This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install and configure MyBB bulletin board Forum software on Ubuntu.
MyBB is a free, open-source forum software powering thousands of engaging and vibrant communities online. It enables individuals and web admins to set up community bulletin boards in minutes to stay in touch with groups of people or ideas.
MyBB is highly customized with an advanced plugin system, built-in template, theme editor, Powerful and convenient tools for forum moderators, and features you can’t find in some of the traditional forum platforms.
Some of the features included with MyBB are:
- phpBB bulletin board and permission system
- CMS features allow the creation of new pages and blocks
- Clean administration interface
- Many ready-to-use features include a photo gallery, downloads, knowledge base, links, and chat.
- Multi-language and multi-template ready
- Lots of community modifications
- .and many others.
To get started with installing MyBB, follow the steps below:
Install Nginx
MyBB is PHP-based and requires a webserver. The most popular open-source web server in use today is Nginx. To install Nginx, run the commands below:
sudo apt update sudo apt-get 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
To test the Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address. You should see the Nginx default test page, as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx is working as expected.
http://localhost
Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with MyBB. 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 service to start when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu
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): Press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter the 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
To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to log on to the MariaDB server.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then, type the password you created above to sign on. If successful, you should see a MariaDB welcome message.
Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules
PHP 7.2 may not be available in 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-FPM
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
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-pgsql php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-imagick php7.2-bcmath php7.2-gmp php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default config file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
Then, save the changes on the following lines below in the file. The value below is an ideal setting to apply in your environment.
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
After making the change above, please save the file and close it.
To restart Nginx, run the commands below
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
To test PHP 7.2 settings with Nginx, create a phpinfo.php file in the Nginx root directory by running the commands below
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then, type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Save the file. Then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php
http://localhost/phpinfo.php
You should see the PHP default test page.
Create MyBB Database
Now that you’ve installed all the required packages continue below to start configuring the servers. First, create a MyBB database.
Run the commands below to log on to MariaDB. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then, create a database called mybb
CREATE DATABASE mybb;
Create a database user called mybbuser with a new password
CREATEUSER 'mybbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the mybbuser database.
GRANT ALL ON mybb.* TO 'mybbuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download MyBB Latest Release
Next, continue below to download the MyBB package. To download the latest version, click on the link below.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file into the Nginx root directory.
wget https://resources.mybb.com/downloads/mybb_1821.zip unzip mybb_1821.zip sudo mv Upload /var/www/mybb
Change or modify the directory permission to fit the Nginx configuration.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mybb sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/mybb
Configure Nginx
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for MyBB. This file will control how users access MyBB content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called mybb
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mybb
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;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
root /var/www/mybb;
index index.php;
access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;
client_max_body_size 100M;
autoindex off;
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 MyBB
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mybb /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name, followed by install. You should see the MyBB setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
http://example.com
Continue below at the Welcome screen.
Then, validate that all requirements are met and proceed.
Next, type in the database username, database name, and password. Then proceed.
After that, set the main site configurations and continue
From there, set up the site admin account and complete the setup.
After that, all should be installed and ready to use
Enjoy!
Run the commands below to delete the install directory
sudo rm -rf /var/www/mybb/install
Congratulation! You have successfully installed the MyBB bulletin board on Ubuntu 18.04.
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