Install latest WordPress with LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 20.04

Welcome to our guide on how to install latest WordPress with LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 20.04. As may already know, WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and is mostly used to create free websites or build personal blogs.

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Installing WordPress with LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 20.04

Prerequsites

Before you can install WordPress on Ubuntu 20.04, there are a few prerequisites that must be set in place before you can proceed.

Run System update

Ensure that your system packages are up-to-date.

apt update
apt upgrade

Install LAMP/LEMP Stack

WordPress is a PHP based application and thus, it requires a LAMP or LEMP stack installed to function properly. In this demo, we run WordPress with LAMP stack; Ubuntu 20.04 as the Linux OS, PHP 7.4, MySQL 8, and Apache as the web server.

Follow the link below to install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 20.04;

Install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 20.04

Next, install other required PHP modules if not already installed;

apt install php7.4-{mysql,cli,json,opcache,xml,gd,curl}

Create WordPress MySQL Database

Login to MySQL and create WordPress database;

mysql -u root -p

Create a WordPress database. Replace the database and database user accordingly.

create database wpdb;

Create a WordPress database user and grant all privileges on the database.

create user wpadmin@localhost identified by 'StrongP@33#';

grant all on wpdb.* to wpadmin@localhost;

Reload the database privileges tables and exit the database.

flush privileges;

quit

Install WordPress (5.x)

WordPress 5.4.1 is the latest version of the writing of this guide. Download the latest version WordPress archive from the WordPress downloads page.

wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Create your web root directory where to install WordPress. Replace the names accordingly.

mkdir /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com

Next, extract WordPress archive contents to your Web root directory created above.

tar xzf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com --strip-components=1

Verify that the WordPress files are in place.

ls /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com

index.php    wp-activate.php     wp-comments-post.php  wp-cron.php        wp-load.php   wp-settings.php   xmlrpc.php
license.txt  wp-admin            wp-config-sample.php  wp-includes        wp-login.php  wp-signup.php
readme.html  wp-blog-header.php  wp-content            wp-links-opml.php  wp-mail.php   wp-trackback.php

Configure WordPress on Ubuntu 20.04

WordPress comes with a sample configuration, wp-config-sample.php. Rename the sample configuration file.

cp /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com/wp-config{-sample,}.php

Next, edit the configuration file and set the database connection details,

vim /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com/wp-config.php

Replace the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD with the values you set while creating the MySQL database for WordPress.

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

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

/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'StrongP@33#' );

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

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

Next, generate authentication unique keys and salts. You can simply generate the keys and salts from WordPress Secret-Key service as follows;

curl -s https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/

define('AUTH_KEY',         'BkIM1nZ`;ni.E(^HO@,R{bG%7oq@iwI=~=-];h%|bA{idi  ^BTT|[7,l_L&i5UY');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'WAgvv#q|d_EOhWk|;kKhE2&jO{h-G#oMz4,W;O)xH}VB63a2FV^*?oR$5w[tP0=h');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    '?|&6H,|v3}-_-(m[*m Kd<|3|m3QMLW5|>Tr=[I|b9q)! g*=H9vD<O6fqe>pg(@');
define('NONCE_KEY',        '&yq9[1N^f,P l IVMse<?QXJb+W3ImG@1,yFkP!fE;<Q296_vEs t%ZVdT.f&j:9');
define('AUTH_SALT',        '-pE?xU-<w-|Y7S~<Bm+HXCVr$b~$vt]KLNd|Za-__]Io#,,gN4y6l.H|$r=6amZ!');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '+V(D|4%|d$J!D|McEDFOl=x*YTtha4We;=HjkRzHz#(0(YZPIK,!0vI9e{ZBV/=]');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'hLc|}}b8YjjaRawp={[)},xZkwX%Uun_<>_|+r[uD-?sbJQp|_e0?eXxtP~|$#8E');
define('NONCE_SALT',       'x!Tc@i|+Hg;-w++_l;>-NL>+xB&r{FfQ*@E|ti/TAV-THER@UFapaUS7ejboTCi]');

Note, Do not use the above keys. Generate yours, 🙂

Within the wp-config.php, replace the following lines with the above.

...
 * @since 2.6.0
 */
define( 'AUTH_KEY',         'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY',        'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT',        'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT',       'put your unique phrase here' );

/**#@-*/
...

Your configuration should look like;

...
 * @since 2.6.0
 */
/**
 * define( 'AUTH_KEY',         'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'NONCE_KEY',        'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'AUTH_SALT',        'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'put your unique phrase here' );
 * define( 'NONCE_SALT',       'put your unique phrase here' );
 */
define('AUTH_KEY',         'BkIM1nZ`;ni.E(^HO@,R{bG%7oq@iwI=~=-];h%|bA{idi  ^BTT|[7,l_L&i5UY');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'WAgvv#q|d_EOhWk|;kKhE2&jO{h-G#oMz4,W;O)xH}VB63a2FV^*?oR$5w[tP0=h');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    '?|&6H,|v3}-_-(m[*m Kd<|3|m3QMLW5|>Tr=[I|b9q)! g*=H9vD<O6fqe>pg(@');
define('NONCE_KEY',        '&yq9[1N^f,P l IVMse<?QXJb+W3ImG@1,yFkP!fE;<Q296_vEs t%ZVdT.f&j:9');
define('AUTH_SALT',        '-pE?xU-<w-|Y7S~<Bm+HXCVr$b~$vt]KLNd|Za-__]Io#,,gN4y6l.H|$r=6amZ!');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '+V(D|4%|d$J!D|McEDFOl=x*YTtha4We;=HjkRzHz#(0(YZPIK,!0vI9e{ZBV/=]');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'hLc|}}b8YjjaRawp={[)},xZkwX%Uun_<>_|+r[uD-?sbJQp|_e0?eXxtP~|$#8E');
define('NONCE_SALT',       'x!Tc@i|+Hg;-w++_l;>-NL>+xB&r{FfQ*@E|ti/TAV-THER@UFapaUS7ejboTCi]');
/**#@-*/
...

Save and exit the configuration file.

Configure Apache Web Server

Create an Apache virtual host configuration for your WordPress site.

vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName wp.kifarunix-demo.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com
    
    <Directory /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com>
       AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/wp.error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/wp.access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save and exit the config file.

Set the user and group ownership of your site configuration to Apache user, www-data.

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wp.kifarunix-demo.com

Check Apache syntac errors;

apachectl -t

If you get, Syntax OK, proceed to enable WordPress site configuration.

a2ensite wordpress.conf

Disable the default Apache site;

a2dissite 000-default.conf

Restart Apache;

systemctl restart apache2

If UFW is running, open port 80/tcp to allow external access.

ufw allow 80/tcp

Finalize WordPress Setup on Ubuntu 20.04

To complete setting up WordPress on Ubuntu 20.04, navigate to the browser and access your WordPress site, http://<server-IP-Or-hostname>.

Choose your WordPress installation language and click Continue.

Setup your site title, your username, password, email address, choose whether to disable or enable site indexing and install WordPress on Ubuntu 20.04.

Once the installation is done, login to your WordPress using the username and password you just created. And there you go. Your WordPress is setup successfully.

You can now write and publish your stuff on your WordPress blog. That brings us to the end of our guide.

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