2015-11-07

If you are looking for IonCube Loader installation guide on Ubuntu (server) operating system, then this is the right place to find it. I’m sure you all ready came across many other out dated instruction online regarding this. If you follow any of those instruction, then your server/site will stop working because of server misconfiguration.

To make it even worse, the official documentation of ioncube loader is also providing out-dated instruction. After struggling one and half day, I finally figured it out.

If I’m not wrong you can follow this guide for other Linux based O.S. as well.

Note: Please don’t try on live server. I recommend you to try on some test server before you implement on live server. You can use Digital Ocean server for cheap VPS. They charge just $5 Per Month! Moreover you will get $10 account credit after signup.

Installing IonCube Loader on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS:



1. First check the O.S version by using below command

root@test:~# cat /etc/lsb-release

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu

DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04

DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty

DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS”

2.  On your root directory create ioncube loader installation checking php file.

root@test:/var/www/html# nano loader-check.php

3. Now paste below code on loader-check.php file

4. Now open the file on your browser. In my case

http://104.236.61.177/loader-check.php

if you see “true” then IonCube loader is successfully installed. If you see “False” then IonCube loader is not installed on your server.

5. Now we need to find out which bit (32 or 64 bit) O.S we are using on server. To check use below command

root@test:~# uname –a

Linux test 3.13.0-36-generic #63-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 3 21:30:07 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

If you got the above result then you are using 64 bit version or else you will be using 32 bit version.

In my case I’m using 64 bit version of ubuntu O.S so I need to download 64 bit version of IonCube loader. You can download IonCube loader here.

6.  Now download loader from official page. Make sure you downloading correct setup.

root@test:/var/www/html# wget http://downloads3.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz

7. Extract it.

root@test:/var/www/html# tar xvfz ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz

8. Now open the loader-wizard.php file on your browser. Check inside the extracted folder. In my case it is located at

http://104.236.61.177/ioncube/loader-wizard.php

9. Once you open choose “Local install” option. Now it will automatically check what are the things we need to do.

In my case I’m seeing below errors.

Please note that the following problem currently exists with the ionCube Loader installation:

The necessary zend_extension line could not be found in the configuration.

Please note also the following issues:

Some functions are disabled through disable_functions. This may affect the operation of this Loader Wizard.

The correct loader for your system has been found at /var/www/html/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.5.so. You may wish to copy the loader from /var/www/html/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.5.so to /usr/lib/php5/20121212.

10. Check the php version by using below command.

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# php –v

PHP 5.5.9-1ubuntu4.4 (cli) (built: Sep  4 2014 06:56:34)

Copyright (c) 1997-2014 The PHP Group

Zend Engine v2.5.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Zend Technologies

with Zend OPcache v7.0.3, Copyright (c) 1999-2014, by Zend Technologies

Form the above result I can see my php version is 5.5. Note it down somewhere.

11. Now check where our PHP modules folder is located

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# php -i | grep extension_dir

extension_dir => /usr/lib/php5/20121212 => /usr/lib/php5/20121212

12. Now we need to copy appropriate IonCube file to PHP module folder. So navigate to ioncube extracted folder and check 5.5 file. Because our PHP version is 5.5.

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# sudo cp ioncube_loader_lin_5.5.so /usr/lib/php5/20121212/

Notice: 5.5.so (loader file) and my PHP version 5.5.9 (check step 10) are same.

13. As per loader-wizard.php file we need to create one more file called “20-ioncube.ini” at /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d so use below commands to create it.

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/20-ioncube.ini

now paste the content of 20-ioncube.ini file which you downloaded. In my case it is

zend_extension = /usr/lib/php5/20121212/ioncube_loader_lin_5.5.so

14. As per the official document now we need to restart server. If you try to restart ubuntu server by using below command

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# sudo service apache2 restart

* Restarting web server apache2                                                                                                                             [fail]

* The apache2 instance did not start within 20 seconds. Please read the log files to discover problems

you will get error message. To check why it is causing you can visit

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# tail /var/log/apache2/error.log

PHP Fatal error:  [ionCube Loader] The Loader must appear as the first entry in the php.ini file in Unknown on line 0

15. To fix this open apache2 php.ini file

root@test:~# sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

and add below line which you got on 20-ioncube.ini file. Make sure you are adding it on first line itself, that is above [PHP] entry.

zend_extension = /usr/lib/php5/20121212/ioncube_loader_lin_5.5.so

16. Now restart server.

root@test:/var/www/html/ioncube# sudo service apache2 restart

If you have any doubt feel free to comment.

The post How To Install IonCube Loader on Ubuntu Server appeared first on A Shout.

Related posts:

How to Fix Wired Characters Problem in WordPress After Changing Server

Install Eclipse on Your Windows OS, A Step by Step Guide with Screenshots

Fix Java was Started but Returned Exit Code=13 in Eclipse

Online Converter-Supports Different File Format Conversion at One Place

Show more