GNet Solutions » GNU/Linux Administration

This is a simple guide for setting up WordPress with nginx on Debian 10.

• Make sure the system is up to date:
  

  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
  

Install Nginx¶

• Install nginx:
  

  sudo apt install nginx
  

• Start and enable nginx at boot:
  

  sudo systemctl nginx enable
  sudo systemctl nginx start
  

Install PHP¶

• Install php-fpm and extensions:
  

  sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-gd php-getid3 php-mysql php7.3-cli php7.3-common php7.3-gd php7.3-json php7.3-mysql php7.3-opcache php7.3-readline
  

• Start and enable php-fpm:
  

  sudo systemctl enable php7.3-fpm
  sudo systemctl start php7.3-fpm
  

Install MariaDB¶

• Install MariaDB:
  

  sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client
  

• Secure the database server:
  

  sudo mysql_secure_installation
  

  • NOTE: I had an issue logging in as root, to workaround this:
    

    sudo systemctl stop mariadb
    sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking
    mysql -u root
    
    UPDATE mysql.user SET plugin = 'mysql_native_password' WHERE user = 'root' AND plugin = 'unix_socket';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    
    sudo kill -9 $(pgrep mysql)
    
    sudo systemctl start mariadb
    

Configure a new MySQL database¶

• Log into the MySQL console:
  

  mysql -h localhost -u root -p
  

  • Create the wordpressuser user with the SuperSecretPassword password and the wordpressdb database:
    

    CREATE USER 'wordpressuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'SuperSecretPassword';   
    CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS  `wordpressdb` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `wordpressdb`.* TO 'wordpressuser'@'localhost';
    flush privileges;
    exit
    

Install Wordpress¶

• Install git:
  

  sudo apt install git
  

• Download wordpress:
  

  cd /var/www
  sudo git clone -b 6.0-branch --depth=1 https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git
  

• Create the nginx config:
  

  sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wordpress.conf
  

  • And add the following:
    

    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  wordpress-example.com;
        root /var/www/wordpress;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
        client_max_body_size 122400m;
    
        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
        }
    
        error_page      500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root /usr/local/www/nginx-dist;
        }
    
        location ~ \.php$ {
            try_files $uri =404;
            fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.3-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_index index.php;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
            include fastcgi_params;
        }
    }
    

• Change the wordpress ownership:
  

  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/WordPress/
  

• Restart nginx:
  

  sudo systemctl nginx restart