Subrion CMS is a free CMS and PHP/MySQL framework for websites of any type: from blogs and directories to complex portals with paid subscriptions and an advanced system of permissions and packages. The project is distributed under the GPLv3 license and supports plugins, templates, and a flexible user access model.

This guide uses the classic installation from the Subrion archive, configuration of the Nginx + PHP-FPM + MySQL/MariaDB stack on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and subsequent launch of the web installer.

Preparation

Installing Subrion CMS on hosting

1. Download the stable version of Subrion CMS from the official Subrion CMS website.
2. Upload the archive to the hosting account via the file manager or over FTP.
3. Create a user and a database. Save DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD.
4. Run the installer in a browser. Open http://DOMAIN_NAME and follow the installation wizard:

• Check that the technical requirements are met;

• Accept the license agreement;

• Fill in the parameters of the previously created database (DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD) and administrator;

• If necessary, download the configuration file;

Installing Subrion CMS on a server

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt -y install curl gnupg2 software-properties-common unzip ca-certificates

This updates system packages and installs utilities required for downloading archives and working with repositories.

Install PHP-FPM and required extensions

sudo apt -y install php8.2 php8.2-fpm php8.2-cli \
  php8.2-mbstring php8.2-xml php8.2-gd php8.2-zip \
  php8.2-curl php8.2-mysql php8.2-intl php8.2-opcache
php -v

Subrion runs on a modern PHP version; this set of modules covers the requirements for working with the database, images, archives, and locales. The php -v command confirms the installed PHP version.

Install Nginx

sudo apt -y install nginx
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Nginx will handle HTTP requests and pass PHP scripts to PHP-FPM.

Install and prepare the DBMS (MySQL/MariaDB)

sudo apt -y install mysql-server
mysql --version

Create a database and user for Subrion:

sudo mysql <<SQL
CREATE DATABASE DB_NAME CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'DB_USER'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'DB_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DB_NAME.* TO 'DB_USER'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
SQL

The utf8mb4 encoding is used for full Unicode support and emojis in site content.

Download and deploy Subrion

Subrion is distributed as a zip archive; installation is performed from the official project archive. Download the stable version of Subrion CMS from the official Subrion CMS website.

sudo mkdir -p SUBRION_PATH
cd SUBRION_PATH

wget https://tools.subrion.org/get/latest.zip
unzip latest.zip
rm latest.zip

The latest.zip archive contains the current 4.2.x branch release; after extraction, the application files are ready for launching the installer.

Permissions and project owner

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data SUBRION_PATH
sudo find SUBRION_PATH -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find SUBRION_PATH -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

The www-data owner (web server and PHP-FPM user) ensures correct writing of temporary files, cache, and uploaded files.

Nginx configuration for Subrion

Below is an example of an Nginx virtual host adapted for Subrion and a PHP-FPM socket. The configuration is based on a working example for Subrion on Nginx with correct handling of SEO URLs and the installer.

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name DOMAIN_NAME;

  root SUBRION_PATH;
  index index.php;

  location = /favicon.ico {
    log_not_found off;
    access_log off;
  }

  location = /robots.txt {
    allow all;
    log_not_found off;
    access_log off;
  }

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
  }

  error_page 404 /404.html;
  location = /404.html {
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
  }

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
  location = /50x.html {
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
  }

  location ~ \.php$ {
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_pass unix:PHP_FPM_SOCKET;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  }

  location /install/ {
    rewrite ^/install/(.*)$ /install/index.php?_p=$1;
  }

  location ~ /\.ht {
    deny all;
  }

  location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
    expires max;
    log_not_found off;
  }
}

Activate the site and reload Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/subrion.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/subrion.conf
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

The try_files directive forwards requests to index.php with the q parameter, as expected by Subrion, and the separate location /install/ block ensures correct operation of the web installer.

Configuring additional Subrion features

SSL certificate (HTTPS)

For operation over the secure HTTPS protocol, use Let’s Encrypt or a commercial SSL certificate.

PHP caching and performance

Enable and configure opcache to speed up Subrion:

opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16
opcache.validate_timestamps=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=60

Restart PHP-FPM:

sudo systemctl restart php8.2-fpm

Image and media processing

Subrion actively uses images in templates and content; the GD library is sufficient for processing them, but Imagick can be additionally enabled if needed.

sudo apt -y install php8.2-gd imagemagick php8.2-imagick
sudo systemctl restart php8.2-fpm

Verifying operation

• Go to http://DOMAIN_NAME/ and make sure the Subrion start page opens without PHP errors.

• Log in to the admin panel (http://DOMAIN_NAME/panel/ or the renamed URL) and verify:

  • the dashboard operation,
  • creation and publication of a test page,
  • file uploads in the content section.

Useful links