How_to_Install_Laravel_on_Ubuntu
                     STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
How to Install Laravel
on Ubuntu
Set up PHP, Composer and a fresh Laravel project on Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04, and
run it in your browser.
The installation flow at a glance
What you will need: an Ubuntu machine with sudo access, an internet connection and about
15 minutes.
Introduction
Laravel is one of the most popular open-source PHP frameworks for building web applications. It
gives you routing, authentication, database migrations, queues and a clean MVC structure out
of the box. Ubuntu is a great place to run it, because the PHP ecosystem is well supported and
almost everything you need is one apt command away.
This guide walks through the full process: preparing the system, installing PHP and the required
extensions, installing Composer, creating a Laravel project and starting the development
server.
Prerequisites
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS (other recent versions work the same way)
• A user account with sudo privileges
• PHP 8.2 or higher. Laravel 12 needs at least PHP 8.2; Ubuntu 24.04 ships PHP 8.3 by default
• A terminal (press Ctrl + Alt + T)
Tip: The terminal screenshots in this guide are illustrative. Version numbers and package names on
your machine may differ slightly.
Step 1: Update your system
Always start by refreshing the package index and upgrading existing packages. This avoids
dependency conflicts later.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Figure 1: Updating Ubuntu packages
Step 2: Install PHP and required extensions
Laravel needs PHP plus a handful of extensions. Install them all in one go, together with unzip,
curl and git, which Composer uses to download packages.
sudo apt install -y php php-cli php-mbstring php-xml \
  php-curl php-zip php-sqlite3 php-mysql unzip curl git
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Confirm that PHP is installed and check its version:
php -v
Figure 2: Installing PHP and verifying the version
Why these extensions?
Extension Purpose
php-mbstring Multibyte string handling (required)
php-xml XML and DOM support (required)
php-curl HTTP requests, used by many packages
php-zip Lets Composer unpack archives faster
php-sqlite3 Default database in new Laravel projects
php-mysql Needed if you use MySQL or MariaDB
If your PHP is older than 8.2 (for example on Ubuntu 22.04, which ships PHP 8.1), add the Ondřej
Surý PPA first:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
then run sudo apt update and install php8.3 with the extensions above (for example php8.3-cli
php8.3-mbstring).
Step 3: Install Composer
Composer is the dependency manager for PHP, and Laravel is installed through it. Download
and run the official installer:
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
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Move Composer into your PATH so you can run it from anywhere, then check it works:
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
composer --version
Figure 3: Installing Composer globally
Security note: For production or shared machines, verify the installer checksum using the
instructions on getcomposer.org/download before running it.
Step 4: Create a new Laravel project
Navigate to the folder where you keep your projects and create the app. Replace example-app
with your own project name.
cd ~
composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app
cd example-app
Composer downloads the framework and its dependencies, then generates your application key
automatically.
Figure 4: Creating the project with Composer
How to Install Laravel on Ubuntu Page 4
Alternative: the Laravel installer
If you prefer the laravel new command, install the installer globally and add Composer's bin
folder to your PATH:
composer global require laravel/installer
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.config/composer/vendor/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
laravel new example-app
On some systems Composer's global folder is ~/.composer/vendor/bin instead. Run composer
global config bin-dir --absolute to see the exact path.
Step 5: Run the development server
From inside the project folder, start Laravel's built-in server:
php artisan serve
Figure 5: The development server is running
Open http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser. You should see the Laravel welcome page.
Figure 6: The Laravel welcome page (illustration)
How to Install Laravel on Ubuntu Page 5
Press Ctrl + C in the terminal to stop the server.
Step 6: Configure your database (optional)
New Laravel projects use SQLite by default, so you can run migrations straight away:
php artisan migrate
To use MySQL or MariaDB instead, install the server (sudo apt install mysql-server), create
a database and user, then edit the .env file in your project root:
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_app
DB_USERNAME=laravel_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_password
Run php artisan migrate again to create the tables.
Step 7: Install front-end assets (optional)
Laravel uses Vite to compile CSS and JavaScript. Install Node.js and npm, then build or watch
your assets:
sudo apt install -y nodejs npm
npm install
npm run dev
The version of Node.js in Ubuntu's default repositories can be old. If npm install complains about
the Node version, install a current LTS release from nodejs.org or with a version manager such as
nvm.
Troubleshooting
“Your requirements could not be resolved” during install
Your PHP version or a missing extension is the usual cause. Run php -v and compare it with
the framework requirement, then install any extension named in the error.
Permission denied on storage or bootstrap/cache
Give your user write access: chmod -R ug+rw storage bootstrap/cache. On a web server,
make the web user (for example www-data) the group owner.
“Port 8000 is already in use”
Run on another port: php artisan serve --port=8080.
“composer: command not found”
Check that /usr/local/bin/composer exists and that /usr/local/bin is in your PATH.
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Conclusion
You now have PHP, Composer and a working Laravel project on Ubuntu. From here, explore
routes/web.php to add your first page, create a controller with php artisan
make:controller, and read the official documentation at laravel.com/docs. When you are
ready to go live, deploy behind Nginx or Apache with PHP-FPM rather than php artisan serve,
which is meant for local development only.
Quick command reference
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y php php-cli php-mbstring php-xml php-curl php-zip \
  php-sqlite3 php-mysql unzip curl git
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app
cd example-app && php artisan serve
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