Running ASP.NET Applications in Debian using XSP and Mono
What is Mono ?
Mono provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix. Sponsored by Novell, the Mono open source project has an active and enthusiastic contributing community and is positioned to become the leading choice for development of Linux applications.
What is XSP ?
XSP is a “light-weight web server” capable of hosting and serving ASP.NET applications. It is written using C#, making extensive use of the classes in the System.Web namespace.XSP web server runs on both the Mono runtime and also on the .NET runtime.
Download Mono and XSP
http://go-mono.com/sources-stable/
Mono Screenshots
http://www.mono-project.com/Screenshots
Mono Documentation
http://www.go-mono.com/docs/
Mono FAQ
http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_General
Now we are going to take a look how to install XPS and mono for ASP.NET applications and testing this setup
Install mono in Debian
If you want to install mono in your debian system you need to run the following command
#apt-get install mono mono-gmcs mono-gac mono-utils monodevelop monodoc-browser monodevelop-nunit monodevelop-versioncontrol
Install XSP Web server in Debian
If you want to install ASP.NET2.0 version use the following command
#apt-get install mono-xsp2 mono-xsp2-base asp.net2-examples
If you want to install ASP.NET1.0 version use the following command
#apt-get install mono-xsp mono-xsp-base asp.net-examples
This will install all the required development environment and sample applications
Testing your ASP.NET Applications
We have already installed sample applications
If you want to run ASP.NET 2.0 application you need to go to /usr/share/asp.net2-demos/ run the following command
#xsp2
This will start the XSP with ASP.Net 2.0 application
xsp2
Listening on port: 8080 (non-secure)
Listening on address: 0.0.0.0
Root directory: /usr/share/asp.net2-demos
Hit Return to stop the server.
Application_Start
Now you need to point your web browser to http://localhost:8080/
You should seen the following screen

If you want to run ASP.NET 1.0 application you need to go to /usr/share/asp.net-demos/ run the following command
#xsp
This will start the XSP with ASP.Net 1.0 application
xsp
Listening on port: 8080 (non-secure)
Listening on address: 0.0.0.0
Root directory: /usr/share/asp.net-demos
Hit Return to stop the server.
Application_Start
Now you need to point your web browser to http://localhost:8080/
You should seen the following screen

Possible errors
If you get the following error when you point http://localhost:8080/
Error Message: HTTP 404. File not found /usr/share/asp.net2-demos/index2.aspx
Solution
You need to copy the index.aspx to index2.aspx
#cp /usr/share/asp.net2-demos/index.aspx /usr/share/asp.net2-demos/index2.aspx