how to run php on localhost?

[renkai]

I'm missing something. I have apache2 installed and I have php5 installed (both using the Install Software manager). However when I try to browse to a php file on localhost (for example http://localhost/myfolder/index.php), Firefox prompts me with "what should Firefox do with this file?"

I'm at a loss - why doesn't Firefox know how to open a php file? I browse to php files all the time on web pages, so why not on localhost?

[Ede]

Edit: Disregard what I said. No sleep for 30 hours, I mixed up windows and linux. >_>

No more x-files before I'm going to sleep!

[speaker219]

That means the scripts aren't being parsed, just delivered as regular text files.
I reccomend using XAMPP (an easy-to-install combo of Apache/PHP/mysql)
It automatically configures everything so that it works right away.
Once it is installed if you only want to use the Apache + PHP part, you can delete the other parts =)
here is the howto
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=223410

[scorp123]

Are you sure that php5 is running as a service?

Please, if you don't know what you are talking about ....

[scorp123]

I'm missing something. I have apache2 installed and I have php5 installed

Did you enable mod_php in your Apache main configuration? I'd suggest you check the documentation and how-to's on www.apache.org ...