Installing WordPress on a LAMP Server

Introduction

WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that allows you to easily create and manage websites and blogs. This guide will show you how to install WordPress on a LAMP server.

Prerequisites

An Ubuntu server with LAMP stack installed.
A user with sudo privileges.
A domain pointed to your server (optional but recommended).

Step 1: Create a Database for WordPress

Access MySQL:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Create the database and user for WordPress:

CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_secure_password';
GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wp_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 2: Install Required PHP Extensions

Install the necessary PHP extensions:

sudo apt install php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-xmlrpc -y

Restart Apache to load the new extensions:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 3: Download WordPress

Navigate to the /tmp directory and download the latest version of WordPress:

cd /tmp
curl -LO https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar xzvf latest.tar.gz

Step 4: Configure WordPress

Copy the WordPress files to the web server’s root directory:

sudo cp -a /tmp/wordpress/. /var/www/html

Set the correct permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
sudo find /var/www/html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Step 5: Configure the wp-config.php File

Generate the unique security keys:

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

Copy the output.

Rename the configuration file:

cd /var/www/html
sudo mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Edit wp-config.php:

sudo nano wp-config.php

Enter the database information and paste the security keys.

Step 6: Complete the Installation via Browser

Open your browser and navigate to http://your_domain or http://your_server_ip. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed WordPress on your LAMP server. You can now start customizing your site.