Install LAMP in one command¶

A few complex packages but all (bar linux!) can be installed with one command and then following the on-screen instructions:

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

Install phpMyAdmin¶

To get started, we can simply install phpMyAdmin from the default Ubuntu repositories.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin php-mbstring php-gettext

The only thing we need to do is explicitly enable the PHP mcrypt and mbstring extensions, which we can do by typing:

sudo phpenmod mcrypt

sudo phpenmod mbstring

sudo service apache2 restart

Hint

You can now access the web interface by visiting your server’s domain name or public IP address followed by /phpmyadmin

Re-configure phpMyadmin¶

sudo dpkg-reconfigure phpmyadmin

Secure your phpMyAdmin Instance¶

Configure Apache to Allow .htaccess Overrides¶

We will edit the linked file that has been placed in our Apache configuration directory:

sudo subl /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf

We need to add an AllowOverride All directive within the <Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin> section of the configuration file, like this:

<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin>
    Options FollowSymLinks
    DirectoryIndex index.php
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

When you have added this line, save and close the file.

To implement the changes you made, restart Apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Create an .htaccess file¶

Now that we have enabled .htaccess use for our application, we need to create one to actually implement some security.

In order for this to be successful, the file must be created within the application directory. We can create the necessary file and open it in our text editor with root privileges by typing:

sudo subl /usr/share/phpmyadmin/.htaccess

Within this file, we need to enter the following information:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted Files"
AuthUserFile /etc/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd
Require valid-user

Create the .htpasswd file for Authentication¶

Now that we have specified a location for our password file through the use of the AuthUserFile directive within our .htaccess file, we need to create this file.

We actually need an additional package to complete this process. We can install it from our default repositories:

sudo apt-get install apache2-utils

Afterward, we will have the htpasswd utility available.

The location that we selected for the password file was /etc/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd. Let’s create this file and pass it an initial user by typing:

sudo htpasswd -c /etc/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd username

You will be prompted to select and confirm a password for the user you are creating. Afterwards, the file is created with the hashed password that you entered.

If you want to enter an additional user, you need to do so without the -c flag, like this:

sudo htpasswd /etc/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd additionaluser

Enable .httaccess rewrite¶

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo service apache2 restart

Solve phpmyadmin not found¶

Create a link in /var/www/html like this:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/html