original reference: http://www.krizka.net/2008/02/05/how-to-quickly-install-lighttpd-mysql-and-php5-on-ubuntu/
Just execute the following commands as root (access can be gained through sudo /bin/bash)
sudo aptitude install lighttpd mysql-client mysql-server php5-mysql php5-cgi phpmyadmin
sudo lighty-enable-mod fastcgi userdir
sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd start
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start
That is it, you now have a fully functional web development environment (well, not including the editor) right on your Ubuntu installation. You can access your webpage through http://localhost or http://localhost/~user for contents of user’s public_html file. Also phpMyAdmin, a great web based manger for MySQL databases is accessible through http://localhost/phpmyadmin