When I have Ubuntu 9.10(Karmic) running on my desktop, I like to have a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server up and ready to go in my local network. This makes an environment for testing and experimentation. So I have LAMP server and GUI for the server at same time. You can also install the Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition with LAMP first and then install the GUI as well. To install LAMP server, opne a terminal,

$ sudo tasksel

Here, I selected the server options as LAMP for installation. At the time of installation it will prompt for mysql server root password,  enter the root password and select continue to finish the installation.

But to setup a home server only using command-line interface this time, I used the Ubuntu 9.10(karmic Koala) Server Edition and setup LAMP during the installation at same time without any problem.

Using phpinfo to check the version information etc about the server after installation. First, create a info.php file at /var/www/info.php as following,

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

In a browser(another PC on the local LAN) enter http://LocalserverAddress/info.php, outputs a large amount of information about the current state of PHP. This includes information about PHP compilation options and extensions, the PHP version, server information and environment (if compiled as a module), the PHP environment, OS version information, paths, master and local values of configuration options, HTTP headers, and the PHP License.

phpinfo : Outputs lots of PHP information – reference from php.net