I’m moving a WordPress site from Windows/WAMP to Linux/XAMPP. I have a successful installation of XAMPP running on Linux. I’m installing the existing WordPress files into the htdocs folder in the XAMPP installation in order to run it and create the databases in order to take the existing database info from WAMP and import it into XAMPP. The normal procedure for WordPress activation is to activate it via the browser by entering “localhost/wordpress”. I’m getting a forbidden error that says files do not have permission to be readable.
I went back to the opt/xampp/htdocs folder and went to check permissions. The WordPress folder had a screened “X” on it. I had to run a command to make the WordPress folder chmod at 77 per instructions on this site: How to Install WordPress on Linux using XAMPP (2021)
I also found that I had to go into XAMPP’s control panel and click on “Application Folder” which gave me a Finder window with a red bar that said “accelerated privileges”. Ah… and I could make changes per the Permissions setting on the folders there. It got rid of the X and I could get inside the folder in the normal Window (I needed to rename the config file so that WordPress would go into “install mode” to create the database). So all seemed set, but when I run “localhost/wordpress” I still get a forbidden error.
I can go into the WordPress folders in the “accelerated privileges” window and check the permissions and they are set to my user name and “Read and Write” but the files setting is a dashed line. I change those to read and write and save, but they switch back to a dashed line.
Permissions is a thing I’m struggling with on Linux. There’s a “root” ownership level and a “user” level. I’m not understanding what should be set here or how to do it properly. All I need to do is get permissions to work on opt/XAMPP/htdocs/wordpress and it will activate my WordPress and I can complete this project.
