In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing LimeSurvey on your Debian operating system. LimeSurvey is an open-source surveying software solution designed to be used for conducting online surveys, creating assessments and providing easy-to-use analysis tools for data collection. LimeSurvey provides a simple interface which can be used to design and distribute surveys while providing detailed analysis of collected data.
Before installing LimeSurvey, it’s good practice to ensure that your Debian system is up-to-date. To do this, run the below command in your terminal or SSH session:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
To get LimeSurvey up and running on your Debian system, you need to install Apache and PHP along with MariaDB (MySQL drop-in replacement) as the database server. MariaDB should offer all the functionality you need for hosting LimeSurvey.
First, install Apache web server by running the following command:
sudo apt install apache2
Next, install PHP along with several commonly used extensions:
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-mbstring php-xml php-mysql php-gd
Once PHP and Apache are installed, you can check if PHP is functioning well by creating a PHP test file. Run the following command:
sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php
In the editor, type the following PHP code:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
Save the file and exit the editor. After that, navigate to the URL http://<server-ip>/info.php in a browser (replace
To complete this step, install MariaDB:
sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After the installation is complete, start the service and enable it at boot time:
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Download the latest version of LimeSurvey from the official website. Select the Stable Release button and download the zip file to your Debian server.
Once downloaded, navigate to the directory where the file is saved and extract it using the unzip command:
sudo unzip LimeSurvey_X.X.X+XXXXXX.zip -d /var/www/html/
You may need to replace X.X.X+XXXXXX with your downloaded LimeSurvey version.
After the archive is extracted, change the ownership of the file directory to the www-data user so that Apache web server can access LimeSurvey files:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/
Before proceeding with the installation wizard, you need to create a database and user for LimeSurvey. This allows LimeSurvey to communicate with your MariaDB server and store survey data.
Start by logging into your MySQL/MariaDB shell:
sudo mysql
Next, create a new database named limesurvey_db:
CREATE DATABASE limesurvey_db;
After that, create a new user for LimeSurvey and grant that user permissions to the database. In the example below, we have named the user limesurvey_user and assigned the password your_password.
CREATE USER 'limesurvey_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON limesurvey_db.* TO 'limesurvey_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;
Make sure to replace your_password with a strong and secure password.
You have now completed all the required steps to install LimeSurvey.
To access the LimeSurvey installation wizard, navigate to the following URL in your web browser:
http://<server-ip>/limesurvey
Replace <server-ip> with your server IP address.
You should now see the LimeSurvey installation wizard welcome screen. Select your preferred language and click Next.
In the next screen, LimeSurvey installer will check if all necessary PHP extensions are available. If everything is okay, you can move to the next step.
On the database setup page, enter the database details that you created in Step 4. Example values are:
Click Test database settings to verify connection. Once done, click Next.
In the next step, LimeSurvey will ask you to provide the following basic details:
After providing these details, click on the Install LimeSurvey button, which will initiate the installation process, configure the database, and create the required tables.
Once installation is complete, you will be redirected to the LimeSurvey login page. Use the admin username and password set in the last step to log in.
Congratulations! You have installed LimeSurvey on your Debian system, and you are now ready to launch your surveys.
We have successfully explained how to install LimeSurvey on your Debian system. You can now create, distribute and analyze surveys. Additionally, you can customize LimeSurvey by selecting templates or creating your templates.
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