Install and Configure Pydio on Ubuntu 18.04

5 min readNov 21, 2022

How do I install Install and Configure Pydio File Sharing Server on Ubuntu 18.04?. I want to setup a Pydio file sharing server on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS?. If you have such questions, then this article is for you.

Pydio is a Dropbox-like file sharing server that you can host in your Data Center, Cloud instance or a Personal computer running at home. Pydio provides features of modern file syncing services which enables you to save and share Documents, Pictures, Videos, Website data, e.t.c.

Files stored on Pydio server can be accessed from a web interface or native clients for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS. Follow the steps below to install and configure Pydio on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Step 1: Install and Configure the MariaDB / MySQL Database server

Pydio can run on MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL or SQLite databases. In this guide, we’ll work with MariaDB/MySQL.

sudo apt update

sudo apt install mariadb-server

First login to MySQL shell as root user:

$ sudo mysql -u root

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.

Your MariaDB connection id is 42

Server version: 10.1.48-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Ubuntu 18.04



Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.



Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.



MariaDB [(none)]>

We will create a database for each of these server components.

CREATE DATABASE pydio;

Create a database user and grant privileges for created databases.

CREATE USER 'pydio'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

GRANT ALL ON pydio.* TO 'pydio'@'localhost';

QUIT

Confirm access by Logging into the database as pydio user:

$ mysql -u pydio -p

Enter password: StrongPassword

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.

Your MariaDB connection id is 49

Server version: 10.1.48-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Ubuntu 18.04



Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.



Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.



MariaDB [(none)]> SHOW DATABASES;

+--------------------+

| Database           |

+--------------------+

| pydio              |

+--------------------+

4 rows in set (0.001 sec)



MariaDB [(none)]> QUIT

Bye

Step 2: Install PHP and required extensions

Install PHP and extensions required by Pydio using the command below:

sudo apt -y install php-cli php-fpm php-json php-pdo php-mysql php-zip php-gd php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath php-intl php-opcache

Step 3: Install Postfix SMTP Server

Install and configure Postfix send-only SMTP server on Ubuntu 18.04 using below guide:

Configure Postfix as a Send-Only SMTP Server on Ubuntu

Step 4: Install Apache Web Server

We’ll use Apache HTTP server to host Pydion on Ubuntu 18.04. Install it using the following command:

sudo apt -y install apache2 libapache2-mod-php

Configure PHP on below two files.

sudo vim /etc/php/*/apache2/php.ini

Set below parameters:

upload_max_filesize = 1G

post_max_size = 1G

output_buffering = Off

Do the same on /etc/php/*/cli/php.ini file:

$ sudo vim /etc/php/*/cli/php.ini

upload_max_filesize = 1G

post_max_size = 1G

output_buffering = Off

Enable the Apache rewrite module:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 5: Install and Configure Pydio File Sharing Server

Install apt-transport-https

sudo apt update

sudo apt -y install apt-transport-https

Configure the pydio repository:

echo "deb https://download.pydio.com/pub/linux/debian/ bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pydio.list

Import GPG key:

wget -qO - https://download.pydio.com/pub/linux/debian/key/pubkey | sudo apt-key add -

Update package list and install Pydio:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install pydio pydio-all php-xml

Proceed with the installation:

0 upgraded, 369 newly installed, 0 to remove and 37 not upgraded.

Need to get 244 MB of archives.

After this operation, 1121 MB of additional disk space will be used.

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

The installation will place Pydio Apache configuration file under /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/pydio.conf

Restart Apache after the installation.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 6: Access Pydio File Sharing Server Web Interface

Visit your Pydio File Sharing Server IP address/Hostname to finish the installation. The URL is http://[ServerName|IPAddress]/pydio

Confirm that all Checks return “OK” and click “CONTINUE TO PYDIO INSTALLATION”