Poot, poot, poot, poot, pootle...

I doubt that anyone can help me with this (as usual), but I try it anyway, so at least you can see what entertaining problems are brightening my day: I have been trying to set up a Pootle server for a while. Basically, Pootle is a very nice software, allowing very comfortable (though not as stylish as launchpad) software localization. But...

Pootle comes along with its own web server. Although it is written in Python, setting up a Pootle server is not done by copying a few files into a web server's hunting grounds. (though that should be possible somehow) I couldn't get its requirements fulfilled on Ubuntu 7.04, but it was in the repositories in 7.10, so I set up a machine with that. That machine also runs ISPConfig, supposed to ease account management.

There is a bug in pootle's package in Gutsy, and the recommended fix did not work for me, but at least Pootle would run... That machine is running Apache, plus a second Apache on port 81 for ISPConfig. Now Pootle comes with its own server on port 8080, and it wants to be executed by root.

Originally I wanted to "put" pootle into a user account, but the docs are a bit "fuzzy" here: The mentioned scripts and archive files do not exist on Ubuntu, and there is no hint what files I really need and how I could collect all necessary files manually. This is one problem.

Another problem is that I need to redirect port 8080 from that account (if I get it to work one day) to port 80, for which I probably need mod_proxy. The pootle docs seem to suggest a forward proxy (though with a few settings not recommended by the mod_proxy docs), while in my understanding a reverse proxy should be used. But again, no idea how to set that up properly...

So why I am creating myself all that trouble? Short answer: Because I've gone mad. Long answer: I would like to set up a localization site. I would like to use it for localizing Postnuke and some other FOSS. I know that my students will not be interested in this, but rumours claim there are people outside our school... And with localized Chinese versions, a few nice programs may become a bit more popular here in Taiwan...

So, you can't help me either? Never mind, I got used to that, I'll see that I get it done myself...