How to create and host your own forum on Ubuntu.

Requirements

A web server With PHP Support. (In this tutorial I use Apache2)

SQL database. (In this tutorial i use Mysql and PhpMyadmin to configure Mysql)

If you already have Apache Php Mysql and Phpmyadmin installed then you are ready to go if not please follow these tutorials first (Lamp on ubuntu and Phpmyadmin)

Installation:

First we will need an empty database where our forum will store contents.

open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost/phpmyadmin and login to PhpMyadmin. For username enter “root” and for password enter (the password you selected at PhpMyAdmin installation)

Click on “Databases” and then under the “Create new Database” type a name for the database and click Create. you should get a message telling you that database has been created.

Now navigate to phpBB official website and download the latest version of phpBB, download the package with ending “tar.bz2”. When you download this with firefox you can find that file in your local folders /home/(your_account_name)/Downloads/.

We have to copy the phpbb package in apache default directory /var/www/ to do that open a terminal and type:

cd /home/(your_account_name)/Downloads/

sudo cp (the name of phpbb3 package .tar.bz2) /var/www/

ok lets unpack the package. type:

cd /var/www/

sudo tar -jxvf (the name of phpBB package including the ending tar.bz2)

We need to change the permissions of config.php file so the installaion can write on it. open a terminal and type

cd /var/www/phpBB3/

sudo chmod 777 store/ cache/ files/ images/avatars/upload/ config.php

Now open a browser and navigate to http://localhost/phpBB3

Now you will be able to see the phpbb3 installation page. Read the GPL and click on “Install” tab then click on “start install”

Now connect to database. use the followings

Database type : “MySQL”

Database server hostname or dsn: “localhost”

Database name: (the name you enter when you create the database with phpmyadmin)

Database username: “root”

Database password: (the password for mysql root user)

Now click “Proceed to next step”

Now create the administrator user. This user has full control and you can use this user in order to manage your forum.

skip everything else because you can come back later and change them if you wish.

last step you have to change the permissions on config.php. so open a terminal and type:

sudo chmod 644 /var/www/phpBB3/config.php

You can now access your own forum here: http://localhost/phpbb3

Congratulations now you have your own forum on your own server!!!

A video tutorial is comming soon stay tuned!