Installing VirtualBox + Vagrant + Laravel + PhpMyAdmin on Arch Linux (Homestead)

Installing VirtualBox 🚀#

First, let's install VirtualBox:

sudo pacman -S virtualbox

During installation, you'll see the following options:

1. virtualbox-host-dkms
2. virtualbox-host-modules-arch

If you don't know which option to choose:

• If you're using the Linux kernel, you should choose the 2nd option (virtualbox-host-modules-arch).
• If you're using a different kernel, you should choose the 1st option (virtualbox-host-dkms).

I'm continuing by selecting the 2nd option.

After installation is complete, before starting VirtualBox, let's enable the module:

sudo modprobe vboxdrv

Start VirtualBox once to check if there are any errors. If you get an error, you can get support by sharing the error message.

For the module to load automatically at every startup:

sudo nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf

Add vboxdrv to the file and save and exit (F3 -> Enter -> F2).

Finally, add your user to the vboxusers group:

sudo usermod -aG vboxusers YOUR_USERNAME

After restarting your computer, you can verify if the module is loaded with the following command:

sudo lsmod | grep vboxdrv

Installing Vagrant 🏗️#

To install Vagrant:

yay -S vagrant

If you want to install Vagrant plugins and plugin manager:

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest vagrant-share

Now, let's download the ready-made image provided by Vagrant:

vagrant box add laravel/homestead

When you see the message indicating it was added successfully, the virtual machine image will be created.

Installing Homestead 🏡#

Let's create a folder called www in your home directory and pull the Homestead files into it:

mkdir ~/www
cd ~/www
git clone https://github.com/laravel/homestead.git Homestead

To start Homestead:

cd ~/www/Homestead
bash init.sh

When you see the message "Homestead initialized!", it means it has been installed successfully.

Now we need to edit the Homestead.yaml file:

sudo nano ~/www/Homestead/Homestead.yaml

ip: "192.168.10.10"
memory: 2048
cpus: 2
provider: virtualbox

authorize: ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

keys:
  - ~/.ssh/id_rsa

folders:
  - map: ~/www
    to: /home/vagrant/www

sites:
  - map: laravel6.test
    to: /home/vagrant/www/laravel6/public

databases:
  - homestead

features:
  - mariadb: false
  - ohmyzsh: false
  - webdriver: false
# ports:
#     - send: 50000
#       to: 5000
#     - send: 7777
#       to: 777
#       protocol: udp

At the beginning of the file you'll see the ip: \"192.168.10.10\" address. To run our Laravel project through this IP, let's add an entry to our hosts file:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add this line to the file:

192.168.10.10 laravel6.test

Save and exit (F3 -> Enter -> F2).

Then let's start the virtual machine:

cd ~/www/Homestead
vagrant up

The first startup might take a while. If you get an error, you can leave a comment.

To connect:

vagrant ssh

Installing Laravel 🌐#

After connecting to the virtual machine via SSH, to install Laravel:

cd www
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel

When this process is completed, a folder named laravel will be created inside your www folder.

Installing PhpMyAdmin 🛠️#

Make sure you're connected via SSH and check that you're working in the www directory:

curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grrnikos/pma/master/pma.sh | sh

Let's add a new line to your hosts file to access PhpMyAdmin:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add this line:

192.168.10.10 phpmyadmin.test

Save and exit (F3 -> Enter -> F2).

Now let's edit our Homestead.yaml file and add a new site:

sites:
  - map: laravel6.test
    to: /home/vagrant/www/laravel6/public
  - map: phpmyadmin.test
    to: /home/vagrant/www/phpmyadmin

All settings are complete! 🚀 To access PhpMyAdmin:

http://phpmyadmin.test/

Username: homestead Password: secret