Lavalite is an open-source, flexible, and extensible platform based on the Laravel framework that helps you quickly set up a content management system (CMS) or a cloud-based application.
Lavalite has everything you need to make a super beautiful website and application.
Lavalite is built on an open-source core with support for open standards, which might be very useful in helping you run your digital content.
This CMS platform is designed for ease of use to allow enterprises and business owners to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile.
For more about Lavalite, please check their Homepage
To get started with installing Lavalite, follow the steps below:
Install Nginx HTTP Server
Lavalite requires a web server, and the Nginx HTTP server is probably the second most popular open-source web server available today. To install the Nginx server, run the commands below:
sudo apt update sudo apt install nginx
After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used 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
Now that Nginx is installed open your browser and browse to the URL below to test whether the web server is working.
http://localhost

If you see the page above, then Nginx is successfully installed.
Install MariaDB Database Server
Lavalite also requires a database server to store its content. MariaDB is a great place to start if you’re looking for a genuinely open-source database server. To install MariaDB 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 18.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation.
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
Once MariaDB is installed, run the commands below to test whether the database server was successfully installed.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Type the root password when prompted.

The server was successfully installed if you see a similar screen as shown above.
Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
Lavalite is a PHP-based CMS, and PHP is required. However, PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu’s default repositories. To run PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default configuration file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
The lines below are a good setting for most PHP-based CMS. Update the configuration file with these and save.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On short_open_tag = On memory_limit = 256M cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0 upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 date.timezone = America/Chicago
You should restart the Nginx web server whenever you make changes to the PHP configuration file. To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Once PHP is installed, create a test file called phpinfo.php in the Nginx default root directory. ( /var/www/html/)
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Next, open your browser and browse to the server’s hostname or IP address, followed by phpinfo.php
http://localhost/phpinfo.php
You should see the PHP default test page.

Create Lavalite Database
Once you’ve installed all the packages required for Lavalite to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank Lavalite database.
To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called lavalite
CREATE DATABASE lavalite;
Create a database user called lavaliteuser with a new password
CREATE USER 'lavaliteuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON lavalite.* TO 'lavaliteuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download Lavalite Latest Release
To get Lavalite’s latest release, you may want to use the GitHub repository. Install Composer, Curl, and other dependencies to get started.
sudo apt install curl curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download Lavalite packages from Github.
cd /var/www/html sudo composer create-project LavaLite/cms --prefer-dist lavalite
After that, run the commands below to begin the Lavalite setup.
cd /var/www/html/lavalite sudo php artisan lavalite:install php artisan key:generate
When you run the commands above, you will be prompted to answer a series of questions. Use the guide below to complete it.
********************************* * Lavalite Installation * ********************************* ************************************** * Application In Production! * ************************************** Do you really wish to continue the installation? (yes/no) [no]: > yes Enter your database host. [127.0.0.1]: > Enter your database username. [homestead]: > lavaliteuser Enter your database password (type blank for no password).: > Enter your database name. [homestead]: > lavalite Database successfully configured. [Config files] Publishing config files Do you want to publish config files? [No]: [0] No [1] Yes [2] Overwrite [3] Ask > Yes [View files] Publishing view files Do you want to publish view files? [No]: [0] No [1] Yes [2] Overwrite [3] Ask > Yes [Lang files] Publishing lang files Do you want to publish lang files? [No]: [0] No [1] Yes [2] Overwrite [3] Ask > Yes [Public files] Publishing public files Do you want to publish public files? [Yes]: [0] No [1] Yes [2] Overwrite [3] Ask > Yes Migration table not found. Migration table created successfully. Migrating: 2015_01_05_100001_create_clients_table Migrated: 2015_01_05_100001_create_clients_table Migrated: 2017_11_09_100003_create_permissions_table Migrating: 2017_11_09_100004_create_permission_user_table Migrated: 2017_11_09_100004_create_permission_user_table Migrating: 2017_11_09_100005_create_permission_role_table Migrated: 2017_11_09_100005_create_permission_role_table Migrating: 2018_02_05_100001_create_activity_log_table Migrated: 2018_02_05_100001_create_activity_log_table Seeding: Litepie\MenuTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\UserTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\RoleTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\ClientTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\MessageTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\SettingTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\CalendarTableSeeder Seeding: Litepie\TaskTableSeeder Seeding: Litecms\BlockTableSeeder Seeding: Litecms\ContactTableSeeder Seeding: Litecms\PageTableSeeder Database seeding completed successfully. Please enter email for superuser [superuser@lavalite.org]: > admin@example.com Please enter password for superuser: > Application key set successfully. Lavalite is ready. You can now login with your username and password at [http://localhost/admin]
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for the Lavalite root directory and give Nginx control.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/lavalite/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/lavalite/
Configure Nginx
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Lavalite. This file will control how users access WebsiteBaker content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called lavalite
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/lavalite
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/lavalite;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
client_max_body_size 100M;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Enable the Lavalite and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/lavalite /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the Lavalite setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
http://example.com
You should see the Lavalite default homepage. No setup is required. It is already done above.

To log in to the admin, go to the URL
http://example.com/admin
Then log on with the admin account created above.

Enjoy~
Congratulation! You have successfully installed Lavalite on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10.
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