How to Setup a Development Machine

Last updated on Oct 1, 2022

Software Versions

Install Ubuntu Desktop

Install Standalone/Multiboot Mode

Download Ubuntu Desktop

Download an Ubuntu image from Ubuntu official site. Make sure to save it to a memorable location on your PC.

Create an Ubuntu Live USB

Create a bootable USB stick with balenaEtcher on Linux, Windows and Mac OS.

Install Ubuntu Deskop from Ubuntu Live USB

Install Ubuntu Desktop

Install on Windows using WSL

How to Install Linux on Windows with WSL

Update Software Packages

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open up terminal window and issue the following commands to update ubuntu software packages.

$ sudo apt update $ apt list --upgradable $ sudo apt upgrade

Install MariaDB Database Server

Enter the following command to install MariaDB.

$ sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

Use systemctl to check MariaDB status.

$ systemctl status mariadb

Run the post-installation security script.

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Check MariaDB server version information.

$ mariadb --version

Login without providing MariaDB root password.

$ sudo mariadb

Create a dedicated MariaDB user

GRANT ALL ON . TO 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;

Login test with dedicated user

$ mariadb -u admin -p

Install Apache HTTP Server

Install Apache Web server and useful utilities.

$ sudo apt install -y apache2 apache2-utils

Check Apache status with systemctl.

$ sudo systemctl status apache2

Check Apache version:

$ apache2 -v

FIX: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name:

$ echo "ServerName localhost" | sudo tee /etc/apache2/conf-available/fqdn.conf $ sudo a2enconf fqdn $ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Access Apache 2 default page from browser:

http://localhost

Install PHP

Install PHP 8.1 and some common PHP modules.

$ sudo apt install php php-fpm php-cli php-mysql

Enable the Apache php8.1 module.

$ sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif $ sudo a2enconf php8.1-fpm

Restart Apache Web server.

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Check PHP version information.

$ php --version

Create a phpinfo() file in the document root directory To test PHP scripts with Apache server.

 $ echo "" | sudo tee /var/www/html/info.php

Access phpinfo() file from browser:

http://localhost/info.php

Install phpMyAdmin

Install phpMyAdmin with the command below.

$ sudo apt install phpmyadmin

Choose options on installation.

Choose Webserver. -> Apache 2
Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common? -> Yes
MySQL application password for phpmyadmin: -> leave blank

Check the privileges of phpmyadmin user.

$ sudo mariadb

SHOW GRANTS FOR phpmyadmin@localhost;

Access phpMyAdmin web interface from browser:

http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

Reconfigure if failure:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure phpmyadmin

Install Adminer

Install Adminer.

$ sudo apt install adminer

Enable the Adminer module.

$ sudo a2enconf adminer

Reload Apache Web server

$ sudo systemctl reload apache2

Access the Adminer web interface from browser.

http://localhost/adminer/

Install Nginx Web Server & Reverse Proxy

First, stop Apache 2 to avoid conlicts:

$ sudo systemctl stop apache2

Install Nginx (Full):

$ sudo apt install nginx-extras

Check Nginx status with systemctl.

$ sudo systemctl status nginx

Check Nginx version:

$ nginx -v

Setup Nginx as Webserver and Reverse Proxy

Configure Apache 2 behind Nginx Reverse Proxy

Rename Apache’s ports.conf configuration file:

$ sudo mv /etc/apache2/ports.conf /etc/apache2/ports.conf.default

Create a new ports.conf file with the port set to 8080:

$ echo "Listen 8080" | sudo tee /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Disable the default virtual host:

$ sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Now open the new virtual host file:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/001-default.conf

Put the content below into opened file:

<virtualhost *:8080="">
 ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
 DocumentRoot /var/www/html
 
 ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
 CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</virtualhost>

Save the file and activate the new virtual host configuration file:

$ sudo a2ensite 001-default

Test Apache's configuration:

$ sudo apachectl -t

Syntax OK

Then start Apache:

$ sudo systemctl start apache2

Configuring Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Create conf directory to store new configurations:

$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/nginx/conf

Create upstreams configuration file and add Apache 2 as upstream server:

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf/upstreams.conf

upstream apache2 {
 server 127.0.0.1:8080 fail_timeout=0;
}

Enable upstreams configuration:

$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/conf/upstreams.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/80-upstreams.conf

Create proxy parameters snippet file:

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/snippets/proxy-params.conf

proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port $server_port;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header X-Use-X-Accel-Redirect True;
proxy_set_header Host $host;

proxy_read_timeout 120;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_intercept_errors off;

Setup default server configuration:

$ sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default $ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf/default.conf

# Default server configuration
#
server {
 listen 80 default_server;
 listen [::]:80 default_server;

 root /var/www/html;

 index index.nginx-debian.html index.html index.htm index.php;

 server_name _;

 # Serve certain paths from Apache 2
 location ~ ^/(phpmyadmin|adminer) {
 include snippets/proxy-params.conf;
 proxy_pass http://apache2;
 }
 
 # First attempt to serve request as file, then
 # as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
 location / {
 try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
 }
 
 # Serve PHP files from php-fpm
 location ~ \.php$ {
 include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
 fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
 }

 # Deny access to .htaccess files.
 location ~ /\.ht {
 deny all;
 }

}

Enable default server configuration:

$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/conf/default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/90-default.conf

Check Nginx configuration is valid:

$ sudo nginx -t

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Restart Nginx server to make changes:

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Access Nginx default page, phpinfo(), phpMyAdmin and Adminer pages from browser:

http://localhost

http://localhost/info.php

http://localhost/phpmyadmin

http://localhost/adminer

Install Redis Server

Install Redis using the following command:

$ sudo apt install redis-server

Once the installation is completed, you can check the version of Redis using the following command:

$ redis-server -v

Redis server v=6.0.16 sha=00000000:0 malloc=jemalloc-5.2.1 bits=64 build=a3fdef44459b3ad6

Configure Locale

Check which locales are supported:

$ locale -a

Add the locales you want (for example en_US):

$ sudo locale-gen en_US $ sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8

Run this update command:

$ sudo update-locale

Update system locale:

$ sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.utf8

Update /etc/environment file:

$ sudo nano /etc/environment

Add the following lines, save and close the file:

...
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8