Wordpress installation in Raspberry Pi using Nginx

We will be continuing from were we left off. Disclaimer: You can use apache if you want. Apache is easier to setup compared to Nginx.

Keywords used in the guide:

• Raspberry Pi
• NGINX server
• WordPress
• MySQL
• PHP

Step 1: Update the Raspberry Pi

First, make sure your Raspberry Pi is up-to-date:

sudo apt update 
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install NGINX

NGINX will serve as your web server.

1. Install NGINX:
   

   sudo apt install nginx -y
   

2. Start and enable NGINX:
   

   sudo systemctl start nginx
   sudo systemctl enable nginx
   

3. Verify NGINX is running:
   

   sudo systemctl status nginx
   

4. Check in a browser by typing your Raspberry Pi's IP address (e.g., http://192.168.x.x).

Step 3: Install MySQL (MariaDB)

WordPress needs a database, so we will install MariaDB.

1. Install MariaDB server:
   

   sudo apt install mariadb-server -y
   

2. Secure the installation:
   

   sudo mysql_secure_installation
   

   Follow the prompts to secure your database (set root password, remove anonymous users, disable root login remotely, etc.).

3. Log in to MariaDB:
   

   sudo mysql -u root -p
   

4. Create a database for WordPress:
   

   CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
   CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   EXIT;
   

Step 4: Install PHP

PHP will be used to process dynamic content for WordPress.

1. Install PHP and necessary extensions:
   

   sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-xml php-mbstring -y
   

Step 5: Configure NGINX to Use PHP

1. Create an NGINX server block for WordPress:
   

   sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress
   

2. Add the following configuration:
   

   server {
       listen 80;
       server_name _;
       root /var/www/wordpress;
   
       index index.php index.html index.htm;
   
       location / {
           try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
       }
   
       location ~ \.php$ {
           include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
           fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
       }
   
       location ~ /\.ht {
           deny all;
       }
   }
   

3. Enable the configuration:
   

   sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
   sudo rm -r /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
   

4. Test and restart NGINX:
   

   sudo nginx -t
   sudo systemctl restart nginx
   

Step 6: Download and Configure WordPress

1. Install wget and unzip (if not installed):
   

   sudo apt install wget unzip -y
   

2. Download WordPress:
   

   cd /var/www
   sudo wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
   sudo unzip latest.zip
   sudo mv wordpress /var/www/
   

3. Set correct permissions:
   

   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/wordpress
   sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/wordpress
   

4. Configure WordPress to connect to your database:
   

   cd /var/www/wordpress
   sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
   sudo nano wp-config.php
   

   Update the database settings in wp-config.php:
   

   define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress' );
   define( 'DB_USER', 'wpuser' );
   define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password' );
   define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
   

Step 7: Complete WordPress Installation

1. Open your web browser and navigate to http://your_domain_or_IP.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the WordPress installation.

After these steps, your Raspberry Pi should be hosting a fully functional WordPress site using NGINX, PHP, and MariaDB.

In the next blog, we will be hosting the site to public using a secure tunnel. Stay tuned for that....!