Setup CMSUno on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 with Nginx and PHP 7.2-FPM
CMSUno works great with Apache2 HTTP server… However, for those who prefer Nginx and PHP 7.2-FPM, the steps below will get the started with installing this CMS on Ubuntu with Nginx support..
CMSUno is an open source, flat-file (no databases) content management system (CMS) based on PHP and jQuery that lets you build beautiful and responsive websites with ease for your projects or clients…..
If you are looking for a solution to build a database-less websites blogs, then CMSUno is a good place to start… No database servers required, all data stored in JSON file which makes it easier to install, faster to use, very suitable for Ajax transfer…
This CMS platform is designed for ease of use to allow webmasters to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile…
For more about CMSUno, please check their Homepage
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install CMSUno CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.10 and 18.04 LTS…
To get started with installing CMSUno, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Nginx HTTP Server
CMSUno requires a web server and Nginx HTTP server is the second most popular open source web server available today… To install Nginx server, run the commands below:
sudo apt update sudo apt install nginx
After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used 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
Now that Nginx 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 Nginx is successfully installed…
Step 2: Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules
CMSUno is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required… However, PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories… To run PHP 7.2-FPM 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-FPM
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common 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 Nginx…
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/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 cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0 upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 date.timezone = America/Chicago
Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Nginx web server… To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it’s functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Nginx 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 3: Download CMSUno Latest Release
To get CMSUno latest release you may want to use Github repository… Install git tool to download CMSUno packages…..
sudo apt install git
After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download CMSUno packages from Github…
cd /var/www/html sudo git clone https://github.com/boiteasite/cmsuno.git
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for CMSUno root directory and give Nginx control….
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/cmsuno/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/cmsuno/
Step 4: Configure Nginx
Finally, configure Nginx site configuration file for CMSUno. This file will control how users access CMSUno content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called cmsuno
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/cmsuno
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/cmsuno;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
client_max_body_size 100M;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Step 5: Enable the CMSUno and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/cmsuno /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name followed by /uno/php
You will see CMSUno logon page….
The initial login & password : cmsuno & 654321

After logging on to the admin page, change the password… then start writing great content…

After that, the site should be created and ready to use..
Enjoy~
Congratulation! You have successfully installed CMSUno CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10….
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