The guide walks through installing CyberPanel on a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 machine, stressing that root privileges, a clean install, and an active internet connection are needed before any steps begin. It starts by updating the system and pulling helper tools, then removes any existing Apache service so OpenLiteSpeed can bind to port 80 without conflict. The official script is fetched via curl or wget, executed, and it automatically downloads OpenLiteSpeed, sets up MariaDB and a chosen PHP 8.1 version while prompting the user to accept the license and choose admin credentials. After installation you verify that ports 80 and 443 are listening, test the login page in a browser, harden access with UFW, and consult the troubleshooting table for common hiccups before diving into domain management and SSL configuration.

How to Install CyberPanel on Ubuntu 20.04

If you’re after a quick‑start web stack that feels like cPanel but keeps the Linux feel, CyberPanel is the go‑to. It bundles OpenLiteSpeed, MariaDB and PHP behind one admin console – all for free.

Practical prerequisites

• You need root or sudo privileges.
• A clean 20.04 install (or a system that you don’t mind wiping the Apache stack from).
• An active internet connection; CyberPanel pulls its own dependencies.

I’ve seen this happen after someone installs Ubuntu, flips on Apache for a test site and then tries to spin up CyberPanel. The installer will complain about port 80 being in use unless you stop that rogue instance first.

Step 1 – Update the system and grab helper tools

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install wget curl -y

CyberPanel’s script will pull a bunch of packages. If your package lists are stale, you’ll hit “unmet dependency” errors.

Step 2 – Take any pre‑existing web server out of the picture

If Apache is installed, it will claim port 80 and block CyberPanel’s OpenLiteSpeed.

sudo systemctl stop apache2
sudo systemctl disable apache2

You can double‑check with ss -tuln | grep :80. If nothing shows up, you’re good to go.

Step 3 – Run the official installer script

curl -s https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh | sh

Or if you prefer wget:

wget -O install.sh https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh && bash install.sh

The script does several things behind the scenes: it pulls the latest OpenLiteSpeed release, installs MariaDB and PHP‑8.1 (you’ll get a prompt to choose which PHP version you want), then configures everything for you.

Step 4 – Accept the license and set admin credentials

During installation you’ll see:

Do you accept the terms of the licence? [y/N] y
Enter CyberPanel admin password:
Confirm CyberPanel admin password:

Pick something memorable but strong. The script will also ask if you want to enable PHP‑FPM or use mod_php; I usually go with FPM for better performance.

Step 5 – Quick sanity checks

• Verify the server is listening on port 80 and 443:

ss -tuln | grep ':80\|:443'

• Open a browser to https://your‑server-ip/ – you should see the CyberPanel login page. If you hit a “connection refused” error, check that your firewall isn’t blocking those ports.

Troubleshooting common hiccups

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Installer hangs at “Downloading OpenLiteSpeed…”	Slow internet or DNS issues	Retry after a few minutes or try curl -L with a different mirror.
MariaDB fails to start	Incomplete dependency installation	Run sudo apt install mysql-server manually before rerunning the script.
CyberPanel login page is blank	JavaScript blocked by browser extensions	Disable ad blockers, clear cache.

If you hit a wall, drop a note in the CyberPanel forums; they’re surprisingly responsive.

Optional: Harden with UFW

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable

Now your server only opens the two ports you actually need for web traffic. No more accidental SSH exposures.

That’s all. Once CyberPanel is up, you can start adding domains, setting up databases and even configuring SSL with Let’s Encrypt right from the dashboard.