Let’s set up a LAMP stack on Pop!_OS and make a simple PHP dashboard from a MySQL database.

🔹 Step 1: Install LAMP

Open a terminal and run:

# Update package list
sudo apt update

# Install Apache
sudo apt install apache2 -y

# Install MySQL
sudo apt install mysql-server -y

# Secure MySQL (set root password, disable test DB, etc.)
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# Install PHP + common extensions
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-mbstring php-xml -y

Check versions:

apache2 -v
php -v
mysql --version

Restart services:

sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2

🔹 Step 2: Set up Database

Enter MySQL shell:

sudo mysql

Create DB and table:

CREATE DATABASE dashboard_db;
USE dashboard_db;

CREATE TABLE stats (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(50),
    value INT
);

INSERT INTO stats (name, value) VALUES
('Users', 120),
('Sales', 75),
('Visitors', 300);

Exit MySQL:

EXIT;

🔹 Step 3: Set Web Root & Permissions

Default root is /var/www/html/.

Create a project folder:

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/dashboard
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/html/dashboard

🔹 Step 4: PHP Dashboard Script

Create index.php inside dashboard/:

<?php
$host = "localhost";
$user = "root"; // or your MySQL user
$pass = "";     // set if you used one in mysql_secure_installation
$db   = "dashboard_db";

// Connect
$conn = new mysqli($host, $user, $pass, $db);

// Check
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Fetch data
$sql = "SELECT name, value FROM stats";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
?>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>My Dashboard</title>
    <style>
        body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 40px; }
        .card { display: inline-block; margin: 20px; padding: 20px;
                border-radius: 12px; box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
                background: #f8f8f8; min-width: 120px; text-align: center; }
        h2 { margin: 10px 0; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>📊 Simple PHP Dashboard</h1>
    <?php while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()): ?>
        <div class="card">
            <h2><?php echo $row['value']; ?></h2>
            <p><?php echo $row['name']; ?></p>
        </div>
    <?php endwhile; ?>
</body>
</html>

<?php $conn->close(); ?>

🔹 Step 5: Test in Browser

Visit: 👉 http://localhost/dashboard/

You should see 3 cards: Users, Sales, Visitors — styled nicely.

✅ This is a short but comprehensive process:

Apache, MySQL, PHP installed
Database + table created
PHP script pulling live data into dashboard