Greetings and welcome!

This is a tutorial on how to upgrade WordPress 2.0.12 to 3.0+ on a Debian Etch server. The assumption is that you have “root” privilege on your server, a working knowledge of the Linux command line, you have installed WordPress 2.0.12 using “apt-get install wordpress” on your server or followed instructions similar to those found here.

It is my understanding that Debian LTS ended on Etch last month so the WordPress .deb package available in the Etch package repository is unlikely to be advanced beyond v. 2.0.12.

For those of you who followed the instructions given on Mr. Hartmans blog who encountered some warnings when you ran a2ensite(8) you may ignore them. You may have also encountered a  ”permission denied” message when you attempted to run the script “/usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup-mysql -n example example.com”. My work-around is “chmod 700 setup-mysql” and then change it back to 644 once it has finished its job.

After that one can proceed with the WordPress setup as outlined in Mr. Hartmans blog to get WordPress 2.0.12 up and running on your Etch server. I believe Mr. Hartmans method of install to be much more robust than the “Famous 5 Minute Installation” instructions give at WordPress.org. The trade off for this more robust install is some convenience in regard to plugins, themes and future WordPress updates all of which must be carried out by hand on the server command line if you use apt-get to install WordPress.

Once 2.0.12 is up and running and you realize that you ~must~ upgrade to 3.0 you simply download 3.0 from WordPress.org, move it into /usr/share on your server.

Delete the database created for your install of 2.0.12. I used PhPMyAdmin to delete my database but you may use any method you see fit on your system. Also delete /etc/wordpress/config-<yoursite>.com.php.

Unpack the .zip file containing WordPress 3.0 in /usr/share and then run “/usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup-mysql -n <yoursite> <yoursite>.com”. You may have to chmod setup-mysql as explained earlier if you had to do that the first time. Finally follow the same WordPress setup instructions that were given on Mr. Hartmans blog one more time and that’s it!

Some issues may be considered unresolved at this time including having to add plugins and themes by hand in /usr/share/wordpress/wp-content but you had to do it this way in Debian WordPress 2.0.12 as well. At this time I recommend handling plugins, themes and updates by hand because FTP is not a secure method.

Also, the Debian specific wp-config.php warns against making any changes to it but I have found that one can make the changes usually made to wp-config.php in wp-settings.php instead.