How to Install Joomla on Your Breeze

By Admin · Mar 2, 2026 · Updated Apr 24, 2026 · 29 views · 3 min read

How to Install Joomla on Your Breeze

Joomla is a robust, open-source content management system used by millions of websites worldwide. It strikes a balance between the simplicity of WordPress and the flexibility of Drupal, making it ideal for community portals, corporate websites, and e-commerce stores. This guide walks you through installing Joomla on your Breeze instance running Ubuntu.

Prerequisites

A Breeze instance running Ubuntu 22.04 or later
Root or sudo access via SSH
A LAMP stack (Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP 8.1+) installed
A registered domain name pointed to your Breeze IP address

Step 1 — Install Required PHP Extensions

Joomla requires several PHP extensions beyond a base installation. Install them all at once:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php-xml php-mbstring php-zip php-gd php-curl php-intl php-mysql

Restart Apache to load the new modules:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 2 — Create a Database

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE joomla_db DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'joomla_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON joomla_db.* TO 'joomla_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 3 — Download and Extract Joomla

Download the latest stable Joomla release and extract it into the web root:

cd /tmp
wget https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla5/Joomla_5-latest-Stable-Full_Package.zip
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/joomla
sudo unzip Joomla_5-latest-Stable-Full_Package.zip -d /var/www/joomla
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/joomla
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/joomla

Step 4 — Configure Apache Virtual Host

Create a virtual host configuration for your Joomla site:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/joomla.conf

Add the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/joomla

    <Directory /var/www/joomla>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/joomla_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/joomla_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and the rewrite module:

sudo a2ensite joomla.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5 — Run the Web Installer

Open your browser and navigate to http://yourdomain.com. The Joomla installation wizard will guide you through:

Setting your site name and admin account credentials
Entering the database connection details you created earlier
Choosing whether to install sample data
Reviewing the pre-installation check for any missing requirements

Once the installation completes, delete the installation directory as prompted for security:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/joomla/installation

Step 6 — Secure Your Installation

Install an SSL certificate using Certbot to encrypt traffic:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com

Set correct file permissions and disable directory listing to harden your Joomla site. You can now access the admin panel at https://yourdomain.com/administrator.

How to Install Joomla on Your Breeze