Mono 2.x on CentOS 5

Mono no longer packages for Red Hat distribution but still provide sources. Here we will grab the source code, and install manually on a Cent OS 5.2 box.

First off, make sure you have all the development tools installed:

Pre-Software requirement

yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
yum install httpd build-essential gcc bzip bison pkgconfig glib-devel \
glib2-devel httpd-devel libpng-devel libX11-devel freetype fontconfig \
pango-devel ruby ruby-rdoc gtkhtml38-devel wget

At this time, Mono 2.0.1 is the latest. You can always check for new build at http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/sources-stable/

Getting all the needed Mono software

cd /root
wget http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/sources/mono/mono-2.0.1.tar.bz2
wget http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/sources/xsp/xsp-2.0.tar.bz2
wget http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/sources/mod_mono/mod_mono-2.0.tar.bz2
wget http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/sources/libgdiplus/libgdiplus-2.0.tar.bz2

Unlike many other tutorials, we will install using "Java" style - the version # is included:

mkdir /opt/mono-2.0.1

Let's make a desult symlink:,

ln -s /opt/mono-2.0.1 /opt/mono

This is needed when building xsp:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib/pkgconfig/:/opt/mono/lib/pkgconfig/:/usr/lib/
Set path (even we don't actually have it yet)

export PATH=/opt/mono/bin:$PATH

Now we are ready to compile:

tar jvfx mono-2.0.1.tar.bz2
cd mono-2.0.1
./configure --prefix=/opt/mono-2.0.1
make; make install

tar jvfx xsp-2.0.tar.bz2
cd ~/xsp-2.0
./configure --prefix=/opt/mono
make; make install

tar jvfx mod_mono-2.0.tar.bz2
cd ~/mod_mono-2.0
./configure --prefix=/opt/mono --with-mono-prefix=/opt/mono --with-apr-config=/usr/lib/httpd/modules
make; make install

tar jvfx libgdiplus-2.0.tar.bz2
cd ~/libgdiplus-2.0
./configure
make; make install

You should now have mod_mono.so in /usr/lib/httpd/modules. Also you should have mod_server in /opt/mono/bin.
You directories should look like those:

Directory contents are as follows:

ls /opt/mono/bin/

al                    mono-api-info
al2                   mono-api-info2
asp-state             monodis
asp-state2            mono-find-provides
caspol                mono-find-requires
cert2spc              monograph
certmgr               monolinker
chktrust              monop
cilc                  monop2
dbsessmgr             mono-service
dbsessmgr2            mono-service2
disco                 mono-shlib-cop
dtd2rng               mono-test-install
dtd2xsd               mono-xmltool
fastcgi-mono-server   mozroots
fastcgi-mono-server2  nunit-console
gacutil               nunit-console2
genxs                 pedump
gmcs                  permview
httpcfg               prj2make
ilasm                 resgen
ilasm2                resgen2
installvst            secutil
jay                   setreg
macpack               sgen
makecert              signcode
mbas                  smcs
mconfig               sn
mcs                   soapsuds
mjs                   sqlsharp
mkbundle              wsdl
mkbundle2             wsdl2
mod-mono-server       xbuild
mod-mono-server2      xsd
mono                  xsp
mono-api-diff         xsp2

ls /opt/mono/lib/

libgdiplus.a             libmono-profiler-aot.so.0
libgdiplus.la            libmono-profiler-aot.so.0.0.0
libgdiplus.so            libmono-profiler-cov.a
libgdiplus.so.0          libmono-profiler-cov.la
libgdiplus.so.0.0.0      libmono-profiler-cov.so
libikvm-native.a         libmono-profiler-cov.so.0
libikvm-native.la        libmono-profiler-cov.so.0.0.0
libikvm-native.so        libmono.so
libmono.a                libmono.so.0
libmono.la               libmono.so.0.0.0
libMonoPosixHelper.a     libMonoSupportW.a
libMonoPosixHelper.la    libMonoSupportW.la
libMonoPosixHelper.so    libMonoSupportW.so
libmono-profiler-aot.a   mono
libmono-profiler-aot.la  pkgconfig
libmono-profiler-aot.so  xsp

ls /usr/lib/httpd/modules/

libphp5.so              mod_file_cache.so
mod_actions.so          mod_filter.so
mod_alias.so            mod_headers.so
mod_asis.so             mod_ident.so
mod_auth_basic.so       mod_imagemap.so
mod_auth_digest.so      mod_include.so
mod_authn_alias.so      mod_info.so
mod_authn_anon.so       mod_ldap.so
mod_authn_dbd.so        mod_log_config.so
mod_authn_dbm.so        mod_log_forensic.so
mod_authn_default.so    mod_logio.so
mod_authn_file.so       mod_mem_cache.so
mod_authnz_ldap.so      mod_mime_magic.so
mod_authz_dbm.so        mod_mime.so
mod_authz_default.so    mod_mono.so
mod_authz_groupfile.so  mod_mono.so.0.0.0
mod_authz_host.so       mod_negotiation.so
mod_authz_owner.so      mod_proxy_ajp.so
mod_authz_user.so       mod_proxy_balancer.so
mod_autoindex.so        mod_proxy_connect.so
mod_cache.so            mod_proxy_ftp.so
mod_cern_meta.so        mod_proxy_http.so
mod_cgid.so             mod_proxy.so
mod_cgi.so              mod_rewrite.so
mod_dav_fs.so           mod_setenvif.so
mod_dav.so              mod_speling.so
mod_dbd.so              mod_status.so
mod_deflate.so          mod_suexec.so
mod_dir.so              mod_unique_id.so
mod_disk_cache.so       mod_userdir.so
mod_dumpio.so           mod_usertrack.so
mod_env.so              mod_version.so
mod_expires.so          mod_vhost_alias.so
mod_ext_filter.so

And the mod_mono config file should be like this:

ls /etc/httpd/conf/mod_mono.conf
vi /etc/httpd/conf/mod_mono.conf

<ifmodule>
LoadModule mono_module /usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_mono.so
AddType application/x-asp-net .aspx
AddType application/x-asp-net .asmx
AddType application/x-asp-net .ashx
AddType application/x-asp-net .asax
AddType application/x-asp-net .ascx
AddType application/x-asp-net .soap
AddType application/x-asp-net .rem
AddType application/x-asp-net .axd
AddType application/x-asp-net .cs
AddType application/x-asp-net .config
AddType application/x-asp-net .Config
AddType application/x-asp-net .dll
DirectoryIndex index.aspx
DirectoryIndex Default.aspx
DirectoryIndex default.aspx
</ifmodule>

Let's move it to CentOS style:

mv /etc/httpd/conf/mod_mono.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_mono.conf

Restart web server

service httpd restart

Make a simple test file named default.aspx:
<%Response.Write("mono on centos - it works");%>
If you see that message at http://localhost/default.aspx, congrad, there you have it!