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

That’s it!

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