How To Install Lighttpd on openSUSE

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Lighttpd on openSUSE. Lighttpd, pronounced “lighty,” is an open-source web server optimized for speed-critical environments while remaining standards-compliant, secure, and flexible. It is designed to handle a high volume of parallel connections with a low memory footprint, making it an ideal choice for high-performance websites.

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 the step-by-step installation of the Lighttpd web server on openSUSE.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: openSUSE.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• You will need access to the terminal to execute commands. openSUSE provides the Terminal application for this purpose. It can be found in your Applications menu.
• You’ll need an active internet connection to download Lighttpd and its dependencies.
• You’ll need administrative (root) access or a user account with sudo privileges.

Install Lighttpd on openSUSE

Step 1. Keeping your system up-to-date is crucial for security and performance. Begin by refreshing your package repository list to ensure you have access to the latest software versions.

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper update

Step 2. Installing Lighttpd on openSUSE.

With your system up-to-date, you can now install Lighttpd. The zypper package manager makes this process straightforward:

sudo zypper install lighttpd

After the installation completes, confirm that Lighttpd is installed correctly by checking its version:

lighttpd -v

This command should output the version of Lighttpd that you have installed, indicating a successful installation.

Step 3. Configuring Lighttpd.

Configuration is key to ensuring that your web server behaves as you intend. Start by opening the main configuration file with your preferred text editor:

sudo nano /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Within this file, you can adjust server modules, set your document root, and configure other essential settings. For instance, to set up a simple static website, ensure that the server.document-root directive points to the directory where your HTML files are located.

If you plan to host multiple websites on your server, consider setting up virtual hosting by defining separate blocks for each domain within the configuration file.

Step 4. Configuring PHP.

PHP 8 introduces optimizations and new features. Install it along with FastCGI to handle PHP processing:

sudo zypper install php8 php8-fastcgi

Confirm the installation by checking the PHP version:

php -v

To integrate PHP with Lighttpd, enable the FastCGI module and configure it to use PHP:

sudo nano /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf

Add or ensure the following configuration is present to use PHP through FastCGI:

fastcgi.server += ( ".php" =>
  (( 
     "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi",
     "socket" => "/tmp/php.socket"
  ))
)

Restart Lighttpd to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart lighttpd

Step 5. Firewall Configuration.

Ensure that firewalld is installed on your system. If it’s not installed, you can install it using the following command:

sudo zypper install firewalld

Start the firewalld service and enable it to start on boot:

sudo systemctl start firewalld
sudo systemctl enable firewalld

Firewall zones are predefined sets of rules that specify what traffic should be allowed based on the level of trust you have in the networks your computer is connected to. To check the active zones, use:

sudo firewall-cmd --get-active-zones

Lighttpd typically listens on port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS. To allow traffic to these ports, you’ll need to add the http and https services to your active zone:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https

After making changes to the firewall rules, you need to reload firewalld to apply them:

sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Step 6. Testing the Configuration.

To verify your setup, create a PHP info file:

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /srv/www/htdocs/info.php

Access this file from a web browser by navigating to http://your_server_ip/info.php. You should see the PHP information page, indicating a successful setup.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Lighttpd. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Lighttpd web server on your openSUSE system. For additional or useful information, we recommend you check the official Lighttpd website.