Install LAMP on Ubuntu 12.10 (Updated)

The acronym LAMP refers to the first letters of Linux (operating system), Apache HTTP Server, MySQL (database software, but now sometimes MariaDB) and PHP, Perl or Python, principal components to build a viable general purpose web server.

This article explains how to install LAMP on Ubuntu, and has been updated for Ubuntu 12.10. With a few minor modifications to the post, it also equally applies to explain how to install LAMP on Debian or other Ubuntu versions.

Installing LAMP on Ubuntu is pretty straight-forward. Once you install tasksel, installing LAMP on Ubuntu becomes very simple.

sudo apt-get install tasksel
sudo apt-get update

Now install the task:

You can either go for the interactive prompt by starting up tasksel:

sudo tasksel

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

You will be asked for mysql password thrice:

Now install the following for completion’s sake (I found that a couple of these didnt auto-install on my PC):

sudo apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin

When asked about which server to reconfigure, choose apache2.

Also choose “Yes” when asked: Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common?

You will again be asked for the mysql root password twice.

At this point, LAMP has been installed without any configuration. You can see that it was successful by calling up

http://localhost

from any web browser.

Now, Phpmyadmin (if you didnt install it earlier):

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Restart apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Optionally now edit:

sudo emacs /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

And add this:

ServerName localhost

This is the fix for the message:

* Restarting web server apache2                                                                                                    apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
 ... waiting apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName

Run web content stored in your user directory

To run content from your user directory, do the following:

Enable the module:

a2enmod userdir
service apache2 restart

Now edit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf

emacs /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf[/code]
Make sure that it looks like this:
<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
        UserDir public_html
        UserDir disabled root

        <Directory /home/*/public_html>
                AllowOverride All
                Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
                <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
                        Order allow,deny
                        Allow from all
                </Limit>
                <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
                        Order deny,allow
                        Deny from all
                </LimitExcept>
        </Directory>
</IfModule>[/code]
Note that you will have to delete parts of a few lines. Or you can exec the following:
sudo cat /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf | sed 's/AllowOverride FileInfo.*/AllowOverride All/' >test.txt
sudo mv test.txt /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf
sudo cat /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf | sed 's/Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec.*/Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch/' >test.txt
sudo mv test.txt /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf[/code]
which does the edit automatically.

Now as normal user, create a public_html folder:
exit
mkdir /home/$USER/public_html[/code]
Now change group and restart the web server:
su
chgrp www-data /home/$USER/public_html
service apache2 restart[/code]
Run php scripts from user directories
To allow running php scripts from user directories, Configure the file  /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf :
emacs /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf[/code]
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
    <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml)$">
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    </FilesMatch>
    <FilesMatch "\.phps$">
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
    </FilesMatch>
    # To re-enable php in user directories comment the following lines
    # (from <IfModule ...> to </IfModule>.) Do NOT set it to On as it
    # prevents .htaccess files from disabling it.
    #<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    #    <Directory /home/*/public_html>
    #        php_admin_value engine Off
    #    </Directory>
    #</IfModule>
</IfModule>[/code]
As mentioned in the instructions in this file, you need to comment out the later part.
Check that everything works:
Check that public_html can be accessed from localhost.

Create a file index.html in ~/public_html:
<html>

<h2>
Test succeeded
</h2>

</html>[/code]
Now, type in the browser address bar:
http://localhost/~droidzone/[/code]
If all goes well, you should get the success message.

Now test php. Create the file ~/public_html/phptest.php:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>[/code]
Now restart the web server
sudo service apache2 restart[/code]
and enter the following address in the browser:
http://localhost/~droidzone/phptest[/code]
Of course you have to replace your username for droidzone.

If it gives an error message or the file browser is displayed instead of a webpage, recheck the instructions. If they were correct, in most cases, you need to just restart apache2 service.
Configure a passwordless login with phpmyadmin (Not recommended, Optional):
cat /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php | grep -ni --color 'AllowNoPassword'
65:    // $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = TRUE;
94:// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = TRUE;[/code]
Now change the Line #65 (the first hit) to remove the comment tag at the beginning.

You can login to phpmyadmin at http://localhost/phpmyadmin
Bugs and fixes:
If tasksel didnt work, you can install the following to get the same effect:
sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient18 apache2 php5-cli apache2.2-common apache2-utils libswitch-perl php5-common libaprutil1-ldap libdbi-perl mysql-server apache2.2-bin libdbd-mysql-perl libhtml-template-perl perl-modules libnet-daemon-perl libxml2 libapr1 mysql-server-core-5.5 libaio1 libterm-readkey-perl apache2-mpm-prefork libwrap0 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 tcpd xml-core libapache2-mod-php5 libaprutil1 libclass-isa-perl php5-mysql libplrpc-perl sgml-base mysql-client-5.5 mysql-server-5.5 libcap2 perl mysql-client-core-5.5 ssl-cert mysql-common mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin