Tutorial
How To Install (LEMP) nginx, MySQL, PHP stack on Arch Linux
About Lemp
LEMP stack is a group of open source software to get web servers up and running. The acronym stands for Linux, nginx (pronounced Engine x), MySQL, and PHP. Since the server is already running Arch Linux, the linux part is taken care of. Here is how to install the rest.
Setup
The steps in this tutorial require the user to have root privileges. You can see how to set that up in the Initial Server Setup Tutorial in steps 3 and 4.
Step One—Pacman
Because pacman, the arch package manager, has a rolling package release, we should update Arch and its repositories before proceeding with any other steps:
sudo pacman -Syu
Step Two—Install MySQL
Once everything is fresh and up to date, we can start to install the server software, beginning with MySQL.
sudo pacman -S mysql
Once MySQL installs, start both mysql and the secure installation process. You will also be able to set the MySQL root password during the installation.
sudo systemctl start mysqld && mysql_secure_installation
When initially prompted for the MySQL root password, you can go ahead and press enter, as it has not yet been set. Your installation should look like this:
Enter current password for root (enter for none): OK, successfully used password, moving on... Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL root user without the proper authorization. Set root password? [Y/n] y New password: Re-enter new password: Password updated successfully! Reloading privilege tables.. ... Success! By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a production environment. Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y ... Success! Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network. Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y ... Success! By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed before moving into a production environment. Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y - Dropping test database... ... Success! - Removing privileges on test database... ... Success! Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far will take effect immediately. Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y ... Success! Cleaning up... All done! If you've completed all of the above steps, your MySQL installation should now be secure. Thanks for using MySQL!
Follow up by restarting MySQL:
sudo systemctl restart mysqld
Step Three—Install nginx
Once MySQL is all set up, we can move on to installing nginx on the VPS.
sudo pacman -S nginx
nginx does not start on its own. To get nginx running, type:
sudo systemctl start nginx
You can confirm that nginx has installed an your web server by directing your browser to your IP address.
You can run the following command to reveal your VPS's IP address.
curl -s icanhazip.com
Step Four—Install PHP-FPM
In order to process php application, we will need to install php-fpm.
sudo pacman -S php-fpm
Once its installed, start it up.
sudo systemctl start php-fpm
Finally, we need to tell nginx to run php using php-fpm. To accomplish this, first open up the nginx configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Find the location block that deals with php applications and replace the text in the section with the following:
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
root /srv/http;
include fastcgi.conf;
}
Save, exit, and restart nginx:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Step Five—Create a PHP Info Page
We can quickly see all of the details of the new php configuration.
To set this up, first create a new file:
sudo nano /srv/http/info.php
Add in the following line:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Then Save and Exit.
Restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
You can see the nginx and php-fpm configuration details by visiting http://youripaddress/info.php
Your LEMP stack is now set up and configured on your virtual private server.
Step Six—Configure the Daemons to Start at Boot
To ensure that all of the LEMP programs start automatically after any server restarts:
sudo systemctl enable nginx mysqld php-fpm
With that, LEMP is installed.
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#sudo rc.d start php-fpm
produces the following error:
:: Daemon script php-fpm does not exist or is not executable.
What am I missing? The pacman -S php-fpm produces no errors.
Most likely indicates that your install of php-fpm failed you may want to retry that and see if you get any errors during the install.
“Since the server is already running Ubuntu”… It should say Arch Linux.
The rc.d stuff should all be replaced with systemctl…
systemctl start php-fpm systemctl enable php-fpm
etc
Also, the root for php files should only be /srv/http if you chrooted nginx there (following the Arch wiki) or if that’s your document root…which it’s probably not since the default is /usr/share/nginx/html
As of March 25, MariaDB has replaced Mysql in Arch Linux. According to the news artical, MariaDB is “almost a drop-in replacement,” so some things may work slightly different. As Mysql has now been dropped to the Arch User Repository, it should be noted here that MariaDB should be installed unless adding AUR support to your server, which is usually not recommended in a production environment. More information about the move to MariaDB can be found at https://www.archlinux.org/news/mariadb-replaces-mysql-in-repositories/
Some additional information, as I seem to be unable to edit my previous comment. Upon attempting to install the mysql package, pacman will ask which provider of mysql is desired. The default is mariadb, but percona-server may also be selected. Because both of these packages provide mysql, it is safe to still run
pacman -S mysql
as shown above. Just be sure to select the provider you want. Either should be fine in most environments.
i have a problem phpinfo load fine. problem is, if i try to install phpbb, install work fine but once the install is done i get blank page(status 200 in access.log) same thing if i use a old working backup of phpbb and same for phpnuke and also for my php chat client. they all get the blank page (status 200 in access.log) but the phpinfo works fine.
what should i be doing? its been 2 day am trying to fix this, tryed everything on the internet but still nothing work
@webmaster_bloode check the php error logs, there might be a php error that’s stopping the script’s execution and outputting a blank white page.
php_errors.log is empty here is a link wih my config file and logs: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1290326#p1290326
Try setting “fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME” to “$document_root$fastcgi_script_name;” Also check /var/log/php-fpm.log for errors.
php-fpm.log is empty. still wont work :(
Think am going to give up.
@webmaster_bloode try forcing php to display errors as a blank page usually means there was a php error:
Put this at the top of phpbb’s index.php:
error_reporting(-1); ini_set(‘display_errors’, true);
still error 200 in access.log, error.log empty, php_fpm.log empty and blank page without code. There something wrong but. can’t find it :(
got it working, dont know what i did :O. i uninstalled and re-installed and went back to the default config about 10 time. then i set in php.in extension=mysqli.so extension=mysql.so
and now its working. as strange as it can be.
The new recommended DB is mariadb, are there any changes in the code to install mysql?
@lucas.dechow: The commands listed in this article should substitute mysql with mariadb automatically so it’s fine.
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Hello. I’m a total newbie about LEMP. Following the tutorial to the letter, I hit a roadblock. Restarting NGINX after editing /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and adding the appropriate code about .php returns the following errors:
I would also wanted to point out that after doing that last step, upon doing
sudo systemctl --type=service, nginx.service is shown as loaded, failed, failed under the LOAD, ACTIVE, SUB columns repectively. There must be something wrong with what I’m doing for the service to fail like that. Please point me in the right direction.greate best website of the world
guys please say guides for which Arch Linux version? not specific
I want the LEMP Nginx FastCGI WordPress for Arch thank you