Ubuntu and LAMP are both awesome. Here are the quick and clean steps to set up LAMP on ubuntu (using 15.04 currently).

  1. Keep your system updated

     $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

  2. Install Apache

    To install Apache you must install the package apache2.

     $ sudo apt-get install apache2

    To check if Apache is working, simply head to localhost in the browser and it should show something.

  3. Install PHP

    For PHP 5, you will need the package php5 and also libapache2-mod-php5 in order to let it work with Apache:

     $ sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

    For PHP 7:

     $ sudo apt-get install php7.0 libapache2-mod-php7.0

    Then

     $ sudo service apache2 restart

    To check if PHP is working, write a simple script

     $ sudo bash -c "echo '<?php phpinfo();' > /var/www/html/phpinfo.php"

    to see your PHP information. Don’t forget to delete it afterwards.

  4. Install MySQL

    Install the mysql-server package and its PHP support. Choose a secure password when prompted.

    For PHP 5:

     $ sudo apt-get install mysql-server php5-mysqlnd

    For PHP 7:

     $ sudo apt-get install mysql-server php7.0-mysql

    Run mysql_secure_installation to secure MySQL.

     $ mysql_secure_installation

  5. Install phpMyAdmin (Optional)