I'm very new to Linux, hope someone give me advices about the easiest way to install LAMP.
I understand that I can install AMP with the standalone rpm packages from their web sites or the packages come with the Linux (in my case, it is Fedora Core3).

I tried the standalone packages route, and failed several times (mysql.sock doesn't exist anywhere). Anyone successfully get LAMP running in FC3? Please post the link to the Howto.

I installed all the packages for LAMP in FC3, but what next? (Ran rpm -qa | grep apache, nothing shows for Apache).

Is there a program like EasyPHP to help install LAMP?

Thanks in advance,

Using the supplied packages is the best option. The packages for Apache are actually named "httpd", which is why your grep command didn't find them.

You only need to do three things:

a) Set the MySQL root password. Read the section in the manual on mysql.com twice before doing this - accounts are by far the most confusing part of MySQL.

b) Start the services:

su -c '/sbin/service mysql start'
su -c '/sbin/service httpd start'

Enter your root password when prompted.

c) If the services have started OK, then you will probably want to set them to start automatically on boot up:

su -c '/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 mysql on'
su -c '/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 httpd on'

Again, enter your root password when prompted.

The default configuration files for Apache and MySQL work without needing any modifications.

Hope that helps