phpMyAdmin | PHP | Tech Notes

Note regarding PHP 5.1.6 and phpMyAdmin.

Use this version of phpMyAdmin for PHP 5.1.6 installs. But lord help you if you ever have to deal with PHP 5.1.6 nowadays.

phpMyAdmin-2.11.11.3-english

Installing phpMyAdmin.

Go into the /usr/share directory:

cd /usr/share

Grab a compressed archive of phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz from an official phpMyAdmin source site:

sudo curl -O -L https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpMyAdmin/4.0.10.11/phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz

Next, decompress the archive like this:

sudo tar -xf phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz

And delete the remnant phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gzarchive:

sudo rm phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz

Move and rename the phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages phpmyadmindirectory to phpmyadmin:

sudo mv phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages phpmyadmin

And copy the sample config.sample.inc.php into a working config named config.inc.php like this:

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

Now adjust the ownership and group of the directory to rootlike this:

sudo chown root:root -R /usr/share/phpmyadmin

Adding the `blowfish_secret` stuff to the config.

The blowfish_secret value is needed for cookie based authentication in phpMyAdmin. To set the value first run this command to generate the blowfish_secret value:

openssl rand -base64 30

Then open up the phpMyAdmin config file:

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

And set $cfg['blowfish_secret'] to whatever that openssl rand value is.

Tweaking the phpMyAdmin install.

Disable storage and version check warnings.

Disable “The phpMyAdmin configuration storage is not completely configured…” (PmaNoRelation_DisableWarning) message and the default version check VersionCheck by opening up the phpMyAdmin config file:

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

And add these configuration items to the bottom of the file:

// Added 2012-04-17 to disable PMA warning & version check.
$cfg['PmaNoRelation_DisableWarning'] = true;
$cfg['VersionCheck'] = false;

Disable “Content-Security-Policy” headers.

And disable “Content-Security-Policy” headers so Safari in macOS can properly load images by opening up Header.class.php:

sudo nano /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/Header.class.php

Search for if (! defined('TESTSUITE')) { in public function sendHttpHeaders() and change that line:

if (! defined('TESTSUITE')) {

To be disabled like this:

if (FALSE && ! defined('TESTSUITE')) {

Get rid of the PDF export functionality.

If you have no use for the PDF export functionality of phpMyAdmin—and who really needs to export MySQL data as a PDF anyway?—get rid of the PDF export since it uses up lots of RAM and can crash the server; learned that the hard way:

sudo rm -f /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/plugins/export/PMA_ExportPdf.class.php
sudo rm -f /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/plugins/export/ExportPdf.class.php

Setting an Apache config for phpMyAdmin in Ubuntu 12.04.

Now let’s create our own Apache phpmyadmin.conf like this:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf.d/phpmyadmin.conf

Here is an example of a basic, secure Apache config for phpmyadmin. Note the Allow from exceptions; feel free to add any IP address you wish to bypass that secure setup to that list:

<Directory "/usr/share/phpmyadmin">

  AuthName "phpMyAdmin Access"
  AuthType Basic
  require valid-user
  AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/htpasswd_phpmyadmin

  Order Deny,Allow
  Deny from all
  Allow from 127.0.0.1 ::1
  Allow from localhost
  Allow from 192.168
  Allow from 10
  Satisfy Any

</Directory>

Setting an Apache config for phpMyAdmin in Ubuntu 14.04.

Now let’s create our own Apache phpmyadmin.conf like this:

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

Here is an example of a basic, secure Apache config for phpmyadmin. Note the Allow from exceptions; feel free to add any IP address you wish to bypass that secure setup to that list:

<Directory "/usr/share/phpmyadmin">

  AuthName "phpMyAdmin Access"
  AuthType Basic
  require valid-user
  AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/htpasswd_phpmyadmin

  Require all denied
  Require ip 127.0.0.1 ::1
  Require host localhost
  Require ip 192.168
  Require ip 10

</Directory>

With that done, be sure to enable the AWStats Apache module like this:

sudo a2enconf phpmyadmin

And if you are using the secure setup, be sure to setup the /etc/apache2/htpasswd_phpmyadmin that config refers to like this:

sudo htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/htpasswd_phpmyadmin phpmyadmin

That command will initiate the process to create an htpasswdfor a user named phpmyadmin in the file named htpasswd_phpmyadmin. When prompted, enter whatever password you would like to use.

Upgrading an existing phpMyAdmin install.

Go into the /usr/share directory:

cd /usr/share

Grab a compressed archive of phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz from an official phpMyAdmin source site:

sudo curl -O -L https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpMyAdmin/4.0.10.11/phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz

Next, decompress the archive like this:

sudo tar -xf phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz

And delete the remnant phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gzarchive:

sudo rm phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages.tar.gz

Copy the current config.inc.php from phpmyadmin to sample phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages like this:

sudo cp /usr/share/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php /usr/share/phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages/config.inc.php

And delete the existing phpmyadmin directory:

sudo rm -rf /usr/share/phpmyadmin/

Move and rename the phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages phpmyadmindirectory to phpmyadmin:

sudo mv phpMyAdmin-4.0.10.11-all-languages phpmyadmin

Now adjust the ownership and group of the directory to rootlike this:

sudo chown root:root -R /usr/share/phpmyadmin

Dealing with `mysqli` extension errors.

If you attempt to load phpMyAdmin and get the following mysqli extension error:

phpMyAdmin – Error

The mysqli extension is missing. Please check your PHP configuration. See our documentation for more information.

Just install the PHP MySQL extension like this:

sudo aptitude install php5-mysql

And restart Apache like this:

sudo service apache2 restart

Now phpMyAdmin should load without issue.

Dealing with `mcrypt` extension errors.

If you are able to login to phpMyAdmin but get the following mcrypt extension error:

The mcrypt extension is missing. Please check your PHP configuration.

Just install the PHP MCrypt extension like this:

sudo aptitude install php5-mcrypt

Then enable the module like this:

sudo php5enmod mcrypt