The instructions for installing Serendipity make it seem quite straightforward.

Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple.
Before installing, you need to make a mysql database and user for serendipity to use. This can be done via the command-line mysql tool. Anything you type will be surrounded by ` marks.

First, log into your database and run the tool:
`mysql --user=root --password=mypassword`
You will be greated with a "mysql>" prompt.

First we create the database:
`create database serendipity;`

Then we create a user and give it access:
`grant all privileges on serendipity.* to 'seren@localhost'`
`identified by 'myserendipitypassword' with grant option;`
`quit;`

Note this user and password, Serendipity will be asking you for it upon startup.

Now, you can `tar -zxvf serendipity-0.8.1.tar.gz` within your webserver's document root (mine is /var/www), and
Point your browser at http://yourdomain/serendipity.

You will be greeted with a list of requirements and recommendations, along with your status on each of them. I was missing "database extensions" so I opened up my shell, and did an `apt-get install php4-mysql`. Edited the lines in my /etc/php4/apache2/php.ini as suggested, and rechecked. Now it was happy, and I went ahead with the "Simple Installation"

Here, you will need to enter the username and password you created in mysql, as well as the name of the database. Change the general settings to suit yourself, and "Complete Installation"

From here on in, it's smooth sailing.

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