Install phpMyAdmin on Raspberry Pi

The phpMyAdmin is an open-source administration tool that allows to manage MySQL and MariaDB database servers through a web browser. This tool enables to create, drop, alter databases, tables, columns and other objects, provides a way to manage users and privileges, allows to run SQL queries, import and export data using various formats, and offers other database management features. The phpMyAdmin is written using PHP programming language.

This tutorial explains how to install phpMyAdmin on Raspberry Pi.

Prepare environment

Before starting, make sure you have installed Apache HTTP server, MariaDB database server, and PHP.

Install phpMyAdmin

Download the latest version of phpMyAdmin from official website:

wget -O phpmyadmin.tar.gz https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/phpMyAdmin-latest-english.tar.gz

Create a new directory where phpMyAdmin will be stored and extract tar.gz file:

sudo mkdir /usr/share/phpmyadmin
sudo tar xf phpmyadmin.tar.gz --strip-components=1 -C /usr/share/phpmyadmin

The tar.gz file is no longer required, we can remove it:

rm -rf phpmyadmin.tar.gz

Create directory for phpMyAdmin temporary files and make www-data user as owner:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/phpmyadmin/tmp
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/phpmyadmin

The phpMyAdmin provides a sample configuration file. Create a copy of this file named config.inc.php:

sudo cp /usr/share/phpmyadmin/config.sample.inc.php /usr/share/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Using text editor open a configuration file:

sudo nano /usr/share/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

By default, phpMyAdmin uses cookie based authentication. Encrypted user password stored in a temporary cookie. This password is used to connect to database server. Find the following line in a file:

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '';

Provide 32 characters long random string. For example:

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'ZYdcrgJkEphDWgXAqU3vwGZAz44prJ4D';

This secret passphrase will be used for encryption. Also we need to specify temporary directory where phpMyAdmin can store cache. Add the following line to the end of a file:

$cfg['TempDir'] = '/var/lib/phpmyadmin/tmp';

Now we need to configure Apache. Create Apache configuration file for phpMyAdmin:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf

Once a file is opened, add the following content:

/etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf

Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin

<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Enable the phpMyAdmin site:

sudo a2enconf phpmyadmin.conf

Run the following command to restart Apache service:

sudo service apache2 restart

Testing phpMyAdmin

Get IP address of the Raspberry Pi:

hostname -I

Open a browser and go to address http://<IP_ADDRESS>/phpmyadmin, where <IP_ADDRESS> is IP address of Raspberry Pi. Provide username and password to login to database server.

The phpMyAdmin will show message that configuration storage is not configured. Click "Find out why".

Click "Create" to configure phpMyAdmin storage.

Make sure your user have required privileges to create a new database and tables.

Uninstall phpMyAdmin

Remove phpMyAdmin related directories:

sudo rm -rf /usr/share/phpmyadmin
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/phpmyadmin

Disable the phpMyAdmin site, remove Apache configuration file:

sudo a2disconf phpmyadmin.conf
sudo rm -rf /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apache2/conf/disabled_by_admin/phpmyadmin

Restart Apache service:

sudo service apache2 restart

We can also remove database which stores phpMyAdmin configuration. Connect to MariaDB Server:

mariadb -u root -p

Run the following SQL query to drop database:

DROP DATABASE phpmyadmin;

Exit interactive mode:

exit