How to install Nginx + php + MySQL on WSL Ubuntu 20.04- Windows 10

Nginx is an Apache alternative web server in the open source category to support several internet protocols such as HTTP (S), IMAP, and POP3. It can also be used as a reverse proxy with WebSocket support. The server offers a gunzip module, whereby compressed web pages can be unpacked before being sent to the browser.

Here we will learn the process of installing Linux+Nginx+PHP+MySQL stack on Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS WSL distro…

Steps to install LEMP server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS WSL

Enable WSL on your Windows 10

I am assuming that you already have enabled WSL 1 or WSl 2 on your Windows 10 system,  If not then go to the search box and type “Turn Windows feature on or off” after that select Windows Subsystem for Linux to enable it. For more information related to it, you can see our tutorial: how to install WSL on Windows.

Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS WSL distro

Previously, the long term versions of the Ubuntu available as WSL app on Microsoft store were 18.04 and 16.04 but now the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS focal fossa is the latest one, thus the same can be downloaded from the MS- App store. Here is the link.

Run Update and Upgrade commands

After the installation of the Ubuntu 20.04 and setting up the user name and password run the below-given system update and upgrade commands. This will make sure all the system available packages on this Linux are up to date and in their latest state.

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Install PHP on WSL

First let’s check which version of PHP is currently available on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to install, for that use the below command:

sudo apt-cache show php

Now according to your PHP version, use the below command. Note: replace the 7.4 with the version number available for your system.

sudo apt-get install php7.4-cli php7.4-fpm php7.4-curl php7.4-gd php7.4-mysql php7.4-mbstring zip unzip

Install Nginx web server on Ubuntu 20.04 Windows 10

Just like Apache, the Nginx is also available to install in the default repository of Ubuntu, therefore no need to add any third-party repo. Just use the APT package manager to download and install it on your system.

sudo apt install nginx

Start Nginx services

By default, the Nginx web server service will not be activated and we have to do that manually using the command. Thus run

sudo service nginx start

When Windows Firewall asks you to allow the webserver services to access through the public network, allow it.

Check the status

sudo service nginx status

Optional: Commands to stop and restart the Nginx web server services

sudo service nginx restart

sudo service nginx stop

Access Nginx through the browser

Open your system browser and type http://127.0.0.1 or http://localhost or http://your-system-ipaddress

Start PHP-fpm service

Start PHP-fpm to start with Nginx:

sudo service php7.4-fpm start

Configure PHP-fpm for Nginx on Windows 10 WSL

Open the php-fpm configuration file

sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

In the file find the PHP-fpm listening socket path:

listen =  127.0.0.1:9000

Change that to

listen= /var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock

If you are using some other version of PHP then replace the php7.4 with that version or manually navigate to the path to check the FPM socket file.

Now, open Nginx Default site configuration

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

In the default site configuration, to use PHP with Nginx, first, we have to add index.php in that…

Find the below line and add index.php to the list.

index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

# For example: 

index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

Now find the below lines and do editing as mentioned below:

#location ~ \.php$ {
# include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
#
# # With php-fpm (or other unix sockets):
# fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
# # With php-cgi (or other tcp sockets):
# fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
#}

Remove the # or uncomment the following lines which we have done here…

location ~ \.php$
{
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
#
# # With php-fpm (or other unix sockets):
fastcgi_pass unix: /var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
# # With php-cgi (or other tcp sockets):
# fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
}

After all the changes press CTRL+X and type Y and then press the Enter button to save the changes.

Restart Nginx and PHP-FPM services

sudo service nginx reload
sudo service php7.4-fpm restart

Step 9: Create a test PHP file

Create an index.php file

sudo touch /var/www/html/index.php

Open it:

sudo nano /var/www/html/index.php

And add the following lines in that ]

<?php
phpinfo();

Again press CTRL+X and type Y then press the enter button to save it.

Now, open the browser and type  http://localhost

Note: The root directory to save your project, so that you can call it using Nginx in the browser is just like Apache, i.e /var/www/

Finally, Install MySQL Server

The officially available version of MySQL version to install on Ubuntu 20.04 WSL is MySQL 8.0.

sudo apt install mysql-server

sudo service mysql start