MySQL MariaDB

Installing phpMyAdmin on Debian 10

phpMyAdmin is a web based tool for managing MySQL/MariaDB databases. In this article, I am going to show you how to install phpMyAdmin on Debian 10 Buster. So, let’s get started.

Updating APT Package Repository Cache:

First, update the APT package repository cache with the following command:

$ sudo apt update

The APT package repository cache should be updated.

Installing and Configuring MySQL/MariaDB:

Now, install MariaDB server and client packages from the official package repository of Debian 10 with the following command:

$ sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

To confirm the installation, press Y and then press <Enter>.

MariaDB should be installed.

Now, check whether mariadb service is running with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl status mariadb

As you can see, the mariadb service is running. It’s also enabled to automatically start on system boot.

If in any case, mariadb service is not running, then start the service with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl start mariadb

Now, run the following command to set a root password for MariaDB:

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Press <Enter>.

Now, press Y and then press <Enter>.

Now, type in your root password and press <Enter>.

Type in your root password again and press <Enter>.

Press Y and then press <Enter> to remove anonymous users.

If you don’t want to allow root login remotely, press Y. Otherwise, press N. Then, press <Enter>.

Now, press Y and press <Enter> to remove test database.

Now, press Y and then press <Enter> to reload the privilege table.

MariaDB should be configured.

Creating a New MySQL/MariaDB User for phpMyAdmin:

You can’t login to the latest version of MySQL/MariaDB database as root user without super user privileges. So, you can to create a non-root MySQL/MariaDB user and grant it required permissions to be able to use it from phpMyAdmin. It’s pretty easy to create a new user in MySQL/MariaDB.

First, login to MariDB shell with the following command:

$ sudo mysql -u root -p

Now, type in the MariaDB root password you’ve already set and press <Enter>.

You should be logged in.

Now, create a new user shovon (let’s say), set the password 123 for the user and grant all the privileges to the user with the following SQL statement:

GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'shovon'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '123';

For the changes to take effect, run the following SQL statement:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Now, exit out of the MariaDB shell as follows:

\q

Installing Apache Web Server, PHP and Required PHP Libraries:

Now, install Apache 2 web server, PHP and all the required PHP libraries with the following command:

$ sudo apt install apache2 php php-json php-mbstring php-zip
 php-gd php-xml php-curl php-mysql

Now, press Y and then press <Enter> to confirm the installation.

Apache 2 web server, PHP and all the required PHP libraries should be installed.

Downloading phpMyAdmin:

You can download phpMyAdmin from the official website of phpMyAdmin. Once the page loads, click on the Download button as marked in the screenshot below.

Your browser should prompt you to save the phpMyAdmin archive file. Select Save File and click on OK.

phpMyAdmin archive should be downloaded.

You can also copy the download link and use wget to download phpMyAdmin archive from the command line as follows:

$ wget https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpMyAdmin/4.9.0.1/
phpMyAdmin-4.9.0.1-all-languages.zip

Once the download is complete, navigate to the directory where phpMyAdmin archive is downloaded as follows.

$ cd ~/Downloads

As you can see, phpMyAdmin zip archive is here.

Now, extract the phpMyAdmin archive in the /opt directory with the following command:

$ sudo unzip phpMyAdmin-4.9.0.1-all-languages.zip -d /opt

phpMyAdmin archive should be extracted.

As you can see, a new directory is created in the /opt directory.

$ ls -lh /opt

For the sake of simplicity, rename the directory to just phpMyAdmin/ with the following command:

$ sudo mv -v /opt/phpMyAdmin-4.9.0.1-all-languages /opt/phpMyAdmin

The directory should be renamed.

Now, change the owner and group of the /opt/phpMyAdmin directory and all the contents of the directory to www-data.

$ sudo chown -Rfv www-data:www-data /opt/phpMyAdmin

The owner and group of the /opt/phpMyAdmin directory and contents of the directory should be changed to www-data.

Configuring Apache for phpMyAdmin:

Now, you have to configure Apache web server in order to use phpMyAdmin. I am going to configure phpMyAdmin on port 9000 in this article.

First, create a new site configuration file for phpMyAdmin with the following command:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/phpmyadmin.conf

Now, type in the following lines to the phpmyadmin.conf file.

<VirtualHost *:9000>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /opt/phpMyAdmin
 
<Directory /opt/phpMyAdmin>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride none
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error_phpmyadmin.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access_phpmyadmin.log combined
</VirtualHost>

The final configuration file should look as follows. Once you’re done, save the file by pressing <Ctrl> + X followed by Y and <Enter>.

Now, you have to tell Apache web server to listen to the port 9000.

To do that, edit the /etc/apache2/ports.conf configuration file with the following command:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Now, add the line “Listen 9000” as marked in the screenshot below. Once you’re done, save the configuration file by pressing <Ctrl> + X followed by Y and <Enter>.

Now, enable the phpMyAdmin site that we’ve just configured with the following command:

$ sudo a2ensite phpmyadmin.conf

Now, restart Apache web server with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Accessing phpMyAdmin:

Now, you should be able to access phpMyAdmin on port 9000.

From a browser, visit http://localhost:9000 and you should see the login page of phpMyAdmin.

If you want to access phpMyAdmin remotely, then replace localhost with the IP address of the Debian 10 machine where you’ve installed phpMyAdmin.

Now, type in the MySQL/MariaDB username and password that you’ve set up recently and click on Go.

You should be logged in. Now, you can use phpMyAdmin to manage your MySQL/MariaDB databases and tables.

So, that’s how you install phpMyAdmin on Debian 10 Buster. Thanks for reading this article.

About the author

Shahriar Shovon

Freelancer & Linux System Administrator. Also loves Web API development with Node.js and JavaScript. I was born in Bangladesh. I am currently studying Electronics and Communication Engineering at Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), one of the demanding public engineering universities of Bangladesh.