As I want to be able to develop web based application I need to install the LAMP Stack. The term “LAMP” refers to a collection of applications that are required to run dynamic websites on a Linux system.

  • Linux : Operating System (in this case Ubuntu)
  • Apache : Web Server
  • MySql : Database
  • PHP (or PERL, Python etc) : Programming Language.

There are a number of methods for doing this but most use that I found required interaction at the command line which can be a bit daunting for new users (like me) and also turns the process into something of a Black Art. Coming from a Windows background I feel more comfortable with a graphical user interface (GUI). Having said that, when I initially installed the LAMP stack on my spare Hard Drive I had used the command line approach and all went well. Of course I nver wrote the commands down so when it came to installing LAMP on my dual boot setup and had to Google it again but this time found a method for using for Installing LAMP using the Synaptic Package Manager. That’s more like it – a GUI approach. The link will take you to a page that refers to Ubuntu 7.10 but take my word for it that it does work on 8.10 as well.

Now that I have LAMP installed, I can have a go at installing Joomla which is going to be my playform of choice for CMS-type development.

Again, there are a number of resources detailing the installation of Joomla but I chose to follow the one in the Ubuntu Community Documentation. Now I know that this is a command line process but as Joomla is not in the repository so it has to be installed manually.

Following the process led to a fully functional installation although I did miss the command to delete the installation directory post-install but once I sorted that it was fine, all I have to do now is to work out how to use Joomla itself.