Piwigo, Your Private Google Photos Alternative¶

Log into the server and access MySQL as root:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Create the MySQL user piwigoadmin (adjust accordingly). Make sure to replace the string StrongPassword with a strong, unique password:

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

Next, generate the database required by Piwigo and grant correct permissions:

CREATE DATABASE piwigo;
GRANT ALL ON piwigo.* TO 'piwigoadmin'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Log back into MySQL as the user piwigoadmin (adjust accordingly):

sudo mysql -u piwigoadmin -p

Make sure the piwigo database has been created correctly:

SHOW DATABASES;

The output should look similar to this:

+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| piwigo             |
+--------------------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Exit MySQL:

EXIT;

Prerequisites¶

Piwigo requires PHP to run. Check which version is installed on your system:

php -v

One of the previous chapters on server hardening covered how to deploy and secure PHP 8.3 which, at the time of writing, is included by default in Ubuntu's 24.04 repositories. This should already cover Piwigo's main software dependencies, such as php8.3-{common,mysql,curl,xmlrpc,gd,mbstring,xml,intl,cli,zip}.

Install some additional PHP modules:

sudo apt install php8.3-{cgi,soap,ldap,readline,imap,tidy}
sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php8.3

Installation¶

Check the latest release of Piwigo's self-hosted package. At the time of writing, it was 15.5.0. Download and decompress the package with the following commands:

wget http://piwigo.org/download/dlcounter.php?code=latest -O /tmp/piwigo.zip
sudo unzip /tmp/piwigo.zip 'piwigo/*' -d /var/www

Set and verify the right permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/piwigo/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/piwigo/
sudo ls -al /var/www/

Create an Apache configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org.conf

Add the following content and make sure to adjust the settings to your own setup, such as domain names (myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org), path to SSL keys, IP addresses and so on:

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerName              myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org
ServerAlias             www.myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org
Redirect permanent /    https://myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org/

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>

ServerName              myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org
ServerAlias             www.myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org
ServerSignature         Off

<IfModule security2_module>
    SecRuleEngine Off
</IfModule>

SSLEngine               On
SSLProxyEngine          On
SSLProxyCheckPeerCN     Off
SSLCertificateFile      /etc/dehydrated/certs/gofoss.duckdns.org/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile   /etc/dehydrated/certs/gofoss.duckdns.org/privkey.pem
DocumentRoot            /var/www/piwigo

<Location />
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
    Allow from 10.8.0.1/24
</Location>

<Directory /var/www/piwigo/>
    Options +FollowSymlinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org-access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Once the content is added, save and close the file (:wq!).

Note how we enable SSL encryption for Piwigo with the instruction SSLEngine On, and use the SSL certicate /etc/dehydrated/certs/gofoss.duckdns.org/fullchain.pem as well as the private SSL key /etc/dehydrated/certs/gofoss.duckdns.org/privkey.pem, which were created earlier on.

Also note how we disabled ModSecurity in the Apache configuration file with the instruction SecRuleEngine Off, as Piwigo and ModSecurity don't play well together.

Next, enable the Apache Virtual Host and restart Apache:

sudo a2ensite myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Configure Pi-Hole to resolve Piwigo's local address. Browse to https://mypihole.gofoss.duckdns.org:8443/admin (adjust accordingly) and log into Pi-Hole's web interface. Navigate to the menu entry Local DNS Records and add the following domain/IP combination (adjust accordingly):

DOMAIN:      myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org
IP ADDRESS:  192.168.1.100

Maximum photo size¶

On the server, open the Apache PHP configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini

Modify or add the following parameters to increase the maximum upload file size to 20 MB:

upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 20M

Open the command line interface (CLI) PHP configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/php/8.3/cli/php.ini

Modify or add the following parameters to increase the maximum upload file size to 20 MB:

upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 20M

Wrap up¶

Browse to https://myphotos.gofoss.duckdns.org (adjust accordingly) and follow the configuration guide:

Once the configuration is finished, click on the buttons Start installation, Visit the gallery and I want to add photos. That's it, Piwigo is ready for use!

Start adjusting some basic settings in Configuration ‣ Options ‣ General:

• change the gallery title and banner
• disable user registration (uncheck Allow user registration)
• track who logs into Piwigo (select Save visits in history for visitors, registered users and/or administrators)

Log in as administrator and browse to Admin ‣ Album ‣ Manage ‣ List. To create a new album, click on Add album. To edit existing an album, hover the mouse over it and click on Edit. You are now able to modify the album's properties, sort order or permissions.

Back up your photos in case anything goes wrong during the update. One possible way is to connect via FTP (FileZilla) as described previously and backup the folders /var/www/galleries and /var/www/upload.

You can also backup Piwigo's database using MySQL dump or server backups. Piwigo's MySQL database is usually stored in /var/lib/mysql.

Now, log in as webmaster piwigoadmin@gofoss.net (adjust accordingly) and browse to Admin ‣ Tools ‣ Updates ‣ Piwigo Update. Click on `Update to Piwigo xx.x.x`` and confirm.