Installing WordPress on Lighttpd Web Server

Installing WordPress on Lighttpd Web Server is quite easy – the major difference is the presence of pdo directory and db.php file in the root of FTP folder. We already talked about lighttpd Web Server Software and it is assumable that, why we want to go for installing WordPress on lighttpd Web Server Software – it is light. We are assuming that, you are not an novice user, you already know how to install any PHP-MySQL software on Apache2. For this guide, it is impossible to give a full step by step guide to a novice.

Installing WordPress on Lighttpd Web Server : Preliminary Steps

We are assuming that, you are using Debian OS as Server OS, as being Deb based, the command will work on any Deb based system including Ubuntu without much modification. The hardest part of Installing WordPress on Lighttpd Web Server are usually two in number :

1. Managing the PHP and MySQL part
2. Managing Pretty URLs

Lighttpd does not use a .htaccess file like also in the case of nginx Web Server – the odd makes both ngnix and Lighttpd a bit scary but if you can overcome this fear, basically the advantages for long term are more with both Web Server Softwares. You can read the guide Shifting WordPress From Apache to nginx if you are interested about nginx. For lighthttpd, WordPress has no official instruction yet.

Installing WordPress on Lighttpd Web Server : Commands and Steps

Spin up a server with the amount of RAM you want, 512 MB is usually enough, 1 GB is more than enough. Practically you’ll need to run two commands to install all the necessary components for installing WordPress on lighthttpd :

You can enable the fastcgi module and php configuration with the commands :

You can configure lighttpd in this way as well, these enables vHost and mod rewrite too:

Reload :

To test create the file /var/www/index.php with either a blank PHP file (PHP info file) or you can download our moded version of PHP file which gives a nice output from here. Test whether our mod rewrite is working or not :

In case vHost is used, remove the # or comment out the mod_rewrite line and then add mod_fastcgi after mod_rewrite line and add

at the end of the file. Save it. Create a new file :

sudo vi /etc/lighttpd/domain.com.conf and then add the following code:

Running with SQLite

 

Understand that, we need to install PDO For WordPress if we want to use ligthttpd in the way lighthttpd is written. Unfortunately, the older versions of WordPress had PDO, now it is absent, so you’ll need to install a Plugin named PDO (SQLite) For WordPress from WordPress Plugin repository. Basically you’ll need an extra directory named pdo and a file named db.php extra plus you need to modify wp-config.php (normally get wordpress latest and move all files and folders from wordpress named folder to one level up) :

cp wp-config.sample.php wp-config.php

vi wp-config.php

and change the database type :

Also you need to edit /wp-content/pdo/wp_install.php file and the $message to add . $random_password at the end of the line. Then you can normally install WordPress.

Running with MySQL Plus Normal Process of Installing

We assume that most will prefer MySQL. Reload lighthttpd and edit it (needed only if vHost is enabled) :

Keep in mind that, /var/www/ is the normally set public folder, you must create domain-name folder in case you are using vHost – the corresponding folders will be absent :

It is obvious that, you’ll want PHPMyAdmin to install. Do not forget to run :

in your phpmyadmin installation location. Else you’ll get 404 errors. Now install WordPress like you do in Apache2.