Install LAMP on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

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.

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

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

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

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!

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:

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

Creating testing.php

Next, restart Apache with the following terminal command.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Ernie says:

   December 24, 2010 at 8:09 AM

   Excellent straight forward tutorial. Now I just need to figure out how to create my website from an existing copy. Tried it with a previous installation and couldn't access any of the folders on the website.

   Reply
2. Marcel says:

   December 31, 2010 at 4:42 PM

   Many thanks. Thanks to you I'm up and running

   Reply
3. srinu says:

   February 3, 2011 at 5:06 AM

   Thanks ,

   how to restart total lampp

   how to set automatically start lammp when i starting machine.

   Reply
4. Barry says:

   March 13, 2011 at 11:41 AM

   After fretting 24 hours over having installed LAMP from Ubuntu's Synaptic PM "by task" selection and installing PhPMyAdmin separately only to find out later that my PMA p/w didn't work and that I couldn't uninstall LAMP "by task" from Synaptic ('cause you can't untick the LAMP checkbox in Synaptic), I came across your page here. To make a long story short, I finally got it all straightened out. Thanks Linerd (luv it)--you rock!

   Reply
5. Ramith says:

   March 15, 2011 at 7:15 AM

   Hi I have recently installed ubuntu and wanted to have local host server, I have installed success fully but when i am at this stage for Testing phpMyAdmin, it is displaying "Not Found

   The requested URL /phpmyadmin/ was not found on this server.
   Apache/2.2.16 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80"

   I am not sure every thing was succesful but displaying errors any help please

   Reply
   • Linerd says:

     March 15, 2011 at 8:09 AM

     The directions in this comment should help: http://tuxtweaks.com/2010/04/installing-lamp-on-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/comment-page-1/#comment-2952

     Reply
6. Matse says:

   April 10, 2011 at 6:34 PM

   Hi...

   I'm a raw recruit in using Ubuntu ... but this guidance was very helpful.
   It's written for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, but it also works for Ubuntu 10.10 maverick.

   Thanks a lot!

   Kind regards Matse

   Reply
7. Ruwani says:

   July 29, 2011 at 1:18 AM

   Excellent tutorial

   Reply
8. Maxali says:

   July 29, 2011 at 4:42 PM

   Straight forward and great tutorial

   Reply
9. Vikash Kumar Choudhary says:

   October 4, 2011 at 5:03 AM

   Thanks Sir....Really such a great guideline or totally straight forward. I successfully configure lamp server as well as phpmyadmin into my System and i m successfully able to do php task with this.

   Thank you very much.
   Have a nice day!

   Reply
10. Bobble says:

    October 31, 2012 at 12:19 AM

    Terrific way to get it all happening. Thank you.

    Reply
11. raj says:

    December 29, 2012 at 12:30 PM

    Thanks for this post. http://localhost/phpmyadmin/. doesn't get me the right page in the web browser. I think something is missing in my configuration. Is there a way to debug?

    Reply
    • Linerd says:

      December 29, 2012 at 12:39 PM

      Are you getting a 404 error? Here's the fix for that: http://tuxtweaks.com/2012/05/fixing-common-problems-with-lamp-on-ubuntu/

      Does http://localhost/ take you to the right page showing "It works!"? If not, something might be wrong in your /etc/hosts file.

      Reply