How to Install a LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04

Overview

LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It’s the foundation most PHP-based applications — WordPress, Laravel, Joomla, Magento — expect to run on. LAMP installation on an Ubuntu server is one of the most common first tasks after spinning up a new VPS, and it’s also one of the most common sources of silent failures when steps get skipped or done out of order.

This guide covers a clean LAMP install on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy) and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble). The commands are the same for both unless noted. If you’re on Ubuntu 20.04, the process is nearly identical, but that release hits end-of-life in April 2025, so I’d recommend upgrading before you build on it.

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Prerequisites

• A server or VPS running Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 (fresh install preferred)
• Root or sudo access via SSH
• A non-root user with sudo privileges (running everything as root is fine for testing, but not for production)
• A domain name pointed at your server’s IP if you want to test virtual hosts — DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours, though it’s usually under an hour
• Basic comfort with a terminal and a text editor like nano or vim

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Update your package index

Always do this before installing anything. Ubuntu’s package cache can be days or weeks old on a fresh server, and installing from a stale cache causes version mismatches that are annoying to debug later.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

The -y flag auto-confirms prompts. If this is a production server and you want to review changes before applying them, drop the -y and read through what’s being upgraded.

Step 2: Install Apache

sudo apt install apache2 -y

Once installed, Apache starts automatically. Verify it’s running:

sudo systemctl status apache2

You should see active (running) in green. If your server has a firewall (UFW) enabled, you’ll need to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic, otherwise nothing will reach Apache from outside:

sudo ufw allow in "Apache Full"
sudo ufw status

Open a browser and navigate to your server’s IP address. You should see the Apache2 Ubuntu Default Page. If you see a connection timeout instead, the firewall rule above is almost always the reason.

Step 3: Install MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Ubuntu 22.04 installs MySQL 8.0 by default. Ubuntu 24.04 also ships MySQL 8.0 from the default repos. After installation, run the security script — this is not optional if you care about security at all:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

You’ll be asked several questions. Here’s what I’d recommend:

• VALIDATE PASSWORD component — Enable it (Y). Choose policy level 1 (MEDIUM) for most use cases.
• Remove anonymous users — Yes.
• Disallow root login remotely — Yes, unless you have a specific reason to allow remote root login (you probably don’t).
• Remove test database — Yes.
• Reload privilege tables — Yes.

📝 Note: On MySQL 8.0, the root user uses auth_socket authentication by default, which means you log in with sudo mysql — not a password. This trips up a lot of people who expect to set a root password during setup and then can’t figure out why it won’t accept it.

Step 4: Create a dedicated MySQL database and user

Don’t use the root account for your application. Create a separate user with only the permissions it needs. Log into MySQL first:

sudo mysql

Then run the following SQL, replacing the placeholders with your actual values:

CREATE DATABASE myappdb;
CREATE USER 'myappuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myappdb.* TO 'myappuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

⚠ Warning: GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES gives that user full control over the specified database only — not the whole server. Never grant GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* to an application user.

Step 5: Install PHP

Ubuntu 22.04 ships PHP 8.1. Ubuntu 24.04 ships PHP 8.3. For most modern PHP apps either is fine, but always check your application’s documented requirements before installing.

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql -y

The three packages here are: the PHP interpreter itself, the Apache PHP module that lets Apache process .php files, and the PHP-MySQL extension your app needs to talk to the database. Skipping php-mysql is a very common mistake — everything looks installed, but your app throws database connection errors.

You’ll likely also need some common PHP extensions depending on your application:

sudo apt install php-curl php-xml php-mbstring php-zip php-gd php-intl -y

Verify the PHP version and confirm Apache picked it up:

php -v
php -m | grep -E "mysqli|pdo_mysql"

Step 6: Restart Apache and validate the setup

Restart Apache to load the PHP module:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Now create a PHP info file to confirm Apache is serving PHP correctly:

sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php

Add this single line:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save and close (Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter). Navigate to http://your-server-ip/info.php in a browser. You should see the full PHP info page showing your PHP version, loaded modules, and configuration.

⚠ Warning: Delete this file when you’re done testing. Leaving info.php publicly accessible exposes your PHP configuration, installed modules, and server paths to anyone who knows the URL.

sudo rm /var/www/html/info.php

Step 7: Configure Apache virtual hosts (optional but recommended)

If you’re hosting a real site, you’ll want a virtual host config instead of dumping files into /var/www/html. Create a config for your domain:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.com.conf

Paste in this template, adjusting the domain and document root:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain.com/public_html
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/yourdomain.com-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/yourdomain.com-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Create the document root directory, enable the site, and reload Apache:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/yourdomain.com/public_html
sudo a2ensite yourdomain.com.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Common Issues & Troubleshooting

Apache shows the default Ubuntu page instead of my site

The default site (000-default.conf) takes priority if it’s still enabled. Disable it:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

If that doesn’t fix it, double-check your ServerName directive matches the domain you’re requesting, and that DNS is actually pointing to your server’s IP.

PHP files download instead of executing in the browser

Apache is serving .php files as plain text instead of passing them to PHP. This means libapache2-mod-php either isn’t installed or the module isn’t loaded. Check:

apache2ctl -M | grep php

If you see nothing, the module isn’t active. Reinstall and restart:

sudo apt install --reinstall libapache2-mod-php
sudo systemctl restart apache2

ERROR 1698 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’

This is annoyingly common and the error message isn’t clear about the real cause. MySQL 8.0 authenticates the root user via the system socket, not a password. You need to prefix your MySQL command with sudo:

sudo mysql -u root

If you genuinely need password-based root login (for a legacy app or a tool that doesn’t support socket auth), you can switch the auth plugin, but socket auth is safer and I’d leave it as-is unless you have a real reason to change it.

MySQL service won’t start after install

Check the actual error, not just the systemctl status:

sudo journalctl -u mysql -n 50 --no-pager

The most common culprits on VPS servers are a full /var partition (check with df -h) or a port conflict if something else is already on 3306 (check with sudo ss -tlnp | grep 3306).

mod_rewrite rules not working (.htaccess ignored)

If your app uses .htaccess for URL rewriting (WordPress does, Laravel does), Apache needs mod_rewrite enabled and the directory must allow overrides. Enable the module:

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Then in your virtual host config, make sure you have AllowOverride All set for your document root directory. Without it, Apache silently ignores your .htaccess file entirely — no error, just broken URLs.

FAQ