setup-laravel8-apache2

Laravel 8 + PHP 7.4 + Apache2 Setup

Set up a Laravel 8 application with PHP 7.4 and Apache2 on Ubuntu 24.04. Provides the foundation for Datadog APM instrumentation (see laravel8-dd-tracer skill).

Prerequisites

• Docker (for Phase 1 local setup)
• An EC2 instance running Ubuntu 24.04 with SSH access (for Phase 2)

Instructions

The complete setup is documented in README.md across two phases:

Phase 1 — Local Docker Setup

# Build and run locally (from the references/ directory)
docker build -t travellist-laravel8:latest .
docker run -d --name travellist -p 8080:80 travellist-laravel8:latest

Phase 2 — EC2 Native Install

Install PHP 7.4, Apache2, Composer 2.2.24, and Laravel 8 on the EC2 instance. See README.md for the full SSH command sequence covering:

1. Install PHP 7.4, Apache2, and utilities
2. Install Composer 2.2.24 (required for PHP 7.4 compatibility)
3. Create the Laravel 8 project
4. Append phpinfo route
5. Set permissions
6. Configure Apache VirtualHost (use references/travellist-project.conf)
7. Verify the setup

Reference Files

• README.md — Complete phase-by-phase guide
• references/Dockerfile — Docker image for local development
• references/travellist-project.conf — Apache VirtualHost configuration
• references/routes-web.php — Laravel route snippet (phpinfo endpoint)

Validation

# Check PHP version
php -v  # -> PHP 7.4.x

# Check Laravel version
php /var/www/html/travellist/artisan --version  # -> Laravel Framework 8.x.x

# Check homepage returns 200
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://<EC2_PUBLIC_IP>  # -> 200

# Check phpinfo route
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://<EC2_PUBLIC_IP>/phpinfo  # -> 200

Troubleshooting

Homepage returns 500

Cause: Laravel storage directory permissions are incorrect. Fix: sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/travellist && sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/travellist/storage

Apache returns default page instead of Laravel

Cause: VirtualHost not enabled or default site still active. Fix: sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf && sudo a2ensite travellist-project.conf && sudo systemctl restart apache2

Composer install fails

Cause: Composer version too new for PHP 7.4. Fix: Use Composer 2.2.24: curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --version=2.2.24 --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer