The latest Ubuntu ships with PHP 8.0. Unfortunately Group-Office is not quite ready for PHP 8 yet. This is because we use some dependencies like Ioncube and an open ID server that are not ready for PHP 8. The Group-Office core code actually runs on PHP 8.1 already but we are waiting for fixes by 3rd parties.
To workaround this problem you can install PHP 7.4 on Ubuntu 20.10 or newer. Open a terminal and follow the steps below.
First become root:
sudo -s
Install this repository for all the PHP versions:
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Install PHP 7.4 with the required packages for Group-Office:
apt install php7.4 php7.4-mbstring php7.4-mysql php7.4-xml php7.4-curl \ php7.4-gd php7.4-intl php7.4-xsl
Set PHP 7.4 as default on the system:
update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.4
Disable PHP 8.0 for apache:
a2dismod php-8.0
Enable PHP 7.4 fort apache:
a2enmod php 7.4
Install the Ioncube loader if needed
Restart Apache2:
systemctl restart apache2
Now Group-Office will run!