Turn a $20 Android TV Box Into a Cheap Web Server

  1. Run the following commands in terminal to install Apache HTTPD web server:
    # update software repositories
    sudo apt update
    # install available software updates
    sudo apt upgrade -y
    # install apache httpd
    sudo apt install apache2 -y
  2. Once the installation completes, open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP/ to verify Apache is up and running
  3. Run the following command in terminal to install MySQL/MariaDB
    # install mariadb/mysql server
    sudo apt install mariadb-server -y
    # configure the MySQL database
    sudo mysql_secure_installation
  4. Follow the prompts to change passwords and fix some potential security issues
  5. Once the installation completes, run the following command in terminal to log into MySQL/MariaDB
    sudo su
    mysql -u root -p
    [enter the root password created earlier]
    show databases;
    exit
    exit
  6. Run the following commands in terminal to install PHP
    # install php
    sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql -y
  7. Once the installation completes, create a file called info.php in /var/www/html and add the following code:

    <?php
    phpinfo();
    ?>

  8. Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP/info.php to verify Apache is up and running with PHP support
  9. Run the following commands in terminal to install phpMyAdmin
    # install phpMyAdmin
    sudo apt install phpmyadmin -y
    # restart the apache httpd service
    sudo systemctl restart apache2
  10. Once the installation completes, open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP/phpmyadmin
  11. Run the following commands in terminal to cleanup downloaded packages
    # clean apt cache
    sudo apt clean