and MySql. I’m also targeting those of you who use virtual hosting where you might only have SSH (after install) to configure your server, so I will be using text based tools: SSH, vi, and yast for all my installations and configuration after getting the base system installed.

First off, let me just say that I’m a Windows .NET programmer; not a Linux programmer. I know enough about Linux to dig my way around most of the basic stuff, so if anything seems incorrect in this post, feel free to correct me.   I’m extremely intrigued by Linux and its open source philosophy. I use it for a handful of useful, rock solid services like Subversion, Postfix, Samba file servers and MySql. I also share an interest with many small web shops in finding more affordable hosting solutions for smaller Asp.Net apps. And in light of Mono being able to run MVC apps, it’s very exciting to think of what we can do with it.

Index

• Before You Begin 
• Installing Linux Graphical (part 1)
• Configuring Linux During Install (part 2)
• Configuring Linux After Install
• Updating Software
• Install Mono, Apache, and MySql
• Configure a Virtual Host & Web Directory
• Running the Default Visual Studio MVC Website
• Useful Links

Before you Begin

There are a few things you need to download before you get started.  First of all, you’ll need an SSH client for file transfer and console access. I’m using FileZilla and Putty as my SSH clients. If you’ve never used it before, think of SSH like telnet and FTP wrapped into one.

Here’s a few tips on navigating the text mode installer screens. Use the Tab Key to cycle through fields or change focus between sections on the screen. Use the Spacebar or Enter to select an option. Esc can back out of a dropdown option. You can use the arrow keys to cycle options in a section.

Download one of the installers on OpenSuse’s website. Burn or mount the ISO and boot your machine from it to begin.

Note: while I was doing this on a test virtual machine, I could only get the Network install to work with Virtual PC 2007 on my hardware. All the versions worked fine when installing it to a physical machine. If you choose the network install, you may need to configure your DHCP settings before the GUI installer starts. (with Virtual PC, make sure the correct external network card is exposed to the virtual machine).

Installing Linux Graphical (part 1)

In sequence, here are (most) of the screens you’ll see during the first part of installing OpenSuse 11.2.

	Language selection
	Uncheck Use Automatic Configuration
	Choose your time zone.
	I chose minimal server. Optional: You may choose a desktop if you wish to use remote VNC to remotely admin your server with a GUI.  VNC is kind of like using Remote Desktop. To do that, choose your desktop here, and we’ll configure it to still boot to text mode later at the summary screen.
	Partition selection. I used defaults.
	Enter your username. Uncheck automatic login. Optional: You may choose a different password for the root user.  This is good if you have a public server sitting in the cloud in case someone gets the password to your normal user account.
	Summary screen. Scroll to the bottom. Click “enable and open” for Firewall and SSH. We’ll use SSH to remotely admin the server. Optional: If you chose a desktop earlier, change the Default Runlevel to 3 (Full multiuser with network). This will cause the server to boot to normal text mode by default.
	Click Install to continue.

Configuring Linux During Install (part 2)

After the first phase, your computer will reboot and begin the manual configuration phase. As I mentioned earlier, these screens are pretty easy to navigate. Use tab to cycle through the fields or change focus to different sections. Use space or enter to make a selection. Also, the highlighted letters in words are hotkeys you can use in combination with the Alt key.  Each section will continue when you select the NEXT option in the bottom right corner.

	This is the first configuration screen. Enter your new machine hostname (or leave it default).
	Showing hostname configuration progress.
	This is the main configuration screen. You will set your network configuration here. Tab until you see the bounding box around the gray area light up. Then down arrow to Network Interfaces. Press enter to select it.
	Overview Screen This is the first Network Interfaces screen. There are three focus areas. The first is the top tab area: Overview, Hostname/DNS, and Routing. Tab to the interface list and select your interface card for your main Internet connection. Then press Alt-i to view its details
	Shows Ethernet details. If you choose to use static IP, this is where to set that information. Set the IP address, subnet, etc. You may leave this as DHCP if you wish.  When you’re done tab and select Next.
	From the Overview screen (bolded above), move to the Hostname/DNS section. Set your hostname and your DNS servers (if you chose static IP in the previous step).
	If you chose a static IP, tab from the Overview Screen to Routing. Set your default gateway and associate it with the correct device.
	After clicking Next from the Overview Screen, the configuration changes will be written to disk.
	This step will test your Internet connection. If successful, it will check for updates.
	Successful connection
	Updating packages
	Run updates
	Will reboot after this step. You may need to click Next after it finishes.
	I used defaults here.
	Finally done!
	The installation drops you to a console.

Configuring Linux After Install

Root Access
You’ll need root access to perform most of the tasks we’re doing, so enter: su, then type the root password you configured during install. The command prompt will change color to red.

Updating Software

One of the really cool things about most Linux distributions is their package management. It’s a one-stop-shop for installing, updating, and removing software on your system. Fedora has yum, Debian has apt-get, OpenSuse has zypper. Using these utilities is very straight forward. So if you didn’t update your system during install, you can do it now by entering:

zypper update

You can run this command occasionally to update your system. To see more details about how to use it. Enter: man zypper

Install Mono, Apache, and MySql

Installing Mono and Apache

With zypper, we can cheat a little to install mono, apache, and all dependencies. First we need to add the mono repositories so zypper knows how to find it.

Enter the following lines separately:

zypper addrepo http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/download-stable/openSUSE_11.2 mono-stable
zypper refresh --repo mono-stable
zypper dist-upgrade --repo mono-stable

Our cheat is going to be installing Mod_Mono, which is the mono plugin for Apache. This will force it to install apache, mono, xsp and everything we need to get started.

zypper install mod_mono

Autostart Apache

To make apache start when the system reboots, enter this command:

chkconfig --add apache2

Installing MySql Server

To download and install mysql server and client, enter this command:

zypper install mysql

Add MySql to your startup and start it:

chkconfig --add mysql

service mysql start

Then configure the server with:

mysql_secure_installation

Follow the instructions and setup your server. The first question will be to enter your root password; the first time you run this, just press enter with a blank password, then choose Y to enter a new root password. You’ll also want to disable remote root access, the anonymous user, and test database.

Optional:

Now setup your user account so you can remotely access the server. This also requires you to expose your MySql server over the Internet if you’re running a hosted server. Users in MySql are username & host based. Both parts make up a unique user.

To add a user:

Connect to your database server using your new root password. Enter: mysql -p

Here is an example of a user you would typically use for a specific application running on the local machine. This statement grants all privileges on a database called test_database and all its tables to a username ‘my_new_username’ who can only connect from localhost.

grant all privileges on test_database.* to 'my_new_username'@'localhost' identified by 'new_password' with grant option;

An admin user with access to everything from any location would have a statement similar to this:

grant all privileges on *.* to 'super_user'@'%' identified by 'super_secret_pw' with grant option;

Enter quit to exit the MySql client.

Firewall

This is actually much simpler than it looks. I’m showing all these screens just for reference. Basically, just use yast as the tool configure the firewall. It has a nice little interface similar to the post-install configuration. For what we’re doing, add your network device to the External Zone, then add Secure Shell Server and HTTP Web Server to the allowed services. Then just enable and turn on your firewall (if it isn’t already on)

	Enter: yast
	Navigate to Interfaces, set your network device to be in the External Zone.
	Navigate to Allowed Services, select External Zone, then select Secure Shell Server.
	Use the Add link to add the selected service to the list. Repeat this for HTTP server. Optional: Add MySql server if you want to expose it to the Internet and access it remotely with your tools.
	Enable and Start your firewall from the Start Up screen.
	Finish

Configure a Virtual Host & Web Directory

I used the Mod_Mono configuration tool on the Mono website, which built the following configuration file. It looks big, but most of it’s comments. The key notes here are that it runs .Net 2.0, it’s root directory and that it handles all requests through Mono (good for MVC). It also does some nice things like compress the output on certain files as well as the Mono output.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName odin.integratedwebsystems.int
  ServerAdmin web-admin@odin.integratedwebsystems.int
  DocumentRoot /srv/www/odin.integratedwebsystems.int
  # MonoServerPath can be changed to specify which version of ASP.NET is hosted
  # mod-mono-server1 = ASP.NET 1.1 / mod-mono-server2 = ASP.NET 2.0
  # For SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension, uncomment the line below:
  # MonoServerPath odin.integratedwebsystems.int "/opt/novell/mono/bin/mod-mono-server2"
  # For Mono on openSUSE, uncomment the line below instead:
  MonoServerPath odin.integratedwebsystems.int "/usr/bin/mod-mono-server2"

  # To obtain line numbers in stack traces you need to do two things:
  # 1) Enable Debug code generation in your page by using the Debug="true"
  #    page directive, or by setting <compilation debug="true" /> in the
  #    application's Web.config
  # 2) Uncomment the MonoDebug true directive below to enable mod_mono debugging
  MonoDebug odin.integratedwebsystems.int true

  # The MONO_IOMAP environment variable can be configured to provide platform abstraction
  # for file access in Linux.  Valid values for MONO_IOMAP are:
  #    case
  #    drive
  #    all
  # Uncomment the line below to alter file access behavior for the configured application
  MonoSetEnv odin.integratedwebsystems.int MONO_IOMAP=all
  #
  # Additional environtment variables can be set for this server instance using
  # the MonoSetEnv directive.  MonoSetEnv takes a string of 'name=value' pairs
  # separated by semicolons.  For instance, to enable platform abstraction *and*
  # use Mono's old regular expression interpreter (which is slower, but has a
  # shorter setup time), uncomment the line below instead:
  # MonoSetEnv odin.integratedwebsystems.int MONO_IOMAP=all;MONO_OLD_RX=1

  MonoApplications odin.integratedwebsystems.int "/:/srv/www/odin.integratedwebsystems.int"
  <Location "/">
    Allow from all
    Order allow,deny
    MonoSetServerAlias odin.integratedwebsystems.int
    SetHandler mono
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI "\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$" no-gzip dont-vary
  </Location>
  <IfModule mod_deflate.c>
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/javascript
  </IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

Edit the information above (or use the configuration tool) and replace my hostname with yours. Then save this file with the extension “.conf” and copy it to your /etc/apache2/conf.d directory using FileZilla SFTP connection as the root user.

Create a new directory at the location you specified in the DocumentRoot command. This is the root folder you’ll use to deploy your website.

cd /srv/www

mkdir my_web_hostname

After setting all this up, you’ll need to restart your Apache server. To do that, just enter:

service apache2 restart

You can restart any of your services this way. You might also reboot your server just to get a fresh run after installing and configuring all our software. Use the shutdown command to restart your system. Again, you can use shutdown –help or man shutdown to learn more about that command.

shutdown -r now

Running the Default Visual Studio MVC Website

This is cool! It’s a great start knowing that routing, controllers and views all work. Feel free to play with it a bit more. Mono has some great tools like MoMa that will tell you if your existing assemblies are compatible with Mono. You can also start toying around with Dblinq and alternative membership providers.

There’s more to come. The next post will show you how to use the MySql Membership provider with both Windows and Mono.

Useful Links

• Mono Website – http://www.mono-project.com 
• Mod_Mono Configuration Tool – http://go-mono.com/config-mod-mono/
• MoMa  Mono Compatibility Checker – http://www.mono-project.com/MoMA
• OpenSuse 11.2 Download Page (scroll down) – http://software.opensuse.org/112/en
• OpenSuse Documentation (loaded with great how to documents) – http://en.opensuse.org/Documentation
• Putty Download Page – http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
• FileZilla Download Page – http://filezilla-project.org/download.php
• MySql Connector .NET Download – http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/#downloads
• MySql Workbench (MySql Administration and Development tools) – http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/5.2.html