Originally, this project was going to use the portage version of Apache. Unfortunately, after emerging Apache, it was discovered that the portage version was kinda lacking. As a result, the portage version was uninstalled and a source build of Apache was required.

Installing Apache from source is relatively easy. After downloading it from the Apache website, you will need to perform the following commands:

  # gunzip httpd-<version>.tar.gz
  # tar -xvf httpd-<version>.tar
  # cd httpd-<version>
  # ./configure --enable-so --enable-ssl
  # make
  # make install

Now its time to get the various SSL files established.

  # mkdir /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt

  # openssl genrsa -des3 -passout pass:<password> -out /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.key.org 1024

  # openssl req -new -passin pass:<password> -passout pass:<password> -key /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.key.org -out /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.csr -days 3650

  # openssl req -x509 -passin pass:<password> -passout pass:<password> -key /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.key.org -in /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.csr -out /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt -days 3650

  # openssl rsa -passin pass:<password> -in /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.key.org -out /usr/local/apache2/conf/server.key

  # mkdir /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.key

  # mv /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.key /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.key/server.key

  # chmod 400 /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.key/server.key

Please note: It is safe to accept the default values for all the questions you see when you create /usr/local/apache2/conf/server.crt because in either case you will receive a warning in your browser if you try to access an SSL site on your server. If you do not want to get this warning you will have to get a "real" SSL certificate.