My old guide on how to install an old version of Lampp on an old release of Ubuntu is by far my most popular blog post - and my second most visited page on all of my websites with over 10,000 hits since March 2008 - and around 30 hits daily.

I thought it was time to update it to the newest versions of Lampp and Ubuntu, and to re-write the post to make it easier to understand. I've also changed the title to reflect the new name of the software on the site - XAMPP for Linux avoids the confusion of having different names for the same app.

Contents

1. Download XAMPP for Linux
2. Install XAMPP
3. Start up XAMPP
4. Run XAMPP When You Boot
5. Secure XAMPP
6. Fix FTP From LAN
7. Completing

Download XAMPP for Linux

Make sure that you click on the latest release on the XAMPP releases page, which should be the expanded folder at the top of the list. When you download it, make sure you save it to your desktop - or at least move it there after you've downloaded it. (This guide assumes it's on your desktop, so the commands won't work if it's in a different folder.)

Install XAMPP

Paste the following into terminal:

sudo tar xvfz Desktop/xampp-linux-1.7.tar.gz -C /opt

Remember to replace xampp-linux-1.7.tar.gz with the file name of the package you downloaded.

You will be prompted with your root password - this is just so Ubuntu can copy the files over to the opt folder.

Start up XAMPP

Paste the following into terminal:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

This line will be followed with:

Starting XAMPP for Linux 1.7...
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5)...
XAMPP: Starting MySQL...
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD...
XAMPP for Linux started.

You should now be able to visit http://localhost/ and be greeted with the XAMPP welcome screen.

Run XAMPP When You Boot

This step is optional - it's only to make using XAMPP easier if you are going to be using it a lot, so you don't have to start it manually. Add the line below just after ### END INIT INFO

/opt/lampp/lampp start

Your rc.local file should now look something like this:

When you're done, hit save and close gedit.

Secure XAMPP

Paste the following into terminal to secure your XAMPP installation:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp security

Follow the straightforward steps. You'll be asked to set passwords for stuff essentially.

Fix FTP From LAN

Connecting via FTP to XAMPP over my LAN took absolutely ages to connect, hanging before it had even processed my credentials. So, after looking on numerous forums, I found that it was trying to do a reverse lookup on the client's IP address, which for LAN is stupid. The way to disable it is to get on gedit and change the proftpd.conf file. So, get on terminal and paste:

sudo gedit /opt/lampp/etc/proftpd.conf

Now, add the following lines anywhere in the file:

IdentLookups off
UseReverseDNS off

Completing

That's it! If you've followed the steps above, your XAMPP for Linux installation is complete. You can either connect to the server via FTP (use your Ubuntu username and password) or by putting your files directly into /opt/lampp/htdocs.