How to upgrade php version from 7.4.3 to 8.X?

Heya, @b1cfd497da4348d08019b0315db7a0

You get that error because php8.3-fpm is not in the default Ubuntu repos. You only have PHP 7.4 there unless you add a 3rd-party repo (usually Ondřej Surý’s PPA), and even then support for 8.3 on 20.04 may lag.

You’ll need to add Ondřej Surý’s PPA, which is the common way to get PHP 8.x on Ubuntu.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php8.3

After that you should be able to install and switch between PHP versions.

Hope that this helps!

Hi there,

On Ubuntu 20.04 you won’t see php8.3 in the default repos, so the package errors make sense. PHP 8.x on that release usually comes from Ondrej Sury’s PPA. Without it, apt just won’t know what php8.3-fpm is.

I think the first step is adding the PPA and updating your package list:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update

After that you can check what versions are actually available:

apt-cache search php8

I haven’t tested 8.3 specifically on 20.04, but if it’s published in the PPA it should show up there. If it doesn’t, the highest available version may be 8.2 for that Ubuntu release, so maybe worth spinning up a new Droplet with the latest Ubuntu version.