How to Install Piwigo with Apache on Ubuntu Linux

Piwigo is a free, open-source photo gallery software built on the LAMP or LEMP stack and licensed under the GNU General Public License (version 2). Organizations, teams, and individuals can use it to display their photos gallery and portfolio to current and prospective clients.

If you’re a photographer and want to show your photos to your clients, Piwigo is a great place to start. And should be very useful for your projects.

This brief tutorial will show students and new users how to install Piwigo on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP 7.2 support.

To get started with installing Piwigo, follow the steps below:

Install Apache2 HTTP Server

Piwigo requires a web server, and the most popular web server in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

Install MariaDB

Piwigo also requires a database server. 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 MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS

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 by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

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 mysql.service

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 isn’t available on Ubuntu default repositories… to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM

sudo apt update

Run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-intl php7.2-mysql php7.2-cli php7.2 php7.2-ldap php7.2-zip php7.2-curl

After installing PHP, run the commands below to open the FPM PHP default file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Then change to the following lines below in the file and save.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Create Piwigo Database

Now that you’ve installed all the required packages, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create the Piwigo 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 piwigo

CREATE DATABASE piwigo;

Create a database user called piwigouser with a new password

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

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON piwigo.* TO 'piwigouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download Piwigo Latest Release

Next, visit the Piwigo site and download the latest version.

After downloading, run the commands below to extract the download file into the Apache2 root directory.

sudo apt install curl
cd /tmp && curl -o piwigo.zip http://piwigo.org/download/dlcounter.php?code=latest
unzip piwigo.zip
sudo mv piwigo /var/www/html/piwigo

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Concrete5 to function.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/piwigo/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/piwigo/

Configure Apache2

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Piwigo. This file will control how users access it.

Content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called piwigo.conf.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/piwigo.conf

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.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/piwigo
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/piwigo/>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Enable the Piwigo

After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.

sudo a2ensite piwigo.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart Apache2 by running the commands below to load all the settings above.

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name, followed by install. Finally, you should see the setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://example.com

Then follow the on-screen instructions until you’ve successfully installed Piwigo.

Enjoy!

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