Setup instructions for creating a LAMP server that uses MariaDB 10 and PHP 5.6. Based on an Ubuntu 16.04 system on DigitalOcean.

LAMP-PHP5-6-setup.txt

# Initial Setup and install apache
apt-get update
apt-get -y install git curl vim

apt-get install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-fastcgi
a2enmod actions fastcgi rewrite
sudo service apache2 restart

# Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf to add these lines:
<Directory "/var/www/html">
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

sudo service apache2 restart

# Install MariaDB
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
debconf-set-selections <<< 'mariadb-server-10.0 mysql-server/root_password password ROOT_DB_PASSWORD'
debconf-set-selections <<< 'mariadb-server-10.0 mysql-server/root_password_again password ROOT_DB_PASSWORD'
apt-get install -y mariadb-server

# Set MariaDB root user password and persmissions
# change the password
mysql -u root -pROOT_DB_PASSWORD -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ROOT_DB_PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

# create a user for the web server so the application can connect
mysql -u root -pROOT_DB_PASSWORD -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'WEB_USER_NAME'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'NEW_PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

# create a user with external access for connection to database
# you may need to connect with an SSH key
# change to an IP address you're connecting from (wildcards if you like)
mysql -u root -pROOT_DB_PASSWORD -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'EXTERNAL_USER_NAME'@'IP_YOU_CONNECT_FROM' IDENTIFIED BY 'NEW_PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

# allowing external database connections
# Edit /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
# comment out the line that says:
bind-address = 127.0.0.1

# you may need to add a ufw rule also
sudo ufw allow from IP_YOU_CONNECT_FROM to any port 3306

# Restart MariaDB
sudo service mysql restart

# Install PHP 5.6
apt-get install python-software-properties
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
apt-get update
apt-get install -y php5.6
apt-get install -y php5.6-gd php5.6-mysql php5.6-mbstring php5.6-cli php5.6-curl php5.6-xml php5.6-json php5.6-cgi php-imagick php5.6-bz2 php5.6-zip php5.6-soap
a2enmod php5.6

# let the apache user own the web folders
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www

sudo service apache2 restart

# should all work now!