How to Try PHP7 in a LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 14.04

sudo echo "deb http://repos.zend.com/zend-server/early-access/php7/repos ubuntu/" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt-get update

Install Apache by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install apache2

Hit enter to when it asks “Do you want to continue?” during the install.

After installing, check to see if Apache is running by running the command:

sudo service apache2 status

 You can also verify if Apache is  working by opening your browser and going to http://youripaddress

If you do not know your IP address,  run the following command:

ifconfig

In our case, we would put http://172.20.6.154 in our browser’s address bar and get the following page:

Installing MariaDB on Ubuntu 14.04

Install MariaDB with the following command:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server

Hit enter when it asks “Do you want to continue?” during the install.

During the install, it will prompt you to enter a MariaDB root password. Set any password that you would like. It should be a strong password.

After you enter your MariaDB root password, you will need to re-enter it.

Continue with the MariaDB Security installation with the following command:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Note: You will be prompted with a series of questions. Just type N for the change root password question and Y for yes on all of the rest, see the screen shot below:

Verify that MariaDB is running with the following command:

sudo service mysql status

Installing PHP7 on Ubuntu 14.04

We can now go ahead and install either the beta or the nightly release for PHP7. I would suggest the nightly release as it has fixed more bugs than the beta.

To install the PHP7 Nightly Build:

sudo apt-get install php7-nightly

To install the PHP7 Beta 1:

sudo apt-get install php7-beta1

Hit Enter when it asks “Do you want to continue?” during the install.

You will also get a warning similar to the following

WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  php7-nightly
Install these packages without verification? [y/N]

Type Y and then hit Enter to continue.

Getting PHP7 to work with Apache

We need to move the modules and libraries of PHP7 into the appropriate Apache directories with the following commands:

sudo cp /usr/local/php7/libphp7.so /usr/lib/apache2/modules/

sudo cp /usr/local/php7/php7.load /etc/apache2/mods-available/

We now need to edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and add the following lines to the bottom of the file.

<FilesMatch \.php$>
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

Once added run the following command to enable the PHP mpm module and switch to mpm_prefork.

sudo a2dismod mpm_event && a2enmod mpm_prefork && a2enmod php7

Since we made changes, we need to restart Apache so that the changes take effect:

sudo service apache2 restart

Testing PHP 7 on Ubuntu 14.04

To test out PHP7, we need to create a PHP file a named info.php in /var/www/html/  using your favorite editor and insert the following lines of code.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Test out this  page in your browser with the following hyperlink with your IP address:

http://youripaddress/info.php

Check the PHP version at the top of the page it should be 7.0 or higher.

It’s a good idea to remove your info.php as hackers can set up attacks as they know more information about your server. Remove it with the following command:

sudo rm /var/www/html/info.php

Congratulations! You have just installed PHP7 with LAMP on your Ubuntu 14.04 Server. Thank you for following this How-To, and please check back for more updates or learn more about our reliable dedicated servers and dedicated server hosting solutions.