How to Install Nginx on LinuxMint 18 / LinuxMint 17

Nginx is a free, open-source, high-performance, lightweight HTTP web server for those who do not need the bulk and extra services that Apache may offer and want more performance.

This tutorial shows you how to install Nginx on Linux Mint 18 and LinuxMint 17.

Install Nginx

Both LinuxMint (Ubuntu) and Nginx.org offer Nginx packages for Linux Mint. You can install Nginx either from Ubuntu base repository or Nginx Official repository.

Nginx package available in Nginx official repository will always be the latest version when compared to the version available in Ubuntu repository.

Here, we will see both options to install Nginx on Linux Mint. You can choose either on the of the option to install Ngnix.

Base Repository

To install Nginx from the base repository, you can simply use the apt-get command to install it.

sudo apt-get install nginx

Nginx Repository

Add Nginx public key into the system.

wget http://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
sudo apt-key add nginx_signing.key

Add Nginx repository by using the following commands.

### LinuxMint 18 ###

echo "deb http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ xenial nginx" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list
echo "deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ xenial nginx" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

### LinuxMint 17 ###

echo "deb http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ trusty nginx" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list
echo "deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ trusty nginx" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

Update repository index.

sudo apt-get update

Install Nginx package using the apt-get command.

sudo apt-get install nginx

Control Nginx Service

Once installed, start the Nginix by using the following command.

### LinuxMint 18 ### 

sudo systemctl start nginx

### LinuxMint 17 ### 

sudo service nginx start

Verify Nginx

Open a web browser and visit

You should see the following page saying Welcome to nginx!. This page confirms you that the Nginx is successfully installed on the server.

Important Notes

The location of the default document root and configuration files depends on the source you used to the Nginx package.

Base Repository

If you have installed Nginx from Base repository, then the directory structure will look like below.

/etc/nginx/
|-- conf.d
|-- fastcgi_params
|-- koi-utf
|-- koi-win
|-- mime.types
|-- naxsi_core.rules
|-- naxsi.rules
|-- naxsi-ui.conf.1.4.1
|-- nginx.conf
|-- proxy_params
|-- scgi_params
|-- sites-available
| `-- default
|-- sites-enabled
| `-- default -> /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
|-- uwsgi_params
`-- win-utf

The default configuration file is /etc/nginx/sites-available/default , ,and you can place the virtual host configuration files under /etc/nginx/sites-available and then you can link those to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled directory.

Nginx Repository

If you have installed Nginx from the official repository, then the directory structure will look like below.

/etc/nginx/
├── conf.d
│   └── default.conf
├── fastcgi_params
├── koi-utf
├── koi-win
├── mime.types
├── modules -> /usr/lib/nginx/modules
├── nginx.conf
├── scgi_params
├── uwsgi_params
└── win-utf

The default configuration file is /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf and you can place the virtual host configuration files under /etc/nginx/conf.d/ directory.

Summary

Installation Source	Important Locations	LinuxMint 18	LinuxMint 17
OS Repository	Document Root	/var/www/html/	/usr/share/nginx/html
	Main Configuration File	/etc/nginx/nginx.conf	/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
	Default Configuration File	/etc/nginx/sites-available/default	/etc/nginx/sites-available/default
	Additional Config Files	/etc/nginx/sites-available	/etc/nginx/sites-available
Nginx Repository	Document Root	/usr/share/nginx/html	/usr/share/nginx/html
	Main Configuration File	/etc/nginx/nginx.conf	/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
	Default Configuration File	/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf	/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
	Additional Config Files	/etc/nginx/conf.d/	/etc/nginx/conf.d/

Create Virtual Host

When Nginx process the request, it looks for the server directive in the configuration file. You can add multiple server directives to define multiple virtual servers. We will now configure a virtaul host for the following information.

Server Name: www.itzgeek.local
Document Root: /usr/share/nginx/html/www.itzgeek.local

Create a virtual host configuration file /etc/nginx/conf.d/www.itzgeek.local.conf.

Note: You would need to create a configuration file according to the source of Nginx package.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/www.itzgeek.local.conf

The minimal configuration will look like below.

# Virtual Host #

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.itzgeek.local;

# Document Root #
    location / {
          root /usr/share/nginx/html/www.itzgeek.local;
          index index.html index.htm;
    }
# Logs #
  
   access_log /var/log/nginx/www.itzgeek.local.access.log main;

# Error Handler #

   error_page 404 /404.html;

   error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
         location = /50x.html {
         root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }
}

You can find the full configuration here.

Create a document root directory to place HTML files.

sudo mkdir /usr/share/nginx/html/www.itzgeek.local

Create an index.html page with some content.

sudo echo "This is ITzGeek Web Server" > /usr/share/nginx/html/www.itzgeek.local/index.html

Restart the Nginx service.

### LinuxMint 18 ###

sudo systemctl restart nginx

### LinuxMint 17 ###

sudo service nginx restart

Verify Virtual Host

Make a host entry on the client machine for www.itzgeek.local or create an A record in the DNS server for name resolution.

your_ip www.itzgeek.local

Open up a web browser and go to the below URL.

Output:

Interested Topics

READ: How to setup LEMP Stack on LinuxMint 18 / LinuxMint 17

READ: How to phpMyAdmin with Nginx on LinuxMint 18 / LinuxMint 17

That’s All.