🛠️ Lesson 2: Setting Up Your Environment

What Is a LAMP Stack?

A LAMP stack is a set of open-source software that works together to serve dynamic web pages. Each letter stands for one layer:

Step 1: Verify Your Stack

Let's check whether each component is already installed. Open your terminal (Ubuntu or WSL) and run these commands one at a time:

Check Apache

apache2 -v

You should see something like:

Server version: Apache/2.4.x (Ubuntu)
Server built:   2024-xx-xx

Check PHP

php -v

PHP 8.x.x (cli) (built: ...)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.x.x, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.x.x, ...

Check MySQL

mysql --version

mysql  Ver 8.x.x for Linux on x86_64 (MySQL Community Server - GPL)

Check the PHP-MySQL Extension

php -m | grep -i mysql

mysqli
mysqlnd
pdo_mysql

The pdo_mysql extension is the one we'll use most in this course. If you see it listed, you're good.

Step 2: Install Anything Missing

First, update your package list:

sudo apt update

Install Apache (if missing)

sudo apt install apache2 -y

Install PHP and Common Extensions

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-common -y

This installs:

• php — The PHP language itself
• libapache2-mod-php — The Apache module that lets Apache process PHP files
• php-mysql — MySQL/PDO extensions for database access
• php-cli — Command-line PHP (for running scripts from the terminal)
• php-common — Common PHP modules

Install MySQL (if missing)

If you completed the MySQL Foundations course, you already have this. Otherwise:

sudo apt install mysql-server -y
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Start and Enable Services

# Start Apache
sudo service apache2 start

# Start MySQL
sudo service mysql start

# Verify both are running
sudo service apache2 status
sudo service mysql status

# Add to ~/.bashrc for auto-start (optional)
sudo service apache2 start 2>/dev/null
sudo service mysql start 2>/dev/null

Verify Apache Is Serving Pages

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://localhost

You should see the Apache2 Ubuntu Default Page — a page that says "It works!" This confirms Apache is running and serving files.

Step 3: The Apache Document Root

When Apache serves a web page, it looks for files in a specific directory called the document root. On Ubuntu, the default document root is:

/var/www/html

Any file you place in this directory becomes accessible via http://localhost/filename. This is where your PHP files need to live for Apache to serve them.

Understanding File Permissions

The /var/www/html directory is owned by root, so you'll need sudo to create files there — or you can change ownership to your user for development purposes:

# Option A: Use sudo for each file (safe but tedious)
sudo nano /var/www/html/test.php

# Option B: Change ownership for development (recommended for local dev)
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/html

💡 Note: Option B makes your life easier during development. On a production server, you'd keep stricter permissions — but for learning on your local machine, this is perfectly fine.

Verify PHP Is Connected to Apache

Apache needs to know how to handle .php files. This is usually configured automatically when you install libapache2-mod-php, but let's verify:

# Check if the PHP module is enabled
apache2ctl -M | grep php

 php8_module (shared)

If you see php8_module (or similar), Apache knows how to process PHP files. If not, enable it:

sudo a2enmod php8.3    # Replace 8.3 with your PHP version
sudo service apache2 restart

Step 4: Your First PHP File — phpinfo()

The classic first step with any PHP installation is creating a phpinfo() page. This built-in function displays everything about your PHP configuration — version, loaded extensions, server settings, and more.

Create the File

# Navigate to the document root
cd /var/www/html

# Create the file
nano info.php

Type this single line of PHP:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X in nano).

View It in Your Browser

Open your browser and go to:

http://localhost/info.php

You should see a large, detailed page showing your entire PHP configuration. This page is incredibly useful for debugging.

What to Look For

# When you're done inspecting, delete it on production servers:
rm /var/www/html/info.php

Step 5: Hello, PHP!

Now let's write a proper "Hello, World!" script that demonstrates PHP in action — mixing PHP with HTML, just like you'll do throughout this course.

Create the File

nano /var/www/html/hello.php

Write the Code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Hello PHP!</title>
    <style>
        body {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            max-width: 600px;
            margin: 50px auto;
            padding: 20px;
            background: #f8f9fa;
        }
        .card {
            background: white;
            border-radius: 8px;
            padding: 20px;
            margin: 15px 0;
            box-shadow: 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
        }
        h1 { color: #7B68EE; }
        code { background: #e9ecef; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 3px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>🐘 Hello, PHP!</h1>

    <div class="card">
        <h2>Server Information</h2>
        <p><strong>PHP Version:</strong> <?php echo phpversion(); ?></p>
        <p><strong>Server Software:</strong> <?php echo $_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE']; ?></p>
        <p><strong>Document Root:</strong> <?php echo $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']; ?></p>
    </div>

    <div class="card">
        <h2>Dynamic Content</h2>
        <p><strong>Current Date:</strong> <?php echo date('l, F j, Y'); ?></p>
        <p><strong>Current Time:</strong> <?php echo date('g:i:s A'); ?></p>
        <p><strong>Timezone:</strong> <?php echo date_default_timezone_get(); ?></p>
    </div>

    <div class="card">
        <h2>PHP Can Do Math</h2>
        <?php
            $a = 42;
            $b = 17;
            $sum = $a + $b;
            $product = $a * $b;
        ?>
        <p><code><?php echo $a; ?> + <?php echo $b; ?> = <?php echo $sum; ?></code></p>
        <p><code><?php echo $a; ?> × <?php echo $b; ?> = <?php echo $product; ?></code></p>
    </div>

    <div class="card">
        <h2>Congratulations! 🎉</h2>
        <p>If you can see this page with real data above (not raw PHP code), your
           LAMP stack is working correctly. PHP is processing this file on the server
           and sending HTML to your browser.</p>
        <p><strong>Try this:</strong> Right-click the page and select "View Page Source."
           Notice that there's no PHP code — only the HTML output. That's server-side
           processing in action!</p>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

View It

Navigate to http://localhost/hello.php in your browser. You should see a styled page with real, dynamic data — your PHP version, today's date, the current time, and math results.

Understanding What Happened

<!-- This is PHP embedded in HTML -->
<p>PHP Version: <?php echo phpversion(); ?></p>

<!-- The browser receives: -->
<p>PHP Version: 8.3.6</p>

Key observations:

• <?php ... ?> — The opening and closing PHP tags. Everything between them is PHP code.
• echo — Outputs text (sends it to the HTML).
• phpversion() — A built-in function that returns the PHP version string.
• $_SERVER — A superglobal array with server/request information (we'll explore these in Module 5).
• date() — Formats the current date/time. The letters in the format string control the output.
• $a = 42; — Variables in PHP start with $. We'll cover this properly in the next lesson.

Step 6: Set Up Your Course Project Folder

Throughout this course, we'll build small projects and exercises. Let's create a dedicated folder inside the document root:

# Create the course folder
mkdir -p /var/www/html/php-foundations

# Create subfolders for organization
mkdir -p /var/www/html/php-foundations/exercises
mkdir -p /var/www/html/php-foundations/projects

Your file structure will look like this:

/var/www/html/
├── index.html          ← Apache default page
├── info.php            ← phpinfo() (delete on production)
├── hello.php           ← Your first PHP file
└── php-foundations/    ← Course work goes here
    ├── exercises/      ← Lesson exercises
    └── projects/       ← Mini projects (like the CRUD app)

Test It

Create a quick index file for your course folder:

nano /var/www/html/php-foundations/index.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>PHP Foundations - Course Work</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>PHP Foundations — Course Work</h1>
    <p>Welcome! This folder contains exercises and projects
       from the PHP Foundations course.</p>
    <p>Server time: <?php echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); ?></p>
</body>
</html>

Visit http://localhost/php-foundations/ to confirm it works.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

"localhost" Shows Nothing or Refuses to Connect

sudo service apache2 start
# Then check status:
sudo service apache2 status

Browser Shows Raw PHP Code Instead of Output

sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php -y
sudo a2enmod php8.3   # Adjust version number
sudo service apache2 restart

phpinfo() Page Doesn't Show pdo_mysql

sudo apt install php-mysql -y
sudo service apache2 restart

"Permission Denied" When Creating Files

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/html

Port 80 Is Already in Use

# Find what's using port 80
sudo lsof -i :80

# If on WSL and Windows IIS is the issue:
# Open Windows Services (services.msc) and stop "World Wide Web Publishing Service"

MySQL Won't Start

# Try starting with verbose output
sudo service mysql start
# Check the error log
sudo cat /var/log/mysql/error.log | tail -20

# Common WSL fix — create the run directory
sudo mkdir -p /var/run/mysqld
sudo chown mysql:mysql /var/run/mysqld
sudo service mysql start

Knowledge Check

Summary

📋 Environment Checklist

Before moving on, make sure you can check off everything:

• ☐ Apache is running (http://localhost loads a page)
• ☐ PHP is installed (php -v shows version 8.x)
• ☐ PHP works through Apache (http://localhost/info.php shows the phpinfo page)
• ☐ MySQL is running (sudo service mysql status says active)
• ☐ PDO MySQL extension is loaded (visible in phpinfo under PDO drivers)
• ☐ http://localhost/hello.php displays dynamic content
• ☐ Course folder exists at /var/www/html/php-foundations/

🚀 What's Next?

Your environment is ready! In Lesson 3: PHP Syntax Basics, we'll dive into the language itself — variables, data types, echo vs print, comments, and PHP's type system. This is where the real coding begins!