How To Install phpBB® Forums on Ubuntu 12.10

Spin up Ubuntu 12.10 x64 droplet:

Step 1 - Install LAMP stack

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
apt-get -y install apache2 mysql-server mysql-client php5 php5-mysql php5-gd imagemagick

Step 2 - Create A Database

We will create database 'phpBB' and user 'phpBB' with password 'PassWord', make sure to change it to your own value:

mysqladmin create phpBB
mysql -Bse "create user 'phpBB'@'localhost' identified by 'PassWord';"
mysql -Bse "grant all privileges on \`phpBB\`.* to 'phpBB'@'localhost';"
mysqladmin flush-privileges

Step 3 - Install phpBB

You can find latest version of phpBB from their website. We will download latest version and copy it over into Apache's default folder:

wget https://www.phpbb.com/files/release/phpBB-3.0.12.zip
unzip phpBB-3.0.12.zip
rm -rf /var/www/*
cp -R phpBB3/* /var/www/

Set Correct Directory and File Permissions

cd /var/www
for files in config.php cache files store images/avatars/upload/; do chmod 777 $files; done

Step 4 - Finish Installation

Navigate over to http://IP/install (http://198.199.92.189/install/ in our case):

Click on 'Install' tab:

You should have all the required packages already installed:

Enter Database Credentials, replacing PassWord with your own value:

Database type: MySQL with MySQLi Extension
Database server hostname or DSN: localhost
Database name: phpBB
Database username: phpBB
Database password: PassWord

If you set it up correctly, you should see a successful database connection:

In this next step you should setup your admin username and password:

Setup E-mail settings if you have a custom SMTP server, otherwise stick with the default values:

Your installation should now be (almost) complete:

Delete /install Folder

After you are done installing phpBB you should delete /install folder:

rm -rf /var/www/install

Now you should be able to access your phpBB forum at your droplet's IP address:

To access admin interface, click on "Administration Control Panel" at the bottom of the page:

And you are all done!