This guide walks you through installing LimeSurvey on Ubuntu 20.04 by assembling a minimal LAMP stack, hardening PHP, creating a dedicated database user, downloading the latest release, setting correct ownerships, configuring an Apache virtual host, and launching the web installer. It starts with updating the system and installing only the essential packages—Apache2, PHP 7.4, MariaDB server, and unzip—and then tweaks memory limits and execution time to avoid install hangs. After pulling the ZIP archive into /var/www/html, the instructions rename it, grant www‑data ownership, set directory and file permissions, and enable a new virtual host that points to the survey folder before reloading Apache. Finally, you open a browser to the local hostname, run through the wizard, and if all steps were followed correctly you’ll see the “LimeSurvey – Welcome!” screen; the article also highlights common pitfalls such as using an unsupported PHP version or forgetting write permissions on cache directories.

Install LimeSurvey on Ubuntu 20.04

If you’re running Ubuntu 20.04 and want to turn your server into a survey‑making machine, this quick guide shows how to get LimeSurvey up and running in under an hour—no fancy scripts or Docker needed.

The Roadmap

• Make sure Apache, PHP, and MariaDB are on board
• Pull the latest LimeSurvey release
• Give it the right permissions
• Kick off the web installer

That’s it. Let’s dive into the details.

1. Prep your system

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Keeps everything fresh and prevents weird dependency conflicts later on.

Now install the LAMP stack, but cherry‑pick only what LimeSurvey actually needs:

sudo apt install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql mariadb-server unzip -y

Apache for web serving, PHP (the version bundled with 20.04 is fine), MariaDB as the database engine, and unzip to unpack the distro.

2. Harden PHP a bit

Open /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini (or whatever your PHP‑version folder shows) and tweak these two lines:

memory_limit = 256M
max_execution_time = 300

If you leave memory_limit too low, the installer will choke halfway through when it tries to load all its components. Setting a generous timeout protects against slow network pulls.

3. Create a database and user

Start MariaDB’s interactive shell:

sudo mysql -u root

Inside MySQL:

CREATE DATABASE limesurvey CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON limesurvey.* TO 'limesurvey_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123!';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

A real‑world tweak: If you’re running multiple sites on the same DB server, give each one its own user to avoid accidental data leaks.

4. Grab LimeSurvey

cd /tmp && wget https://github.com/LimeSurvey/limereleases/releases/download/v5.5.1/limesurvey-5.5.1.zip
unzip limesurvey-5.5.1.zip -d /var/www/html/

Rename the extracted folder to something friendly:

sudo mv /var/www/html/limesurvey-5.5.1 /var/www/html/limesurvey

5. Permissions matter

LimeSurvey writes logs and cache files, so it needs write access to a few directories:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/limesurvey/
sudo find /var/www/html/limesurvey/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/html/limesurvey/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

If you skip this, the installer will complain about “cannot write to…”.

6. Tell Apache to serve it

Create a virtual host file:

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

Paste:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName limetest.local
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/limesurvey
    <Directory /var/www/html/limesurvey>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and reload Apache:

sudo a2ensite limesurvey.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Add 127.0.0.1 limetest.local to /etc/hosts if you’re testing locally.

7. Run the web installer

Open your browser and go to http://limetest.local. The LimeSurvey wizard will guide you through:

• Choosing the language
• Entering the database credentials you created earlier
• Setting up an admin account

If everything went smoothly, you’ll be greeted by the familiar “LimeSurvey – Welcome!” screen.

Gotchas & What I’ve Seen

• Wrong PHP version: If you accidentally install PHP 8 on a machine still running older extensions, LimeSurvey will complain about missing functions. Stick with the Ubuntu‑provided PHP 7.4 unless you know what you’re doing.
• File permissions: A common pitfall is forgetting that Apache runs as www-data. Without that write permission in /cache and /tmp, installation stalls mid‑step.
• Database name collision: Reusing an existing database can overwrite data—always double‑check the DB name before creating it.

That’s all there is to it. Grab a cup of coffee, hit “Install,” and you’ll have a fully functional survey platform in no time. If you run into hiccups (permissions, PHP errors, etc.), just ping me here or drop a comment—happy to help debug the weirdest quirks.