Step-by-Step Guide to Install phpMyAdmin on WSL Ubuntu 22.04

This guide will walk you through installing phpMyAdmin on your WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) running Ubuntu 22.04. However, before we dive into phpMyAdmin, we'll need to ensure we have a functioning LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) set up.

phpMyAdmin is a tool that provides a user-friendly interface for managing and administering MySQL databases. So the prerequisites are:

Prerequisites:

• WSL2 inside Windows and running Ubuntu 22.04
• Apache (or Nginx) web server
• MySQL/MariaDB
• PHP with required modules (for PHP processing)

Check if Apache or NGINX or mysql is already installed or not

• Apache

dpkg -l | grep apache2

• NGINX

dpkg -l | grep nginx

• mysql

mysql -v

1. Update your system:

Begin by updating your package lists to ensure you have the latest information:

sudo apt update

2a. Install Apache web-server (if not already installed):

Install the Apache web-server using the following command:

sudo apt install apache2

2b. Verify Apache Installation:

Once installed, verify that Apache is up and running:

sudo systemctl status apache2

If Apache is running correctly, the output should show its status as active

In case systemctl malfunctions (which can sometimes happen in WSL), you can start Apache using the service command:

sudo service apache2 start

3. Access the Apache Test Page:

Now, let's test if Apache is running by opening a web browser and navigating to:

http://localhost

You should see the default Apache Ubuntu page. This confirms that Apache is installed and functioning successfully.

4. Configure Apache to Start on Launch (WSL-specific):

Since systemctl might not always work as expected on WSL, we'll recommend adding a configuration line to ensure Apache automatically starts when your WSL instance launches.

Here's how to edit your .bashrc file and add the line:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following line at the end of the file:

sudo service apache2 start

Save the changes and exit the editor.

5. Check if mysql is available and password is set:

1. Check if mysql is Installed

Run the following command:

mysql -v

If mysql is installed, this command will display the version information. Move to STEP 6

• If it is not installed, proceed to the next step to install it.

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2. Install MySQL (if not installed)

Run these commands to install MySQL:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-server

After installation, ensure the MySQL service is running:

sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl enable mysql

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3. Check if MySQL Requires a Password

Try logging in as the root user:

sudo mysql -u root

• If it works without prompting for a password, this means, no password is set for the root user

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4. Set a Password for the MySQL Root User

If you want to set a password for the root user:

a. Log in to MySQL as root:

sudo mysql -u root

b. Set the password for the root user:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'your_new_password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Replace your_new_password with password.

c. Test the new password:

Exit MySQL:

EXIT;

Log in again with the new password:

mysql -u root -p

You will be prompted to enter the password. If the login succeeds, the password is set correctly.

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Demonstration

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6. Install phpMyAdmin:

Use the following command to install phpMyAdmin:

sudo apt install phpmyadmin

During the installation, you'll encounter prompts for:

• Web server selection: Choose apache2 by pressing SPACE, then TAB, and finally ENTER.

• Database configuration: Select Yes and press ENTER.

• MySQL root user password: Enter the password for your MySQL root user.

• phpMyAdmin application password: Choose and confirm a password for the phpMyAdmin application itself.

• Check if mysql is running

  sudo systemctl status mysql
  

  

  If MySQL is running correctly, the output should show its status as active.

6. Enable Required PHP Extensions:

Ensure all required PHP extensions are enabled. You might need to install and enable extensions like mbstring if not already active:

sudo apt install php-mbstring php-zip php-gd php-json php-curl
sudo phpenmod mbstring

7. Configure Apache for phpMyAdmin:

In some cases, additional configuration might be required for Apache to recognize phpMyAdmin. Here's how to set it up:

Create a symbolic link of phpMyAdmin's Apache configuration file to the conf-enabled directory:

sudo ln -s /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/phpmyadmin.conf

It provide better security

or

sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/html/phpmyadmin

It is simple but not fully secure

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Restart Apache to apply the changes:

sudo service apache2 restart

8. Access phpMyAdmin:

Finally, open a web browser and access phpMyAdmin using your WSL localhost followed by /phpmyadmin:

http://localhost/phpmyadmin

If you encounter issues

If you encounter error like this, where the code is print as text.

• Make sure the PHP module is installed and enabled:

  sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php
  

• Enable the PHP module:

  sudo a2enmod php
  

• Restart Apache

  sudo systemctl restart apache2
  

Additional Notes:

• Ensure that your MySQL service is running. You can start it with:

  sudo service mysql start
  

• If you encounter issues with phpMyAdmin not being found, ensure that the symbolic link was created correctly and that phpMyAdmin is installed in the expected directory.