How To Install WordPress On Debian Linux

Bywsadmin

Here’s an article on how to install WordPress on a Linux server, whether you’re using Ubuntu, Debian, or similar distributions. This guide assumes you’re installing WordPress on a local server or a VPS and want to use Apache, MySQL (or MariaDB), and PHP (known as the LAMP stack).

Step 1: Update System Packages

Open your terminal and run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Apache Web Server

sudo apt install apache2 -y

Verify Apache is working:

sudo systemctl status apache2

Test in your browser:
Visit http://localhost/ or your server’s IP.

Step 3: Install MySQL Server (or MariaDB)

Install MySQL:

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Secure MySQL installation:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

During this:

  • Set a root password.
  • Answer prompts to remove anonymous users, test DB, etc.

Step 4: Install PHP and Required Extensions

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-xmlrpc php-soap php-intl php-zip -y

Check PHP version:

php -v

Step 5: Restart Apache to Enable PHP

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 6: Create a MySQL Database for WordPress

  1. Log into MySQL:

sudo mysql -u root -p

  1. Create a database:

CREATE DATABASE wordpress_db DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

  1. Create a user and grant privileges:

CREATE USER ‘wp_user’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘your_strong_password’;

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress_db.* TO ‘wp_user’@’localhost’;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

Step 7: Download WordPress

Navigate to /tmp, download and extract:

cd /tmp

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

tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz

Step 8: Move WordPress Files to Web Directory

sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress

Step 9: Configure Apache for WordPress

Create a new virtual host:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf

Paste the following:

<VirtualHost *:80>

    ServerAdmin admin@example.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress

    ServerName example.com

    <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>

        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

        AllowOverride All

        Require all granted

    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, then Ctrl+X).

Enable the site and .htaccess overrides:

sudo a2ensite wordpress.conf

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 10: Configure WordPress

Copy sample config and edit:

cd /var/www/html/wordpress

cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

nano wp-config.php

Update these values:

define( ‘DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress_db’ );

define( ‘DB_USER’, ‘wp_user’ );

define( ‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘your_strong_password’ );

define( ‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’ );

Save and exit.

Step 11: Complete Installation in Browser

  1. Open your browser.
  2. Visit:
    http://localhost/wordpress or http://your-server-ip/wordpress
  3. Follow the setup:
    • Select language
    • Set site title, admin username, password, and email
    • Finish installation

Post-Installation Tips:

  • Delete wp-config-sample.php
  • Set file permissions carefully (avoid 777)
  • Secure /wp-admin/ with .htaccess or fail2ban
  • Consider installing a firewall (e.g., ufw)

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