How To Install Laravel on Debian 12

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Laravel on Debian 12. For those of you who didn’t know, Laravel has emerged as one of the leading PHP frameworks for web development, offering an elegant and efficient approach to building web applications.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you step-by-step install Laravel PHP Framework on a Debian 12 (Bookworm).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 12 (Bookworm).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies for Laravel.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Laravel on Debian 12 Bookworm

Step 1. Before installing any software on Debian 12, it is recommended to update the package list to ensure that you have the latest version of the software. You can do this by running the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing Apache.

Now that the repository is up to date, you can proceed with the installation of Apache:

sudo apt install apache2

After the installation is complete, you can check the Apache service status to ensure it is running correctly:

sudo systemctl status apache2

If Apache is running successfully, you will see an “active (running)” message in the output. You can also verify by visiting your server’s IP address or domain name in a web browser. You should see the default Apache landing page if everything is set up correctly.

Step 3. Installing PHP.

Now that your system is up to date, it’s time to install PHP on Debian 12. First, add the Ondřej Surý PHP repository to Debian 12 by executing the following commands in the terminal:

wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/php.gpg https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg
echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list

These commands will enable your system to fetch PHP packages from the repository.

Next, update the package lists once again and install PHP and the necessary extensions by running the command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.2

To install Laravel, there are some PHP extensions you must enable, such as fileinfo, mbstring, and OpenSSL. You can enable those extensions via the php.ini file;

sudo nano /etc/php/8.2/apache2/php.ini

Uncomment the following lines to enable the extension fileinfo, mbstring, and openssl.

extension=fileinfo
extension=mbstring
extension=openssl

save the file and restart the apache2 service and apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4. Installing MariaDB on Debian 12.

To install the latest stable version of MariaDB, we’ll add the official MariaDB repository to our system:

wget https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup

Make the downloaded file executable:

chmod +x mariadb_repo_setup

Run the setup file:

sudo ./mariadb_repo_setup

The setup script will configure the repository and import the repository key.

After adding the MariaDB repository, we need to update the repositories once more and to install the MariaDB server package, execute the following command:

sudo apt install mariadb-server

During the installation, you will be prompted to enter your password. Choose a strong password and keep it secure.

After the installation is complete, start the MariaDB service using the following command:

sudo systemctl start mariadb

To improve the default security settings, MariaDB provides a security script. Run the script and follow the prompts to enhance your installation’s security:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Configure it like this:

- Set root password? [Y/n] y
- 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

Next, run the following queries to create a new database lavarels, the user lavarels, and the password your-strong-password. Be sure to change the password in the following query.

CREATE DATABASE laravels;
CREATE USER laravels@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'your-strong-password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON laravels.* TO laravels@localhost;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

After that, run the query below to ensure the user lavarels can access the database lavarels:

SHOW GRANTS FOR laravels@localhost;

Step 5. Installing Composer.

Now, it’s time to download the Composer installation script and verify its integrity. Execute the following commands:

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"

Now that we have the Composer installation script, we can move the executable file to a globally accessible location on our system. Run the following command:

sudo php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

To verify that Composer is successfully installed on your Debian system, run the following command:

composer --version

If the installation was successful, you will see the Composer version information displayed on the screen, indicating that Composer is ready for use.

Step 6. Creating a Laravel Project.

Now that everything is set up, it’s time to create your Laravel project. Run the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/{.cache,.config,newproject}
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/{.cache,.config,newproject}

Next, move to the /var/www/newproject/ directory and run the composer command below to create the first Laravel project. Your first Laravel project is stored at /var/www/newproject/ directory:

cd /var/www/newproject/
sudo -u www-data composer create-project laravel/laravel .

With the Laravel project created, next you will set up the database for your project via the .env configuration file. The .env file is used as the base configuration for your Laravel project:

nano .env

Change the APP_URL parameter with the local domain name of your Laravel project:

APP_URL=http://newproject.local

Now change the database configuration DB_CONNECTION to MySQL and change the details of DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD with your details MariaDB database and user.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravels
DB_USERNAME=laravels
DB_PASSWORD=ypur-strong-password

Save the file, then run the following command to migrate the database:

sudo -u www-data php artisan migrate

Step 7. Configuring Apache Virtual Host.

Now create the Apache2 virtual host configuration /etc/apache2/sites-available/laravel.conf:

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

Add the following file:

<VirtualHost *:80>

    ServerAdmin admin@newproject.local
    ServerName testapp.local
    DocumentRoot /var/www/newproject/public

    <Directory />
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/newproject>
            AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

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

</VirtualHost>

Save the file, then restart the apache2 service by executing the command below and applying the changes:

sudo a2ensite laravel.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 8. Accessing Laravel Web Interface.

Once successfully installed, open your web browser and access the Laravel web interface using the URL http://newproject.local. You will be redirected to the following page:

Step 9. Troubleshooting Tips.

• If you encounter any PHP extension-related issues, verify that the correct extensions are installed. Use php -m to check the enabled extensions.

• If Composer installation fails, double-check the PHP version and ensure that the necessary dependencies are installed.

• For database-related errors, review your database configurations in the .env file of your Laravel project.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Laravel. Thanks for using this tutorial to install Laravel PHP Framework on Debian 12 Bookworm. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Laravel website.