Contao is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in PHP. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Contao on Arch Linux.
Before starting, make sure you have the following prerequisites:
Contao is a web-based application, so it needs a web server to run. Apache is the most popular web server on the Internet, and it can be installed easily using the pacman package manager:
sudo pacman -S apache
Once the installation process is completed, start the Apache service and enable it to start at boot time using the following command:
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd
Check the Apache status and make sure it's running without any errors:
sudo systemctl status httpd
Contao is written in PHP, so we need to install PHP and some required extensions. To install PHP, run the following command:
sudo pacman -S php php-apache
Then, proceed to install the required PHP extensions:
sudo pacman -S php-gd php-imagick php-intl php-mbstring php-mysql php-yaml
Restart the Apache service to load the newly installed extensions:
sudo systemctl restart httpd
Contao stores its data in a database, so we need to install a database server. MariaDB is a popular open-source database server that can be installed using the following command:
sudo pacman -S mariadb
Once the installation process is completed, initialize the MariaDB database and secure it with the following command:
sudo mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo mysql_secure_installation
Create a new database and user for Contao:
sudo mysql -u root -p
MariaDB > CREATE DATABASE contao_db;
MariaDB > GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON contao_db.* TO 'contao_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';
MariaDB > FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB > EXIT;
Replace the "PASSWORD" with a strong password.
The latest version of Contao can be downloaded from the official website. To download and extract the Contao tarball, use the following command:
wget https://download.contao.org/4.9.3/zip
unzip zip
Move the extracted files to the Apache web server root directory:
sudo mv contao-* /srv/http/
Change the ownership and permissions of the Contao directory:
sudo chown -R http:http /srv/http/contao-*
sudo chmod -R 755 /srv/http/contao-*
Create a new virtual host configuration file for Contao:
sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/extra/contao.conf
Add the following configuration to the file:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot "/srv/http/contao-4.9.3"
ServerName contao.example.com
ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/contao_error_log"
CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/contao_access_log" common
</VirtualHost>
Save and close the file.
Now, enable the virtual host and restart the Apache service:
sudo ln -s /etc/httpd/conf/extra/contao.conf /etc/httpd/conf/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart httpd
Finally, open a web browser and navigate to the Contao installation page:
http://contao.example.com/install.php
Follow the installation wizard and enter the database details that you created earlier.
Once the installation is completed, remove the install.php file for security reasons:
sudo rm /srv/http/contao-4.9.3/install.php
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Contao on Arch Linux. Now, you can start building your web applications using Contao.
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
