Setup Laravel PHP Framework on Ubuntu 16.04 | 17.10 | 18.04 with Nginx and PHP 7.2-FPM Support

The steps below shows user an easy way to install Laravel with Nginx web server on Ubuntu to enable its PHP framework… After installing, visit Laravel main website for help building your apps…
Laravel is a flexible opensource PHP framework for web artisans. It can be used as an 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 16.04 | 17.10 | 18.04 with Nginx and PHP 7.2 support.
To get started with installing Laravel, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Nginx
For this tutorial, we’re going to be installing Nginx web server… to do that, run the commands below…l
sudo apt update sudo apt install nginx
After installing, the commads 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
Step 2: Install PHP 7.2-FPM 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 php7.2-fpm php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-soap php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After install PHP, run the commands below to open PHP-FPM default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
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 3: 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 Nginx
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
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel
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/MyProject/public; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name example.com; 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; } }
Save the file and exit.
Step 5: Enable the Laravel
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Step 6: Restart Nginx
To load all the settings above, restart Nginx by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Laravel page.
You should then see Laravel default home screen.. and you’re ready to begin building your apps based on Laravel PHP framework…

That’s it!
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Thanks bro, i had a lot of problems
Hello there and thank you very much for this article!
I had one little problem while getting this to run and wanted to ask if anyone could explain? I followed all steps precisely and it worked as a charm. Couldnt open the laravel app through the server_name (samply.diz) i gave in the config-file though. The thing i needed to do extra, what wasnt explained here, was to add an entry for the server_name in my /etc/hosts-File. I added “127.0.0.1 samply.diz” and it right away worked. Is it just assumed everyone knows that this needs to be done and i am just a rookie (what i actually am) or do i have some kind of special case? Answer would be appreciated. Thanks :)
I really appreciate the article, it helped me a lot with setting up my first Laravel server, thank you! With that said, though, I think it’s important to point out that the setup presented here is just the very essentials, but for most users more set up will be necessary.
For example, by the end of this tutorial, no database service has been set. By default Laravel assumes you’ll be using MySQL for data storage. It’s also missing NodeJs (and by extension NPM) which are critical for the application to compile front-end stuff (less, scss, vueJs, …) .
I feel like the following line
“listen [::]:80;”
should be
“listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on default_server;”
Otherwise, Nginx will can’t see whether the incoming request is for IPv4 or IPv6.
(https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14972792/nginx-nginx-emerg-bind-to-80-failed-98-address-already-in-use)
Thanks very much, It was helpful
403 Forbidden , why?? can help??
I am getting 403 Forbidden.