Below are notes on how to set up a LAMP server and what worked for me (plus many references already on this topic).

• Install Ubuntu server on your computer

• Install other LAMP components

  sudo apt install apache2
  sudo apt install mysql-server
  sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ondrej/php
  sudo apt install php-pear php-fpm php-dev php-zip \
  php-curl php-xmlrpc php-gd php-mysql php-mbstring \
  php-xml libapache2-mod-php # If this fails, take out whatever doesn't work?
      
  sudo service apache2 restart
  # Restart and check that apache works (go to browser and visit localhost)
  # Also check php is working
  php -r 'echo "\n\nYour PHP installation is working fine.\n\n\n";'

• Optional: Configure network static IP

  • I skipped this and it seemed to be fine, as I didn’t have that many devices on my home network!
    

• Install/configure MySQL:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install mysql-server
  sudo mysql_secure_installation #Set root password
  sudo mysql
  SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;
  ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'rootpassword';
  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
  exit

  • If things do go wrong, you can uninstall and install mysql again
    

  sudo apt-get purge mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common mysql-server-core-5.5 mysql-client-core-5.5
  sudo rm -rf /etc/mysql /var/lib/mysql
  sudo apt-get autoremove
  sudo apt-get autoclean
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install mysql-server

• Setup SFTP protocol for transferring files

  sudo apt-get install vsftpd
  sudo service vsftpd start

  • On server side: ftp localhost (use normal login credentials), or
  • On remote side just sftp There are fancier ways to set up SFTP, e.g. better user control for multiple users