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Install Apache, MariaDB, PHP (LAMP) stack on Arch Linux

By sk
Published: Last Updated on 31.4K views

As you probably know, LAMP is the the acronym of Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP/Perl/Pyhton. This tutorial walk you through installing and configuring Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack on Arch Linux.

For the purpose of this article, I will be using the following test machine.

  • Operating system: Arch Linux 64 bit edition
  • IP Address: 192.168.1.102/24
  • Hostname: server

1. Update your Arch system

Run the following command as root user to update your Arch Linux:

pacman -Syu

2. Install Apache

After updating the system, install Apache web server using command:

pacman -S apache

Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file,

nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Search and comment out the following line if it is not already:

[...]
#LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
[...]

Save an close the file.

Enable Apache service to start at boot and restart Apache service using commands:

systemctl enable httpd
systemctl restart httpd

You can verify whether Apache is running or not with command:

systemctl status httpd

Sample output:

● httpd.service - Apache Web Server
 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
 Active: active (running) since Tue 2016-02-16 13:00:18 IST; 7s ago
 Main PID: 1067 (httpd)
 Tasks: 82 (limit: 512)
 CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
 ├─1067 /usr/bin/httpd -k start -DFOREGROUND
 ├─1070 /usr/bin/httpd -k start -DFOREGROUND
 ├─1071 /usr/bin/httpd -k start -DFOREGROUND
 └─1072 /usr/bin/httpd -k start -DFOREGROUND

Feb 16 13:00:18 server systemd[1]: Started Apache Web Server.
Feb 16 13:00:18 server httpd[1067]: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably dete...ge
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

Apache server is ready to use.

Test Apache

Let us create a sample page in the Apache root directory , i.e /srv/http.

nano /srv/http/index.html

Add the following line:

<html>
 <title>Welcome</title>
  <body>
   <h2>Welcome to OSTechNix test page</h2>
  </body>
</html>

Now, open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost or http://IP-address. You will be pleased with Apache server Test page.

Welcome - Google Chrome_008

3. Install MariaDB

Run the following command to install MariaDB:

pacman -S mysql

As you may know, MariaDB is now officially the default implementation of MySQL in Arch Linux since 2013. So, you will be asked whether to install MariaDB or Percona server, just hit enter and then type "Y" and press enter again. The default selection i.e MariaDB will be installed on your Arch Linux.

resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (7) boost-libs-1.60.0-2 icu-56.1-2 jemalloc-4.0.4-1
 libmariadbclient-10.1.11-1 libxml2-2.9.3-1
 mariadb-clients-10.1.11-1 mariadb-10.1.11-1

Total Download Size: 30.68 MiB
Total Installed Size: 218.10 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] n
[root@server ~]# pacman -S mysql
:: There are 2 providers available for mysql:
:: Repository extra
 1) mariadb
:: Repository community
 2) percona-server

Enter a number (default=1): ## Press Enter

resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (7) boost-libs-1.60.0-2 icu-56.1-2 jemalloc-4.0.4-1
 libmariadbclient-10.1.11-1 libxml2-2.9.3-1
 mariadb-clients-10.1.11-1 mariadb-10.1.11-1

Total Download Size: 30.68 MiB
Total Installed Size: 218.10 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y

You need to initialize the MariaDB data directory prior to starting the service. To do so, run:

mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql

Then issue the following command to enable and start MariaDB service.

systemctl enable mysqld
systemctl start mysqld

You can verify whether MariaDb is running or not using command:

systemctl status mysqld

Sample output:

● mysqld.service - MariaDB database server
 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mysqld.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
 Active: active (running) since Tue 2016-02-16 13:19:50 IST; 44s ago
 Process: 1406 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/mysqld-post (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1405 (mysqld)
 Tasks: 26 (limit: 512)
 CGroup: /system.slice/mysqld.service
 └─1405 /usr/bin/mysqld --pid-file=/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...a.
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...e.
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...rt
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...19
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930516817664 [N...ed
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...d.
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...'.
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: 2016-02-16 13:19:49 139930931222400 [N...s.
Feb 16 13:19:49 server mysqld[1405]: Version: '10.1.11-MariaDB-log' socket...er
Feb 16 13:19:50 server systemd[1]: Started MariaDB database server.
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

Setup MySQL/MariaDB root user password

As you may know, It is recommended to setup a password for database root user.

Run the following command to setup MariaDB root user password:

mysql_secure_installation

Sample output:

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MariaDB
 SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!

In order to log into MariaDB to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user. If you've just installed MariaDB, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): ## Press Enter
OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MariaDB
root user without the proper authorisation.

Set root password? [Y/n]## Press Enter
New password:##  Enter password
Re-enter new password:  ## Re-enter password
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
 ... Success!

By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MariaDB without having to have a user account created for
them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]## Press Enter
 ... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]## Press Enter
 ... Success!

By default, MariaDB comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]## Press Enter
 - Dropping test database...
 ... Success!
 - Removing privileges on test database...
 ... Success!

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]## Press Enter
 ... Success!

Cleaning up...

All done! If you've completed all of the above steps, your MariaDB
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MariaDB!

MariaDB has been installed and ready to use.

4. Install PHP

To install PHP in Arch Linux, run:

pacman -S php php-apache

After PHP is installed, we need to configure Apache PHP module.

To do so, edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file,

nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Find the following line and comment it out:

[...]
#LoadModule mpm_event_module modules/mod_mpm_event.so
[...]

Then, add the following lines at the bottom:

[...]
LoadModule mpm_prefork_module modules/mod_mpm_prefork.so
LoadModule php7_module modules/libphp7.so
AddHandler php7-script php
Include conf/extra/php7_module.conf

Save and close the file.

Test PHP

Now create a test.php file in the Apache root directory.

nano /srv/http/test.php

Add the following lines:

<?php
 phpinfo();
?>

Restart httpd service.

systemctl restart httpd

Open up your web browser and navigate to http://ip-address/test.php. You should the screen like below.

phpinfo() - Google Chrome_004

5. Install phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is a graphical MySQL/MariaDB administration tool that can be used to create, edit and delete databases.

To install it, run:

pacman -S phpmyadmin php-mcrypt

After installing, edit php.ini file,

nano /etc/php/php.ini

Make sure the following lines are uncommented.

[...]
extension=bz2.so
extension=mcrypt.so
extension=mysqli.so
[...]

Save and close the file.

Next, create configuration file for phpMyAdmin,

nano /etc/httpd/conf/extra/phpmyadmin.conf

Add the following lines:

Alias /phpmyadmin "/usr/share/webapps/phpMyAdmin"
 <Directory "/usr/share/webapps/phpMyAdmin">
  DirectoryIndex index.php
  AllowOverride All
  Options FollowSymlinks
  Require all granted
 </Directory>

Then, open Apache configuration file,

nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Add the following line at the end:

Include conf/extra/phpmyadmin.conf

Save and close the file. Restart httpd service.

systemctl restart httpd

Test phpMyAdmin

Open your browser and navigate to http://IP-Address/phpmyadmin. You should see the following like screen. Enter the MySQL/MariaDB root username and it's password.

phpMyAdmin - Google Chrome_005

Here it is how my phpMyAdmin web console looks like.

192.168.1.102 - localhost | phpMyAdmin 4.5.4.1 - Google Chrome_006

You might see an error that says "The configuration file now needs a secret passphrase (blowfish_secret)" at the bottom of phpMyAdmin dashboard.

Selection_007

To get rid of this error, edit /etc/webapps/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file,

nano /etc/webapps/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Find the following line and specify bluefish secret passphrase:

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'Welc0me1'; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH!$
/**

Here Welc0me1 is my secret passphrase. Save and close the file. Restart Apache service.

systemctl restart httpd

The error will be gone now.

That's all for now. At this stage, you have a working LAMP stack, and is ready to host your websites.

If you want to use Nginx instead of Apache web server, refer the following article.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Help us to help you:

Have a Good day!!

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33 comments

Patrick June 27, 2023 - 5:03 am

Brilliant Guide. Worth millions! I mean it, because encompasses everyone needs to know for setting up a test web server.
However, i did run in a problem, which i will google, but it would be good if you know about it.
I followed the procedure to the details, but at stage of configuring php and restarting the httpd service, i got 2 type of errors
a) i could not get to the test.php “Unable to connect”
b) systemctl status httpd resulted in failed! code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

Reply
Patrick June 27, 2023 - 6:11 am

Hello there Again. Im doing this to actually give you feed back to help future revisions.
had the problem with mariadb on the webserver. I tweaked and actually returned many of the items above to the default state. Too many problems withe php7.so….its not even on the system!
Then with phpmyadmin. After following the the instructions above , i get the the browser and point it to phpmyadmin and get a bunch of garbage unlike what you see. A few things i see
a) PHP 7.2.5 Required! What!!!!
b) a bunch of code
c) file autoload_file missing or not readable
d) most likely you did not run composer to install the library files, and finally
e) bunch of code stating autoload file global route containerbuilder, etc.

But all is not lost. The purpose of my task was to install a web server, not a full fledge server on some site or what ever, but a local web for testing purposes. So I will remove everything and just install the apache web server using your instructions. Then look into making web sites etc.

Thanks again

Reply
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