Install Gibbon on Mac

This page provides download links and step-by-step instructions for installing Gibbon on Mac.

WARNING

This installation method is intended only for local testing and evaluation.

• The default database credentials are insecure.
• Do not use this setup for live school environments.
• For real deployments, configure secure credentials and use a production‑grade server stack.

Prerequisites

Install MAMP

MAMP provides Apache, PHP, and MySQL needed to run Gibbon.

1. Go to MAMP home page and click Free Download button to download MAMP-MAMP-PRO-Downloader.
2. Double-click the MAMP-MAMP-PRO-Downloader.zip file in your Download folder to unpack ZIP archive.
3. Double-click MAMP & MAP PRO Downloader.app in your Download folder.
4. An appropriate version of MAMP for your system will be downloaded as a pkg file.
5. Double-click pkg installer and follow prompts to install MAMP. By default, it will be installed at /Applications/MAMP.

Start MAMP services

1. Open MAMP.app from /Applications directory.
2. Click Start button on MAMP application window to start Apache and MySQL.
3. Open http://localhost:8888 in your browser. You should see a page entitled Index of / which confirms Apache is running.

Create database

Set up a database for Gibbon using phpMyAdmin.

1. Go to http://localhost:8888/phpMyAdmin.
2. Click Database tab.
3. Enter gibbon as the name of a new database and click Create button.

Database credentials

The username is root and password is root by default for this new database.

Create web directory

Prepare a folder for Gibbon files.

1. Run the following command in a Terminal:

mkdir /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/gibbon

Download Gibbon

1. Go to Gibbon's download page and download the latest version of Gibbon.
2. Double-click GibbonEduCore-InstallBundle.zip in your download folder to unpack archive.
3. Copy contents in GibbonEduCore-InstallBundle folder into MAMP:

cp ~/Downloads/GibbonEduCore-InstallBundle/* /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/gibbon/

Install Gibbon

1. Open http://localhost:8888/gibbon.
2. The Gibbon installer will check system requirements. Click Submit button.
3. Enter your database settings:

• Database Server: localhost
• Database Name: gibbon
• Username: root
• Password: root

4. Set Install demo data to Yes then click Submit.
5. To finish installation:

• Enter surname, first name, email, username and password to create administrator account
• Leave System Settings with default values
• Provide an organisation name and initials
• In the Miscellaneous section, select country, currency and timezone
• Click Submit to continue.

Verify Gibbon installation

1. Successfully completing the installation will redirect you to the Gibbon login page at http://localhost:8888/gibbon.
2. Log into Gibbon using admin account you created.

Where to go next

• Explore the Gibbon home page.
• Access information within a Gibbon system using the Fast Finder.