If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward content management platform to manage your websites or blogs and 100% free, you’ll find Bolt to be useful. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Bolt CMS on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP support. This post covers installing the latest version of Bolt, which at the time of writing was  3.4.2 To get started with installing Bolt CMS, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx

Bolt CMS requires a webserver to function and the second most popular web server in use today after Apache2 is Nginx. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below: Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

Install MariaDB

Bolt CMS also requires a database server to function. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below. After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots. After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server. When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter Set root password? [Y/n]: Y New password: Enter password Re-enter new password: Repeat password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

Bolt CMS is based on PHP. so you’ll need to install it. To install PHP-FPM and related modules run the commands below After installing PHP-FPM, run the commands below to open the PHP-FPM default file. Then change the following lines below in the file and save.

Create Bolt Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create the Bolt database. Run the commands below to log on to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above. Then create a database called bolt Create a database user called boltuser with a new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and exit.

Download Bolt’s Latest Release

Next, visit the Bolt site and download the latest version. After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file into the Apache2 root directory. Install Composer for Bolt Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Bolt to function.

Configure Bolt Database Connection Settings

Next, run the commands below to create a Bolt database connection file. Then add the lines below into the config.yml and save.

Configure Bolt

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Bolt. This file will control how users access Bolt content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called bolt Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location. Save the file and exit.

Enable the Bolt Site

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below. Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the Bolt setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully. Then follow the on-screen instructions until you’ve successfully installed Bolt. After creating the first user, you should be logged into the admin dashboard. Enjoy! Login to the admin dashboard