The upcoming WordPress 5.0 is just around the corner, and if you’re a students or new users looking for help installing it when it is released, the steps below will show you how properly install WordPress…
The primary feature of this release is the new Gutenberg editor that will become the default WordPress experience going forward….
The good new is, if you feel strongly about not using Gutenberg, there’s an installable plugin that you install to bring back the classic editor instead of using Gutenberg editor…
As always, WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) available and probably the one with the most support, plugins and themes…
For more about WordPress CMS, please check their Homepage
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install WordPress CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.10 and 18.04 LTS…
To get started with installing WordPress, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server
WordPress CMS requires a web server and Apache2 HTTP server is the most popular open source web server available today… To install Apache2 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
Now that Apache2 is installed…. to test whether the web server is working, open your browser and browse to the URL below…
If you see the page above, then Apache2 is successfully installed…
Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server
WordPress also requires a database server to store its content… If you’re looking for a truly open source database server, then MariaDB is a great place to start… 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 18.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation…
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
Now that MariaDB is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below…
sudo mysql -u root -p
type the root password when prompted…
If you see a similar screen as shown above, then the server was successfully installed…
Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
WordPress CMS is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required… However, PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories… To run PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:
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-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc 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 configuration file for Apache2…
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
The lines below is a good settings for most PHP based CMS… Update the configuration file with these and save….
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
Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Apache2 web server… To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it’s functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Apache2 default root directory…. ( /var/www/html/)
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Next, open your browser and browse to the server’s hostname or IP address followed by phpinfo.php
You should see PHP default test page…
Step 4: Create WordPress Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for WordPress to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank WordPress database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called wordpress
CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
Create a database user called wordpressuser with a 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
To get WordPress latest release you will need to go to its official download page and get it from there… The link below is where to find WordPress latest archive versions…
cd /tmp wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for WordPress root directory and give Apache2 control….
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress/
Step 6: Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apahce2 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.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.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/wordpress
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php [PT,L]
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the WordPress and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite wordpress.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see WordPress setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
Then follow the on-screen instructions… Select the installation language then click Continue
You will need to know the following items before proceeding…. Use the database connection info you created above….
- Database name
- Database username
- Database password
- Database host
- Table prefix (if you want to run more than one WordPress in a single database)
The wizard will use the database information to create a wp-config.php file in WordPress root folder….
If for any reason this automatic file creation doesn’t work, don’t worry… All this does is fill in the database information to a configuration file. You may also simply open wp-config-sample.php in a text editor, fill in your information, and save it as wp-config.php.
Next, type in the database connection info and click Submit
After that, click Run the installation button to have WordPress complete the setup…
Next, create the WordPress site name and the backend admin account…. then click Install WordPress
When you’re done, WordPress should be installed and ready to use…
Congratulation! You have successfully installed WordPress CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10….
You may also like the post below:
Sooooooo…. glad you did this one again – the Installation’s steps worked beautifully!
Thanks! And thanks for the changes you made in this new one: Installing WordPress 5.0 on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.04 / 18.10 with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2
It’s a definite keeper….
Very good and detailed guide – my only question is that i keep getting the installation on the /wordpress/ folder.. is there a way to make it into the root ?
Hi,
First of all, Thank you very much for this wonderful article.
I am able to setup server successfully as per advised but permalinks are not working though I have follow each & every step written in article.
This is my *.conf file content. Can you please have a look and see where I am lacking in?
Define DOCUMENT_ROOT /var/www/html
ServerAdmin admin@mydomain.comDocumentRoot ${DOCUMENT_ROOT}
ServerName mydomain.com
ServerAlias www.mydomain.com
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all denied
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/html/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
Thank you very much for doing this guide, i really appreciate it.
Hi, I think You write wrong link in step no 7. Shouldn’t be http://example.com/wordpress ? Putting http://example.com/ will redirect me to the apache default site.
Thank you so much. I spent the better part of 2 days trying to get all the separate parts to come together as a whole. Your summary filled in a lot of blanks that the other documentation didn’t discuss. Kudos on keeping it simple!