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..

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
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.
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!
You may also like the post below:
This works great until I try and update Drupal!
I get this error.
“Bootstrap failed. Run your command with -vvv for more information.”