Install phpBB With Apache on Ubuntu 16.04

PhpBB is an open source bulletin board program. This article will show you how to install phpBB on top of an Apache webserver on Ubuntu 16.04. It was written using phpBB 3.2.1, however the instructions provided here may also work for newer versions of phpBB.

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you have already created a Vultr Cloud Compute instance with Ubuntu 16.04 and have logged in as root.

Step 1: Install Apache

Update your repository list.

apt-get update

Install the Apache web server.

apt-get install apache2

Step 2: Install MySQL

phpBB runs on a LAMP stack. Before phpBB can be installed, you will need to install MySQL and PHP.

apt-get install mysql-server php7.0-mysql

Once you enter the above command, you will be prompted for a MySQL password. Enter any password of your choice.

Complete the installation.

/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

You will be asked for a password. Enter the password you just created and continue with the installation.

Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD plugin? [Y/N] N
Change the root password? [Y/N] N
Remove anonymous users? [Y/N] Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/N] Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/N] Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/N] Y

Step 3: Install PHP

You will next need to install PHP 7.0 along with some of its modules that are required by phpBB.

apt-get install php7.0 php7.0-mcrypt libapache2-mod-php7.0 php7.0-curl php7.0-json php7.0-cgi php7.0-xml

Step 4: Install phpBB

Now that you have installed the required dependencies, you can proceed and install phpBB. Download the latest phpBB package to the webserver’s root directory.

cd /var/www/html
wget https://www.phpbb.com/files/release/phpBB-3.2.1.zip

Unzip the downloaded archive.

apt-get install unzip
unzip phpBB-3.2.1.zip

Move the phpBB files to your server’s root directory.

mv ./phpBB3/* .

Delete the default Apache index page.

rm index.html

Set the appropriate file permissions.

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/
chmod 660 images/avatars/upload/ config.php
chmod 770 store/ cache/ files/

Step 5: Create a MySQL database for phpBB

Before phpBB can be installed, a MySQL database needs to be created. Access the MySQL console.

mysql -u root -p

Enter the MySQL password you created previously. Once you have logged in, create a new database.

mysql>CREATE DATABASE phpbb;

Next, create a new MySQL user and grant it privileges to the database you just created. You can replace username and password with any username and password of your own choice.

mysql>GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES on phpbb.* to 'username'@'localhost' identified by 'password';
mysql>FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit the MySQL console.

mysql>exit

Step 6: Install phpBB

Restart the Apache web server.

systemctl restart apache2

Open a browser window and type in your server’s IP address or domain name followed by /install, for example: http://{your-server-ip}/install. The phpBB installation page will appear. Click on the install tab and then on the “install” button. Enter the administrator username, password, and email of your choice and click on the “Submit” button. This will be used to login to the admin panel. In the next step you will be prompted for the MySQL parameters. You will need to enter the username, password and database name you chose in Step 6.

Database type: MySQL with MySQLi Extensions
Database server hostname or DSN: localhost
Database server port: <leave blank>
Database username: username
Database password: password
Database name: phpbb
Prefix for tables in database: phpbb_

Click on the “Submit” button once you have entered the data and proceed through the rest of the interactive installer. Once the installation is complete, you can click on Take me to the ACP to enter the phpBB administration panel.

Step 7: Finish the installation

Once you have completed the online installer, you must delete the install directory in order to activate your phpBB installation.

cd /var/www/html
rm -r install

You have successfully installed phpBB.