Yeah. I've got that set up. Sorry, this is a very long post.

I'm using a init script to start php5-fastcgi...

/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi
#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: php-fastcgi
# Required-Start: $all
# Required-Stop: $all
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start and stop php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode
# Description: Start and stop php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode
### END INIT INFO

# Author: Kurt Zankl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

# Do NOT "set -e"

PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode"
NAME=php-fastcgi
DAEMON=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
PHP_CONFIG_FILE=/etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

# If the daemon is not enabled, give the user a warning and then exit,
# unless we are stopping the daemon
if [ "$START" != "yes" -a "$1" != "stop" ]; then
log_warning_msg "To enable $NAME, edit /etc/default/$NAME and set START=yes"
exit 0
fi

# Process configuration
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
DAEMON_ARGS="-q -b $FCGI_HOST:$FCGI_PORT -c $PHP_CONFIG_FILE"

do_start()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been started
# 1 if daemon was already running
# 2 if daemon could not be started
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
|| return 1
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON \
--background --make-pidfile --chuid $EXEC_AS_USER --startas $DAEMON -- \
$DAEMON_ARGS \
|| return 2
}

do_stop()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been stopped
# 1 if daemon was already stopped
# 2 if daemon could not be stopped
# other if a failure occurred
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE > /dev/null # --name $DAEMON
RETVAL="$?"
[ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
# Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
# and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
# If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
# that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
# needed by services started subsequently. A last resort is to
# sleep for some time.
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
[ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
# Many daemons donâ^À^Ùt delete their pidfiles when they exit.
rm -f $PIDFILE
return "$RETVAL"
}
case "$1" in
start)
[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
do_start
case "$?" in
0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
stop)
[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
do_stop
case "$?" in
0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
restart|force-reload)
log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
do_stop
case "$?" in
0|1)
do_start
case "$?" in
0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
*) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
esac
;;
*)
# Failed to stop
log_end_msg 1
;;
esac
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
exit 3
;;
esac

Here is the /etc/default/php-fastcgi

START=yes

# Which user runs PHP? (default: www-data)

EXEC_AS_USER=www-data

# Host and TCP port for FASTCGI-Listener (default: localhost:9000)

FCGI_HOST=localhost
FCGI_PORT=10005

# Environment variables, which are processed by PHP

PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=4
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

/etc/nginx/fcgi.conf


fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method;
fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type;
fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length;

fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param REQUEST_URI $request_uri;
fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_URI $document_uri;
fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $document_root;
fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol;

fastcgi_param GATEWAY_INTERFACE CGI/1.1;
fastcgi_param SERVER_SOFTWARE nginx/$nginx_version;

fastcgi_param REMOTE_ADDR $remote_addr;
fastcgi_param REMOTE_PORT $remote_port;
fastcgi_param SERVER_ADDR $server_addr;
fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port;
fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name;

# PHP only, required if PHP was built with --enable-force-cgi-redirect
fastcgi_param REDIRECT_STATUS 200;

One of my vhosts that uses php5...

server {
listen 80;
server_name site.com;
rewrite ^/(.*) http://www.site.com/$1 permanent;
}

server {
listen 80;
server_name www.site.com;
client_max_body_size 2m;

access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;

location / {
root /path/to/site.com/default;
index index.php;
}

# .php and .php5 sent to php5
location ~ .*\.php[345]?$ {
include /etc/nginx/fcgi.conf;
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:10005;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/site.com/default$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}

The only PHP package you need to install is php5-cgi. That comes with fastcgi built in.

I'm using the ubuntu nginx package. I'm pretty sure the only difference might be a few paths (/usr/bin/nginx vs. /usr/local/bin/nginx), but I don't think the above config would change.

Posted By: zenoboxlast thing ... to use php5 with mysql only have to install mysql, or I have to configure php in a particular way?
Thank you and excuse my insistence

You'll need the "php5-mysql" package.

OK so I am just trying to move over from shared hosting and am out of my depth...

I am trying set up Nginx to run wordpress and some other sites. (I was able to do it with a LAMP but that seemed to heavy for my small slice)

I have used all the tutorials here and have installed Nginx via aptitude on Hardy and have used all the alphagears scripts on this page (thanks). The only one I did not use exactly was my Vhost file which looks like this:

server {

        listen   80;
        server_name  site.com;
        rewrite ^/(.*) http://www.site.com/$1 permanent;

       }

server {

        listen   80;
        server_name www.site.com;

        access_log /home/geek/public_html/site.com/log/access.log;
        error_log /home/geek/public_html/site.com/log/error.log;

        location / {

                    root   /home/geek/public_html/site.com/public/;
                    index  index.php index.html;

                    # Basic version of Wordpress parameters, supporting nice permalinks.
                    # include /usr/local/nginx/conf/wordpress_params.regular;
                    # Advanced version of Wordpress parameters supporting nice permalinks and WP Super Cache plugin
                    # include /usr/local/nginx/conf/wordpress_params.super_cache;
                    }

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        #
        location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include /etc/nginx/fcgi.conf;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /home/geek/public_html/site.com/public/$fastcgi_script_name;
        }
  }

I am getting a 502 Bad Gateway nginx/0.5.33 and have searched around and have been unable to resolve.

I read somewhere about ps ax | grep php and this is the answer I get. 4002 pts/0 R+ 0:00 grep php

Does this mean that the php is not spawning correctly or is it something else?

Hi alphagears,

Thanks. It would not run because of permissions. I did chmod +x now it works and here is the result (I have no idea what it means)

ps ax | grep php
4088 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/php-cgi -q -b localhost:10005 -c /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini
4089 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/php-cgi -q -b localhost:10005 -c /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini
4090 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/php-cgi -q -b localhost:10005 -c /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini
4091 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/php-cgi -q -b localhost:10005 -c /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini
4092 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/php-cgi -q -b localhost:10005 -c /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini
4105 pts/2 R+ 0:00 grep php

The bad news is that I still get the 502 Gateway error...

Schultz - I changed the above vhost file to 10005 but unfortunately I get the same gateway 502 error...

Hey ifthengoto,

Sorry I couldn't respond sooner. We traveled home today. Glad you got it working. Keep asking questions, that's the way I learned.