Getting Lighttpd, FastCGI and PHP working on CentOS 4

Posted on 02 Jul 2008 by Matt

Over the years I have been installing Lighttpd from the RPMforge repository on my CentOS 4 servers for high traffic sites. The one thing that bothers me time and again is that installing lighttpd, lighttpd-fastcgi and PHP; configuring lighttpd.conf to enable FastCGI and configuring FastCGI for PHP isn’t all that is required. Try doing only that and starting Lighttpd. It will die immediately all the while telling you that it started successfully.

The problem is that the default configuration for FastCGI + PHP in lighttpd.conf tries to place the PHP sockets into /var/run/lighttpd/ which doesn’t exist.

Only 2 quick steps are required to finish the installation and configuration:

  1. mkdir /var/run/lighttpd
  2. chown lighttpd. /var/run/lighttpd

Now fire up Lighttpd and enjoy the wonderful world of PHP on a web server that doesn’t suck.

Side Note: For those of you who are trying to find the location of php-cgi on your PHP 4.3.9 install from the base or updates CentOS repo, you aren’t going to find what you are looking for. Uninstall PHP 4.3.9 and install PHP 5.1.6 from the centosplus repo.

About Matt

IF YOU REALLY want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

In any case I am employed as a Senior Linux Systems Engineer at Rackspace in San Antonio, TX.

I spent the majority of my college years as an Astrophysics major specializing in black holes. When I got to my senior year and was studying 40 hours a week to stay on track I decided to bail and pursue an easier career.

I spend the majority of my time now contributing to WordPress, developing WordPress plugins, helping out in the WordPress IRC Channel, playing football (not American!), practicing Krav Maga, and last but not least, spending time with my Wife and Son.

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