How to set up a LAMP test server on Ubuntu

You can set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) server as a test server on your Ubuntu 9.10 PC. A LAMP server lets you develop a website on your computer before you upload it to a website host. For additional information and details, see Tux Tweaks: Install LAMP Server on Ubuntu.

Additional Information, 04-13-10: As explained in the Note in the "Using LAMP Server as Your Test Server" section at the end of this article, you must open the root file browser before you can add files to LAMP test server.

Installing LAMP Server on Ubuntu
To install a LAMP test server on your Ubuntu PC, do the following:

1. Open Ubuntu, click Applications, select Accessories, and then click Terminal to display its window and a "~$" (tilde dollar-sign) prompt.
   
2. At the flashing cursor immediately after the "~$" prompt, Type sudo apt-get install lamp-server^ and then press Enter to display a password prompt. Note: To type the "^" (caret symbol), use Shift+6.
   
3. Type your password and then press Enter to display the packages that you can install, and "Do you want to continue [Y/n]?"
   
4. Type y and then press Enter to start the installation and display a prompt to set your MySQL password. Type the password, press Enter to display a retype-password prompt, retype your MySQL password, and then press Enter to continue installing packages.

Testing Apache and php LAMP Server Components
Apache and php are components of the LAMP software bundle. To test Apache and php, do the following:

1. Open a web browser. Type http://localhost/ in the address field, and then press Enter to display a web page that says "It works! This is the default web page for this server. The web server is running but no content has been added, yet." This Apache server is your LAMP test server. Close the web browser.
2. Click Applications, select Accessories, and then click Terminal to display its window. Type gksudo gedit /var/www/testing.php and press Enter to display a password prompt. Enter your Ubuntu password and click OK to open a gedit text-editor window.
   
3. Type into the text editor, and then click Save to save the file. Close the text-editor window to redisplay the terminal window.
   
4. Type sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart and press Enter to restart the Apache server.
   
5. Open a web browser. Type http://localhost/testing.php/ in the address field, and then press Enter to display a web page that shows details about your php installation.

Configuring the MySQL LAMP Server Component
MySQL is the database component of the LAMP software bundle. To configure MySQL for use with your LAMP test server, do the following:

1. Click Applications, select Accessories, and then click Terminal to display its window.
   
2. Type cat /etc/hosts | grep localhost and press Enter to display "127.0.0.1 localhost ::1 localhost ip6- localhost ip6-loopback." 127.0.0.1 is your localhost IP address. localhost is red.
   
3. Type cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf | grep bind-address and press Enter to display "bind-address = 127.0.0.1." If the bind address does not match your localhost address, type gksudo gedit /etc/mysql/my.cnf to open a gedit text-editor window, scroll to the bind address, and then change it to "127.0.0.1".
   

Installing and Testing phpMyAdmin for LAMP Server
The phpMyAdmin utility simplifies working with a MySQL database within your LAMP test server. To install and test phpMyAdmin, do the following:

1. Click Applications, select Accessories, and then click Terminal to display its window. Type sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql phpmyadmin and press Enter to display the packages that you can install, and the message "Do you want to continue [Y/n]?"
   
2. Type y and then press Enter to start the installation and display a Configuring phpmyadmin window. Use your keyboard up and down arrow keys and its spacebar to select apache2, and then press Enter to continue the installation and display another Configuring phpmyadmin window.
   
3. Use the Tab key to select Yes and then press Enter to display a database-password prompt. Type your MySQL password (you had set this in the Installing LAMP section above), and then press Enter to display a phpMyAdmin-password prompt.
   
4. For simplicity, you can use your MySQL password also as your phpMyAdmin password. Type your MySQL password, and then press Enter to display a password-confirmation prompt. Retype your MySQL password and then press Enter to finish installing phpMyAdmin. Close the terminal window.
   
Open a web browser. Type http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ in the address field, and then press Enter to display the phpMyAdmin login web page. In the Username field, Type root in the Username field, type your MySQL password in the Password field, and then click OK to display a phpMyAdmin window.

Using LAMP Server as Your Test Server
If you wish to work on only a single website, place its files in /var/www. To see the initial contents of folder www, click Places, click Computer, click File System, double-click var, and then double-click www to open it. Folder www intially contains only two files: index.html and testing.php.

Note: Before you can add files to your LAMP test server, you must click Applications, select Accessories, click Terminal to display its window, and then type sudo nautilus to open the root file browser. You can then paste HTML files into root/var/www.

If you wish to work on multiple web sites, go to Tux Tweaks: Apache Configuration.