How to Install Magento 2 with WSL on Windows 11

Install Windows Subsystem for Linux in 🪟 Windows 11

You can install Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 11 by running a single command in your command prompt. This built-in Windows feature lets you run a Linux environment directly on your PC without needing a separate virtual machine. Open Command Prompt as an administrator, type the installation command, and restart your 🔄 computer to finish setting up the core environment required for running Linux tools.

Next, right-click the Command Prompt app and choose to Run as administrator.

When the console opens, run the commands below to install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL):

wsl --install

Wait for WSL to be installed.

After installing, you should get a success message similar to the lines below:

Installing: Virtual Machine Platform
Virtual Machine Platform has been installed.
Installing: Windows Subsystem for Linux
Windows Subsystem for Linux has been installed.
Downloading: WSL Kernel
Installing: WSL Kernel
WSL Kernel has been installed.
Downloading: GUI App Support
Installing: GUI App Support
GUI App Support has been installed.
Downloading: Ubuntu
The requested operation is successful. Changes will not be effective until the system is rebooted.

Restart your computer.

WSL should be installed and ready to use. When you want to update, run the commands below:

wsl --update

Install Specific Linux distro on 🪟 Windows 11

You can install a specific Linux distribution on Windows 11 by viewing the available online list through your terminal. Ubuntu and other popular Linux versions provide the underlying operating system you need for web development tools. Check the online catalog using a simple terminal command, then download your preferred distribution to complete your Linux setup inside Windows.

wsl --list --online

You should then see all available distributions that can be installed on WSL.

NAME            FRIENDLY NAME
Ubuntu          Ubuntu
Debian          Debian GNU/Linux
kali-linux      Kali Linux Rolling
openSUSE-42     openSUSE Leap 42
SLES-12         SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v12
Ubuntu-16.04    Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu-18.04    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04    Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

To install a Linux distribution from the list above, run the commands below using the distribution name. For example, to install Ubuntu 20.04, run the commands below:

wsl --install -d ubuntu-20.04

You should then get a message that the distribution is installed.

Downloading: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Installing: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has been installed.
Launching Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

After installing, you should get a Ubuntu command console with setup details.

Installing, this may take a few minutes.
Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
Enter new UNIX username: Richard
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Installation successful!
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-22000-Microsoft x86_64)

Some troubleshooting commands to run when you run into issues.

wsl --set-default-version 1
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto start

Install Nginx HTTP Server

You can install Nginx HTTP server on your Ubuntu environment inside WSL by updating your software packages and running the package manager install command. Nginx acts as the web server that delivers your website pages to visitors. Refresh your local repository lists to get the newest software versions, then install the web server package to prepare your environment for hosting Magento.

To install Nginx on Ubuntu, run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start, and restart Nginx services.

sudo service nginx stop
sudo service nginx start
sudo service nginx restart

To validate that Nginx is installed and functioning, browse your web browser to the server's hostname or IP address.

You should get a test page if everything works.

http://localhost

Install MariaDB Database Server

You can install MariaDB database server on your WSL Ubuntu setup by running the package manager install command for both the server and client components. MariaDB stores all your website content, user accounts, and product catalogs securely. Use your terminal to download and set up the database software so your e-commerce platform has a place to save data.

MariaDB is a truly open-source database server you can run with your projects. It is fast, secure, and the default server for almost all Linux.

To install MariaDB, run the commands below:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start, and restart MariaDB services.

sudo service mysql stop
sudo service mysql start
sudo service mysql restart

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

• Enter current password for root (enter for none): Press the Enter
• Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
• New password: Enter password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat password
• Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
• Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
• Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

To verify and validate that MariaDB is installed and working, log in to the database console using the commands below:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Type the root password when prompted.

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 46
Server version: 10.3.29-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Ubuntu 20.04
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or 'h' for help. Type 'c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]>

The server was successfully installed if you see a similar screen.

Install PHP and Related Modules

You can install PHP and related modules on your WSL environment by running a single command that includes all the required extensions for e-commerce software. Magento relies heavily on PHP and specific background modules to process orders and display pages correctly. Install the complete package list at once to ensure your server meets all platform requirements without missing critical features.

To install PHP and recommended modules, run the commands below.

sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-mysql php-gmp php-curl php-intl php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-gd php-xml php-cli php-zip php-soap php-bcmath

That should get PHP installed with recommended PHP modules that you can run with many PHP-based applications.

To validate that PHP is installed, run the commands below:

php -v

You should see an output like the one below:

PHP 7.4.3 (cli) (built: Oct  6 2020 15:47:56) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v7.4.3, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

You can also test with a test PHP script and display the installed version and related modules that are enabled or disabled.

To do that, run the commands below to create a PHP test file called phpinfo.php

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then, type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Save the file.

Open your browser and browse to your server hostname followed by phpinfo.php

Restart Nginx, then type the address and browse the file.

http://example.com/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

At this stage, all required components that Magento needs are installed above. Continue below to download and configure Magento settings.

Create Magento Database

You can create a Magento database by logging into your MariaDB console with root credentials and running a simple Structured Query Language command. This dedicated storage space holds all your online store records separately from other applications. Access your database prompt, create the new storage container, and verify that the system is ready to accept your e-commerce platform data.

Login to the MariaDB database console using the commands below:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, create a database called magentodb

CREATE DATABASE magentodb;

Next, create a database user called magentodbuser and set a password

CREATE USER 'magentodbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then, grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON magentodb.* TO 'magentodbuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download Magento

You can download Magento source code to your local WSL environment by installing essential transfer tools like curl and git, then fetching the project files. Getting the official software package lets you build your e-commerce store locally for testing and development. Prepare your command line tools first, and then download the required installation files into your web server directory.

To get Magento's latest release, you may want to use the GitHub repository… Install Composer, Curl, and other dependencies to get started…

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

When prompted, enter your authentication keys. Your public key is your username; your private key is your password….  ( https://marketplace.magento.com/customer/accessKeys/ )

You'll have to register for an account to create the key above.

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download Magento packages from GitHub… Always replace the branch number with the latest branch.

To view Magento releases, see this page.

cd /var/www/
sudo composer create-project --repository=https://repo.magento.com/ magento/project-community-edition magento

Copy and paste the authentication key… (Your public key is your username; your private key is your password)

Output:
Authentication required (repo.magento.com):
Username: 234f2343435d190983j0ew8u3220
Password: 
Do you want to store credentials for repo.magento.com in /opt/magento/.config/composer/auth.json ? [Yn] Y

After downloading Magento packages, run the commands below to install Magento with the following options:

Elasticsearch, installed with Magento packages, can be turned off using a specific command if you encounter issues after running previous setup steps. This action deactivates the Elasticsearch module.

sudo php bin/magento module:disable {Magento_Elasticsearch,Magento_InventoryElasticsearch,Magento_Elasticsearch6,Magento_Elasticsearch7}

If you want to run Magento with Elasticsearch instead, read this post.

You must run specific commands to set the correct permissions for Magento 2 to function properly. For example, using `sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 444 {} \;` and `sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 555 {} \;` ensures Magento 2 can read and access its files and directories.

The `www-data` user needs to own your Magento directory to run Magento 2 correctly. Run the `sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/magento2` command to give the `www-data` user ownership of the Magento directory and its contents, ensuring proper file permissions.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/magento/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/magento/

Configure Nginx VirtualHost

You can configure an Nginx VirtualHost file for your Magento site by creating a new text configuration document inside the server sites directory. This configuration tells your web server where to find your website files and how to direct incoming browser traffic. Set up the server block file with your domain details to make your local store accessible through a web browser.

Run the commands below to create a new VirtualHost file called Magento in the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento

Below is a very good configuration setting for most Magento sites on the Nginx server. This configuration should work great.

Copy the content below and save it into the file created above.

upstream fastcgi_backend {
  server unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    index  index.php;

    set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/magento;
    set $MAGE_MODE production;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com-error.log;

    include /var/www/magento/nginx.conf.sample;
}

Save the file and exit.

After saving the file above, run the commands below to enable the new site, then restart the Nginx server.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo service nginx restart

At this stage, Magento is ready and can be launched by going to the server's IP or hostname.

https://example.com

That should bring up the Magento home page.

Log in with the account above, and you're done.

That's it!

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to install Magento on Windows 11 with Ubuntu. If you find any error above, please use the comment form below to report.