Install LAMP on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

October 29, 2009 by Linerd
Filed under: HowTo, Ubuntu, linux, web development 

Why install LAMP on your desktop computer?

Why would I want to install and set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, php) stack on Ubuntu 9.10? It’s useful if you want to set up a private web development environment. Perhaps you want to develop your own WordPress theme. If you are developing websites and experimenting, it’s nice to do it in the privacy of your own computer, rather than out on the public internet.

Install LAMP

The Ubuntu developers have created a very easy way to install a LAMP server on an existing system. It's all kicked off with this one simple terminal command.

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

Note: Please make note of the caret (^) in the above command, it's not a typo, it's required to make the command work.

Install LAMP with apt-get

Install LAMP with apt-get

The apt package manager will show all the packages that need to be installed. Hit <Enter> to confirm that you want to install them.

You will then be prompted to change the password for the root user on the MySQL database.

Setting root password for MySQL

Setting root password for MySQL

Enter the password you want. You'll be prompted to enter it a second time to confirm.

After you confirm your password, apt will continue to install the rest of the packages.

Lamp installation is complete

Lamp installation is complete

Congratulations, your LAMP installation is complete! That was the easy part, now you need to get things configured to make the system easy to work with.

Test Apache

Open a web browser and enter the address http://localhost/. You should see a web page that says "It Works!"

Apache works!

Apache works!

Testing php

Now that you know Apache works, it's time to test the php installation. You'll need to create a file in /var/www called testing.php. Open a terminal and enter:

gksudo gedit /var/www/testing.php

Enter the following line into the text editor, save the file and exit.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Creating testing.php

Creating testing.php

Next, restart Apache with the following terminal command.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now go back to your web browser and enter the address http://localhost/testing.php/. You should see a page displaying version information for your php installation.

Testing php - it works!

Testing php - it works!

Configuring MySQL

Since I'm installing LAMP for a web development environment, I want to bind the MySQL database to the localhost IP address. This should be 127.0.0.1 for your system. You can verify it with this terminal command.

cat /etc/hosts | grep localhost

You'll now want to verify that the correct bind address is set up in the my.cnf file.

cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf | grep bind-address

You should see a line that looks like

bind-address		= 127.0.0.1

If the IP address doesn't match the one for your system, you'll need to edit the my.cnf file to correct it.

Install phpMyAdmin

You don't need to install phpMyAdmin, but it's a much easier way to get in and muck around with things in your MySQL database if you're not familiar with the MySQL commands. You can install phpMyAdmin from the command line with

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql phpmyadmin

The installation will prompt you to select a web server for automatic configuration. Use the space bar on your keyboard to select apache2 and then hit <Enter>.

Configure phpMyAdmin for Apache2

Configure phpMyAdmin for Apache2

Another screen will come up asking if you want to configure a new database called dbconfig-common.  Since this is a fresh installation, use the <Tab> key to select Yes and hit <Enter>.

Configure dbconfig-common

Configure dbconfig-common

You'll be prompted next to enter the MySQL root password. Enter the MySQL root password that you created earlier, hit <Tab> to select Ok and hit <Enter>.

Enter MySQL root password

Enter MySQL root password

You'll then be prompted to enter a MySQL application password for phpmyadmin. You can hit <Enter> and a random password will be generated. I chose to use the same password that I used for the root MySQL password. If you enter your own password, a password confirmation screen will come up. Confirm your password.

MySQL application password confirmation

MySQL application password confirmation

The phpMyAdmin installation is now complete.

Testing phpMyAdmin

Open your web browser and enter the address http://localhost/phpmyadmin/. You should see a page like this.

Testing phpMyAdmin

Testing phpMyAdmin

You can log in with the username root and the root password that you created earlier.

phpMyAdmin home screen

phpMyAdmin home screen

Congratulations, you're now ready to start building your local website. If you're only working on one site you can put all of the files into /var/www.  If you'll be working on multiple sites you may want to consider some additional Apache configuration to keep things neat and clean on you system.

Comments

98 Responses to “Install LAMP on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala”

  1. I've seen that using this line gksudo gedit /var/www/testing.php i can creat/access a file from www folder. But how can I delete one? Or how can i get to this folder. I mean in windows it is easy: you click 2-3 times and you are in the www folder of easyphp ans you can do whatever you want there. but in ubuntu it is different.

    • Linerd says:

      You can remove a file from the /var/www folder with this command:

      sudo rm /var/www/filename

      You can also add and remove files using the file manager, but you'll need proper permissions for that. The /var/www folder is set up to be writable by the www-data group. To add your userID to that group, use:

      sudo adduser yourid www-data

      You might have to log out and log back in to make the group change take effect. You should then be able to manage the files in that folder from the file manager.

      • Where do I get my id from? :D

        • Linerd says:

          It's the same that you use to log into the system. Your terminal prompt is probably something like yourid@hostname. You can also find out you ID with the following terminal command:

          whoami
          • I did it. I added my user to that group. After that, I restarted my PC and when I accesed first time the root folder it let me to get in. So I went to www folder and I tried to delete a few files to create my own website after and it didn't let me to do it. I went out of the File Browser and when i tried to access root folder again it told me that i do not have permissions to open it.

  2. [...] for a few helping hands … a few minutes later found them and worked almost flawless : 1.Installing LAMP on my version of Ubuntu (9.10). 2. Configuring Apache if your working on two or more sites. 3.In case you might need to start from [...]

  3. Saphid says:

    If after you install you get a 404 not found error do this;

    First type the following command to open up this file:

    gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

    Add the following line of code inside apache2.conf:

    Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf

    Now restart Apache:

    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

    Point your browser to: http://domain/phpmyadmin, you should be able to see the phpMyAdmin landing page now!

    • Linerd says:

      This should have been configured during installation. If you are getting the 404 error on phpMyAdmin you should run

      sudo dpkg-reconfigure phpmyadmin

      use the space bar to mark the box next to Apache and then hit <Enter> to complete the configuration.
      Then run

      sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

      You should be able to use phpMyAdmin now.

  4. Adam says:

    Can you post how to get Wordpress and Joomla up and running on this ?

    I'd appreciate it very much.

  5. apolo says:

    Felicidades, grande por su aporte

  6. [...] MySQL, and PHP; the standard web developers toolkit. After a little bit of googling, I found this great guide from Tux Tweaks that walked me through the entire process. Once installed, my system hosted any files in the [...]

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