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Moodle Installation

In this article, we will install Moodle directly on Raspberry Pi OS using the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP) stack.

Why not using Docker?

The bare metal setup gives us more fined-grained control over our Moodle installation and let Moodle to use more RPi resources.

🧰 REQUIREMENTS

Requirement Recommendation
Raspberry Pi Model Pi 4 with 2GB+ RAM (4GB+ ideal)
OS Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit Lite
Storage SSD recommended (faster & safer)
Internet Access Required during install
Domain (optional) For HTTPS

🛠️ INSTALLATION

✅ 1. Update your System

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

✅ 2. Install Apache

sudo apt install apache2 -y

Enable and start Apache:

sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2

Check: Visit http://<raspberry-pi-ip> — you should see the Apache welcome page.

✅ 3. Install MariaDB (MySQL-compatible)

sudo apt install mariadb-server -y

Secure it:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

You'll be asked to:

  • Set root password
  • Remove anonymous users
  • Disallow remote root login
  • Remove test DB
  • Reload privileges

✅ Answer "yes" to all.

✅ 4. Create Moodle Database

sudo mariadb

Inside the MariaDB shell:

CREATE DATABASE moodle DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'moodleuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'moodlepass';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON moodle.* TO 'moodleuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

✅ 5. Install PHP & Extensions

sudo apt install php php-cli php-fpm php-mysql php-zip php-gd php-xml php-curl php-mbstring php-soap php-intl php-xmlrpc php-bcmath php-ldap php-readline -y

Set timezone in php.ini:

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

Search for date.timezone and set your timezone (e.g., Europe/Paris):

date.timezone = Europe/Paris

✅ 6. Download Moodle

cd /var/www/html
sudo rm index.html  # remove Apache default page
sudo apt install git -y
sudo git clone -b MOODLE_402_STABLE https://github.com/moodle/moodle.git
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data moodle
sudo chmod -R 755 moodle

Create a Moodle data directory (not web-accessible):

sudo mkdir /var/moodledata
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/moodledata
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/moodledata

✅ 7. Configure Apache for Moodle

Create a new config:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/moodle.conf

Paste this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/moodle
    ServerName moodle.local

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

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/moodle_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/moodle_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable it:

sudo a2ensite moodle.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Edit your hosts file (optional for local use):

echo "127.0.0.1 moodle.local" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

✅ 8. Run the Moodle Web Installer

Visit:

http://<raspberrypi-ip>/moodle

Or if using domain:

http://moodle.local

Follow the wizard:

  • Select language
  • Confirm paths
  • Choose MariaDB (MySQL)
  • Use: DB: moodle User: moodleuser Password: moodlepass
  • Set admin account

Let it finish setting up the database (takes a few mins).

✅ 9. Enable HTTPS (Optional but Recommended)

Install Caddy or Let's Encrypt for HTTPS.

Example with Caddy (much easier than Certbot):

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring curl
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

Create a Caddyfile:

sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

moodle.yourdomain.com {
    root * /var/www/html/moodle
    php_fastcgi unix//run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock
    file_server
    encode gzip
}

Then reload:

sudo systemctl restart caddy

Done — you're now running Moodle over HTTPS with a free Let's Encrypt cert!

🧠 EXTRAS

Feature How
Backups Use rsync or cron to back up /var/www/html/moodle, /var/moodledata, and database
Email (SMTP) Configure Site admin > Server > Email
Themes & Plugins Use built-in plugin installer
Performance Enable caching (Redis or Memcached), configure cron

✅ Summary

Step Done
Apache & PHP installed ✅
MariaDB & DB created ✅
Moodle downloaded ✅
Apache config created ✅
Moodle web installer run ✅
HTTPS enabled ✅

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