Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

Downloading WordPress on Linux Ubuntu: A Beginner's Guide

If you're looking to create your own website or blog, WordPress is a popular choice due to its user-friendly interface and range of customization options. However, before you can start building, you'll need to download and install the software. In this article, we'll walk you through the process of downloading WordPress on Linux Ubuntu.

Step 1: Installing LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

Before you can download WordPress, you'll need to make sure that your Linux Ubuntu system has the LAMP stack installed. This stands for Linux (your operating system), Apache (the web server), MySQL (the database management system), and PHP (the programming language that WordPress is built with).

To install LAMP, open your terminal window and enter the following commands:

bash sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2 mysql-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

Step 2: Downloading WordPress

Once your LAMP stack is installed, you can proceed to download WordPress. Visit the official WordPress website and click the "Download WordPress" button on the homepage.

Alternatively, you can use the following command in your terminal window to download WordPress directly:

bash wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

This will download the latest version of WordPress as a compressed file.

Step 3: Extracting WordPress

After the download is complete, navigate to the directory where the file was downloaded (typically your Downloads folder). Use the following command to extract the contents of the file:

bash tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz

This will create a new directory called "wordpress" containing all the files you need to run WordPress.

Step 4: Moving WordPress to Your Web Server

To make your WordPress site accessible via the web, you'll need to move the "wordpress" directory to your web server's document root. This is typically located in the "/var/www/html" directory.

Use the following command to move the "wordpress" directory to the document root:

bash sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/

Step 5: Creating a MySQL Database

Before you can start using WordPress, you'll need to create a database to store all of your website's content. Use the following command to log in to MySQL:

bash mysql -u root -p

Enter your MySQL root password when prompted.

Once you've logged in, create a new database with the following command:

sql CREATE DATABASE mydatabase;

Be sure to replace "mydatabase" with a name of your choice.

Step 6: Configuring WordPress

Finally, you'll need to configure WordPress to use your new MySQL database. Navigate to your WordPress directory by entering the following command:

bash cd /var/www/html/wordpress

Rename the "wp-config-sample.php" file to "wp-config.php" using the following command:

bash mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Open the "wp-config.php" file in a text editor and add the following lines of code to the database settings section:

php define('DB_NAME', 'mydatabase'); define('DB_USER', 'root'); define('DB_PASSWORD', 'YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE'); define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Replace "mydatabase" with the name of your MySQL database, and "YOURPASSWORDHERE" with your MySQL root password.

Save the changes and exit the text editor.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've now successfully downloaded and installed WordPress on Linux Ubuntu. From here, you can access your WordPress site by navigating to your server's IP address in your web browser. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup process and start building your website or blog.