How to Install Jexus Web Server 5.3 on Ubuntu 13.04

Jexus Series: How to Install Jexus Web Server 5.3 on Ubuntu 13.04

 

This is a series of posts regarding the free Linux web server called Jexus.

What is Jexus?
Jexus Web Server is a free web server for Linux (it is free, but not open source). It is powered by Mono and aims to provide best support for ASP.NET applications (while it also provides excellent PHP support out of the box).

Its homepage is at http://www.linuxdot.net/ (in Simplified Chinese).

Install Steps
1. Install Mono runtime
sudo apt-get install mono-complete

As Jexus requires Mono runtime, in this step we install latest stable Mono runtime (2.10.*) via apt-get. Mono 3.0.* is recommended if you know how to get it compiled and installed.

2. Download and unpack Jexus
wget http://www.linuxdot.net/down/jexus-5.3.tar.gz
tar -zxvf jexus-5.3.tar.gz

Jexus binary package is downloaded from its official site, and extracted to a folder named "jexus-5.3" after this step. The total size of the folder is only 404.1 kB.

Jexus Web Server binary package

3. Create default web site
sudo gedit /var/www/default/index.html
When gedit is opened, type in some text, such as "Hello World from Jexus". Save and close the file.

/var/www/default is the default web site path for Jexus. In this step we create a test page using gedit. You might use any other Linux text editor to create this test page.

4. Install and launch Jexus
sudo cp -Rp ./jexus-5.3 /usr/jexus
cd /usr/jexus
sudo chmod +x jws
sudo ./jws regsvr
sudo ./jws start

Here we put Jexus binary to /usr/jexus folder, grant the jws shell script file execution permission, and then use it to register Jexus modules in Mono GAC and launch the HTTP service. If you want to install Jexus to another location, please change the commands accordingly.

Now if we open Firefox and navigate to http://localhost, the test page we created is displayed correctly,

Jexus test page i Firefox

In the next post in this series, we will see how to upgrade from an older Jexus release to a new release. Stay tuned.

If you are interested in Jexus, but do not understand Chinese well, you can contact me directly via [e-mail]. I know its developers and can help you communicate with them.

(Updated: Below is the alternative way in step 3 to create the test page using vi,)

1. sudo vi /var/www/default/index.html
2. Press i on keyboard to enter edit mode.
3. Type "Hello World from Jexus" and press Esc on keyboard to exit edit mode.
4. Type :wq and press Enter on keyboard to exit vi.