How To Install The PHP-Nuke 8.2 CMS Under Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

In this tutorial, we will see how to install PHP Nuke 8.2 locally in a system running Ubuntu/Linux Mint. The tutorial is also workable for other Debian-based systems. PHP Nuke is a popular CMS (Content Management System) that gives the administrator full control over his websites (portals). The latest version (8.2.4) comes with more bug fixes and security improvements. You can find here the added features for PHP Nuke 8.2.4.

Getting Started

      1. Installing The LAMP Server

To be able to run PHP Nuke on your system, we need to install first a web server. For this tutorial, we will use the LAMP web server, but it's your choice to select another web server (XAMPP for example). To install LAMP on Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.04 or Linux Mint 13, open the terminal and run this command:

 sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

For more help about the installation of the LAMP server, check this article. Also, PHP Nuke requires GD graphics support. You can install it with this command:

sudo apt-get install php5-gd

      2. Downgrading From PHP 5.4.x To PHP 5.3.x

Magic Quotes GPC has been dropped from PHP 5.4.x. The only solution to make PHP-Nuke work under Ubuntu/Linux Mint is to downgrade from PHP 5.4.x to 5.3.x. To do this, you can use a simple script that will automatically downgrade your current PHP version to 5.3.x. You can run it with the following commands from the terminal:

cd /tmp 

wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47950494/upubuntu.com/php5_4_downgrade_5.3.sh 

chmod +x php5_4_downgrade_5.3.sh 

sudo sh php5_4_downgrade_5.3.sh

      3.  Creating MySQL Database & User

After installing the LAMP server and downgrading to PHP 5.3.x, we need now to create a MySQL database and user to use with PHP Nuke. If you have phpMyAdmin installed, you can easily do this with just few actions. But, if you want to create these details from the terminal, the run this sequence of commands and replace text highlighted in red with your own settings:

- Sign in to the MySQL server with this command:

 mysql -u root -p

- Create now a MySQL database for PHP Nuke with this command:

create database phpnuke;

- Create a user with this command:

CREATE USER 'phpnuke-user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '12345';

Replace phpnuke-user & 12345 with any other username and password of your choice.

- Grant now this user access to your database with this command:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON phpnuke.* TO 'phpnuke-user' IDENTIFIED BY '12345';

- Exit now the MySQL server with this command:

exit

We have now created these MYSQL details:

• Hostname: localhost
• Database Name: phpnuke
• Database User: phpnuke-user
• Database User Password: 12345

      4. Installing PHP NUKE 8.2

You can download and place the PHP NUKE files in the /var/www/ directory with these commands:

cd /tmp 

sudo mkdir /var/www/phpnuke 

wget -c http://goo.gl/iWxAv -O phpnuke-release-8.2.4.zip 

unzip -q phpnuke-release-8.2.4.zip 

sudo cp -r phpnuke-release-8.2.4/phpnuke/html/* /var/www/phpnuke 

sudo chmod 777 -R /var/www/phpnuke 

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Open now this link to start the installation of PHP Nuke:

http://localhost/phpnuke/install/

Note: You can replace localhost with your own server IP address.

Then follow setup instructions via your web browser:

When you finsih the installation of PHP Nuke, remove the install directory with this command:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/phpnuke/install

Here are the screenshots of the default home page and admin area:

PHP-NUKE Home Page