Installing XAMPP on Manjaro to Use WordPress | A Lightweight Linux Distribution Based on Arch Linux

In this post, I’ll show you how to install XAMPP on Manjaro to set up a WordPress environment on your local network.
You can use this for learning or testing WordPress.

At first, I thought about installing Apache, PHP 8.5, and MariaDB myself, but since the process is different from Ubuntu-based systems, I gave up on that idea.
Installing XAMPP makes it easy to run a web server.

Here is the Manjaro summary page

1. Installing XAMPP

Search for XAMPP in "Software Center" and install it.

2. Start the server

Launch XAMPP Manager from "Show Applications."

Click "Go To Application."

Click "Start Servers."

In your web browser, go to

http://localhost

in your web browser. If the following screen appears, the web server is running.

Please check the "Manage Servers" tab to confirm that all servers are running.

In my case, I had installed Apache and MariaDB myself, and since they were running, they conflicted with XAMPP, preventing XAMPP’s MySQL and Apache from starting. Once I stopped the Apache and MariaDB I had installed myself
, XAMPP’s MySQL and Apache started.

3. Create a database for WordPress

http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

Open the URL above in your web browser.

Create a new database for WordPress under the "Databases" tab.

Here, set the database name to "wordpress" and selectutf8mb4_general_ci.

utf8mb4 This is the setting recommended by WordPress.

Click the "Create" button.

4. Installing WordPress

Please download WordPress from here.

For now, download it to your Downloads folder and right-click to extract it.

Open the folder that was created after extraction. You should see a folder named "WordPress." Right-click inside that folder and select "Open Console Here."

In the console, copy the contents to the XAMPP root directory: /opt/lampp/htdocs.

sudo cp -r wordpress /opt/lampp/htdocs

Then, change the owner of the XAMPP root directory.

sudo chown -R daemon:daemon /opt/lampp/htdocs/

Set write permissions for the WordPress folder.

sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress

Open the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost/wordpress/

When this screen appears, click "Let's get started."

For "Database Name," enter "wordpress" (the one you just created); for "Username," enter "root"; leave the password field blank; and proceed without changing any other settings.

Since there is no wp-config.php file, this screen will appear.

sudo cp /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress/wp-configur-sample.php /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress/wp-config.php

So, create a wp-config.php file from the sample. Then, open the wp-config.php file in a text editor.

sudo gedit /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress/wp-config.php

Select all the text highlighted on the web page, paste it into wp-config.php, and save the file.

Also, to prevent being prompted to use FTP when updating WordPress,

sudo gedit /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress/wp-config.php

Edit the wp-config.php file.

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

Add the following to the end of wp-config.php.

Return to http://localhost/wordpress/ and click "Continue with Installation."

When this screen appears, enter your site name, username, and password, then proceed.

Once you’ve logged into WordPress, set the site URL to your Manjaro PC’s private IP address, add HTTP to the firewall to allow access, and you’ll be able to view WordPress pages or log in and post from other PCs on your local network.

5. Configure XAMPP to start automatically when Manjaro boots

As it stands, XAMPP will stop if you reboot Manjaro.

Therefore, create a systemd service file for XAMPP.

sudo gedit /etc/systemd/system/xampp.service

In this file,

[Unit]
Description=XAMPP
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/lampp/lampp start
ExecStop=/opt/lampp/lampp stop
Type=forking
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Paste the above text into this file and save it.

Change the file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/xampp.service

Configure systemd to recognize the service you created so that it runs at startup.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable xampp.service

Start XAMPP.

sudo systemctl start xampp.service

6. Configuring access from other PCs on the local network

Log in to WordPress, go to "Settings" > "General," and change the WordPress URL to your private IP address as shown below.

Then, launch the firewall from the "Apps" view.

Add HTTP to "Rules" to allow HTTP traffic.

Summary

To set up a local WordPress environment by installing XAMPP on Manjaro, first install XAMPP via "Add/Remove Software" and start the server.
Create a database for WordPress using phpMyAdmin.
Next, download the WordPress ZIP file and extract it. Copy
the extracted WordPress folder to the XAMPP root directory, then change the ownership and write permissions.
Access localhost/wordpress in a web browser, enter the database name and username, and proceed.
Since there is no `wp-config.php` file, copy the highlighted text to overwrite `wp-config.php`.
Then, set the WordPress site name, username, and password, and create the site.
Configure XAMPP to start automatically when Manjaro boots up.

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