INSTALL LARAVEL ON UBUNTU 17.04 / 17.10 WITH APACHE2, MARIADB AND PHP SUPPORT
Laravel is a flexible and lightweight open source PHP framework with Model-View Controller (MVC) design pattern. It can be a great alternative to CodeIgniter framework. Laravel is designed for ease of use to allow developers create great applications.
If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward PHP framework to design your next application, you’ll find Laravel to be useful. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Laravel PHP framework on Ubuntu 17.04 / 17.10 with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP support.
To get started with installing Laravel, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2
Laravel requires a webserver to function and the second most popular webserver in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt install apache2
Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
Step 2: Install MariaDB
Laravel also requires a database server… and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service
Step 3: Install PHP And Related Modules
Laravel is based on PHP.. so you’ll need to install it. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-zip
After install PHP, run the commands below to open PHP-FPM default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.10 sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.04
Then make the change the following lines below in the file and save.
memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 64M cgi.fix_pathinfo=0
Step 4: Install Composer To Download Laravel
Run the commands below to install composer package and install.. you must have curl package installed for the commands to work.. if not, just run sudo apt install curl to install it…
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
Change into Laravel directory and run the commands below to download and install Laravel for th e project you want to create… name the project whatever you want… for this post, we’re calling it MyProject..
cd /var/www/html sudo composer create-project laravel/laravel MyProject --prefer-dist
After running the commands above, a new project directory will be created… Run the commands below to set the correct permissions for that directory..
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/MyProject/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/MyProject/
Step 5: Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Laravel. This file will control how users access Laravel content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called laravel.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/laravel.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/MyProject/public ServerName example.com <Directory /var/www/html/MyProject/public> Options +FollowSymlinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Step 6: Enable The Laravel And Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite laravel.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Step 7: Restart Apache2
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Laravel page.
http://example.com
You should then see Laravel default home screen