Install Drupal Latest from GitHub with Composer on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.04 with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2 Support

For students and new users looking for help installing the latest version of Drupal ( 8.6.0 ) from Github using Composer with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2 support, the steps below should be a great place to start…

When you use Composer to install Drupal packages, you can easily upgrade from the commmand line with Composer, which is much simpler…

Since Drupal doesn’t yet have a built-in upgrade tool from its portal, you must manually upgrade its core files when new versions are available…. and doing that using its starndard method can be challenging for some users…

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install / upgrade Drupal from Github repository via Composer with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2 support on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.04 LTS servers…

To get started with installing Drupal, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use… so install it since Drupal needs it..

To install Apache2 HTTP on Ubuntu server, run the commands below…

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used 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

To test Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Apache2 default test page as shown below.. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected..

http://localhost

Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Magento… To install MariaDB run the commands below…

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots..

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.10 LTS

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 by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

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

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB server

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on… if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories… in order to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default config file for Apache2…

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below are great settings to apply in your environments.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, save the file and close out.

Step 3: Restart Apache2

After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations…

To restart Apache2, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in Apache2 root directory by running the commands below

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Save the file.. then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see PHP default test page…

Step 4: Create Drupal Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Drupal to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Drupal database.

To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called drupal

CREATE DATABASE drupal;

Create a database user called drupaluser with new password

CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON drupal.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download Drupal Latest Release

To get Drupal latest release you may want to use Github repository… Install Composer, Curl and other dependencies to get started…

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Apache2 root directory and downaload Drupal packages from Github… Always replace the branch number with the latest branch….

cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone --branch 8.6.0 https://git.drupal.org/project/drupal.git
cd /var/www/html/drupal
sudo composer install

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Drupal to function.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/drupal/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/drupal/

Step 6: Configure Apache2

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Drupal. This file will control how users access Drupal content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called drupal.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/drupal.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/drupal
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/drupal/>
        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 7: Enable the Drupal and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo a2ensite drupal.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Step 8 : 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 Drupal setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://example.com/

Then follow the on-screen instructions and select the installation language here…

Next, select the installation profile and continue

On the next screen, enter the database connection info you created above and continue…

Then create an admin account and the Drupal site info and finish the instalation…. after a brief moment, you should see your new site created…

Congratulation! You have successfully installed Drupal on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.04 and may work on upcoming 18.10…

In the future when you want to upgrade to a new released version, simply run the commands below to upgrade…

sudo composer update /var/www/htmnl/drupal/core --with-dependencies
cd /var/www/html/drupal
sudo composer require drush/drush
cd /var/www/html/drupal/vendor/drush/drush
./drush updatedb
./drush cr

That’s it!