How to install Joomla 3.8 with LAMP (Apache 2, MariaDB 10.2, PHP 7.0) on Ubuntu 16.04

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Joomla 6.1 on Ubuntu 24.04 (PHP 8.3, MariaDB 10.11)

Joomla 3.8, PHP 7.0, MariaDB 10.2 and Ubuntu 16.04 are all end of life. This guide installs Joomla 6 on Ubuntu 24.04 with Apache, MariaDB and PHP 8.3.

The current versions are Joomla 6.1 (needs PHP 8.3 or newer and MariaDB 10.4+/MySQL 8.0.13+) and Joomla 5.4 (PHP 8.1 or newer). New sites should use Joomla 6.

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.

Create a database

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

Download and unpack Joomla

Download the latest full package (zip) from downloads.joomla.org to the server, then:

mkdir -p /var/www/joomla && cd /var/www/joomla
unzip ~/Joomla_*-Stable-Full_Package.zip
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/joomla

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/joomla
    <Directory /var/www/joomla>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

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

Run the web installer

Open http://example.com and follow the installer: site name, administrator account, and database joomla with user joomlauser.

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/joomla/storage(/.*)?" && restorecon -R /var/www/joomla, and allow outgoing connections if the app calls APIs: setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1.