Bolt CMS is a sophisticated, lightweight, simple content management system (CMS) based on PHP. It is designed for ease of use to allow web admins andwwebsite owners to create powerful and dynamic content websites or blogs.
You’ll find Bolt helpful if you’re looking for a simple content management platform to manage your websites or blogs, and 100% free.
This brief tutorial will show students and new users how to install Bolt CMS on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP support.
This post covers installing the latest version of Bolt, which at the time of writing was 3.4.2
To get started with installing Bolt CMS, follow the steps below:
Install Nginx
Bolt CMS requires a webserver to function, and the second most popular web server in use today after Apache2 is Nginx. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt install nginx
Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop nginx.service sudo systemctl start nginx.service sudo systemctl enable nginx.service
Install MariaDB
Bolt CMS also requires a database server to function. And MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it, run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just 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
Restart MariaDB server
sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service
Install PHP-FPM and Related Modules
Bolt CMS is based on PHP. You’ll need to install it. In addition, install PHP-FPM and related modules by runing the commands below.
sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl php-sqlite3
After installing PHP-FPM, run the commands below to open the PHP-FPM default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.10 sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.04
Then change the following lines below in the file and save.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 64M max_execution_time = 240 max_input_vars = 1500
Create Bolt Database
After installing all the packages, you must continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create the Bolt database.
Run the commands below to log on to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called Bolt
CREATE DATABASE bolt;
Create a database user called boltuser with a new password
CREATE USER 'boltuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON bolt.* TO 'boltuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download Bolt’s Latest Release
Next, visit Bolt’s Bolt site and download the latest version.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file into the Apache2 root directory.
cd /tmp && wget http://bolt.cm/distribution/bolt-latest.tar.gz tar -zxvf bolt-latest.tar.gz sudo mv bolt-v3.4.2 /var/www/html/bolt
Install Composer for Bolt
cd /var/www/html/bolt sudo curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php sudo cp /var/www/html/bolt/composer.json.dist /var/www/html/bolt/composer.json sudo php composer.phar install
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Bolt to function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/bolt/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/bolt/
Configure Bolt Database Connection Settings
Next, run the commands below to create a Bolt database connection file.
sudo nano /var/www/html/bolt/app/config/config.yml
Then add the lines below into the config.yml and save.
database: driver: mysql username: boltuser password: password_here databasename: bolt
Configure Bolt
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Bolt. This file will control how users access Bolt content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called a bolt.
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/bolt
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/html/bolt/public;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
try_files /index.php =404;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.10
# fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.04
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
location = /bolt {
try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ^~ /bolt/ {
try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Enable the Bolt Site
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/bolt /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Restart Apache2 by running the commands below to load all the settings above.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the Bolt setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
http://example.com
Then follow the on-screen instructions until you’ve successfully installed Bolt.
After creating the first user, you should be logged into the admin dashboard.
Enjoy!
Login to the admin dashboard
http://example.com/bolt/login
