Install WordPress 4.9 on Ubuntu 17.04 | 7.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP

WordPress, the most powerful and popular content management systems (CMS) will see a new release this week, Tuesday November 14. WordPress 4.9RC is currently done.. but some tests might be needed… you can install it, but maybe not in a production environment.

WordPress in RC state means that core development is done and ready to be shipped… but some testing might be needed for the thousands of themes and plugins that it supports.

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install WordPress 4.9 on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP support. You should probably not install the RC version in production, but can reference this post when it’s finally released on Tuesday.

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

Step 1: Install Nginx

WordPress requires a webserver to function and the second most popular webserver in used today is Nginx. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below:

sudo apt install nginx

Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Step 2: Install MariaDB

WordPress also requires a database server to function.. 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-FPM and Related Modules

WordPress also requires PHP to function. To install PHP-FPM and related modules run the commands below

sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl

After install PHP, run the commands below to open Nginx PHP default file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/cli/php.ini      # Ubuntu 17.10
sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/cli/php.ini      # Ubuntu 17.04

Then make the change the following lines below in the file and save.

file_uploads = On
max_execution_time = 180
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M

Step 4: Create WordPress Database

Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create WordPress database.

Run the commands below to logon to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called wordpress

CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

Create a database user called wordpressuser with new password

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

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wordpressuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download WordPress Latest Release

Next, visit WordPress site and download the latest….

After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file and move it into a new WordPress root directory.

cd /tmp && wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz
sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress

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

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

Step 6: Configure Nginx

Finally, configure Nginx site configuration file for WordPress. This file will control how users access WordPress content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called wordpress

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress

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.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html/wordpress;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;

    location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;        
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_split_path_info  ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    fastcgi_index            index.php;
    fastcgi_pass             unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.10
  # fastcgi_pass             unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.04
    include                  fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param   PATH_INFO       $fastcgi_path_info;
    fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

}

Save the file and exit.

Step 7: Enable the WordPress Site

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

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Step 8 : Restart Nginx

To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

STEP 9: CONFIGURE WORDPRESS

Now that Nginx is configured, run the commands below to create WordPress wp-config.php file.

sudo mv /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php

Then run the commands below to open WordPress configuration file.

sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php

Enter the highlighted text below that you created for your database and save.

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wordpressuser');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'user_password_here');

/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

After that, open your browser and browse to your domain name to launch WordPress configuration wizard.

You should see WordPress setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://example.com

Then type the WordPress website name and create a new admin user and password.. the click install.

This should install WordPress.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed WordPress on Ubuntu.

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