How to install Laravel 5.5 + PHP 7.1 with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04?

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Laravel 5.5, PHP 7.1 and Ubuntu 16.04 are end of life. This guide installs the current Laravel with Apache on Ubuntu 24.04.

Before you start

• A VPS or dedicated server with a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12 or AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 installation, and root or sudo access.
• A domain or subdomain pointing to the server (an A record), if you want HTTPS.
• The system updated: apt update && apt upgrade or dnf upgrade.

Install Apache, MariaDB and PHP

Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12:

apt install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-gd php-intl
systemctl enable --now apache2 mariadb

AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 (choose a current PHP stream first):

dnf module reset php && dnf module enable php:8.3
dnf install httpd mariadb-server php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-xml php-mbstring php-gd php-intl php-opcache php-pecl-zip
systemctl enable --now httpd mariadb php-fpm

Secure MariaDB (set a root password or keep socket login, remove test data): mariadb-secure-installation.

Install Composer

apt install composer          # Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12
# or the official installer (any system):
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
rm composer-setup.php

Create a database

mariadb -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE laravel CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'laraveluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Strong-Password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON laravel.* TO 'laraveluser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Create the Laravel project

cd /var/www
composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app
cd example-app
cp .env.example .env    # if not created
php artisan key:generate

Set the database details in .env (DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD), then run php artisan migrate.

Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache    # apache or nginx on AlmaLinux/Rocky
chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

The web server's document root must be the project's public folder, never the project folder itself.

Note: Laravel 13 (the current version) needs PHP 8.3 or newer: Ubuntu 24.04 and AlmaLinux/Rocky 9 with the php:8.3 stream are fine. On Debian 12 (PHP 8.2) Composer installs Laravel 12 instead, which receives security fixes until February 2027.

Create the Apache site

Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf (Ubuntu/Debian) or /etc/httpd/conf.d/example.com.conf (AlmaLinux/Rocky):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example-app/public
    <Directory /var/www/example-app/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Ubuntu/Debian: a2ensite example.com && a2enmod rewrite && systemctl reload apache2. AlmaLinux/Rocky: apachectl configtest && systemctl reload httpd.

Add a free SSL certificate

apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache                     # Ubuntu / Debian
dnf install epel-release && dnf install certbot python3-certbot-apache   # AlmaLinux / Rocky
certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot installs a timer that renews the certificate automatically; test it with certbot renew --dry-run.

Note: On AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 SELinux is on. Let Apache/Nginx write where the application needs it, for example: semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/example-app/storage(/.*)?" && restorecon -R /var/www/example-app, and allow outgoing connections if the app calls APIs: setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1.