When a LAMP server just isn’t enough, you may as well go all-out with nginx, HHVM, and MariaDB on Arch Linux.

Start by installing and enabling the services:

sudo pacman -S nginx hhvm mariadb
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl enable hhvm
sudo systemctl enable mysqld

Run the initial setup for MariaDB:

mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql

Create a new file /etc/nginx/hhvm.conf:

location ~ \.php$ {
  fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
  fastcgi_index  index.php;
  fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
  include        fastcgi.conf;
}

Add a line to any nginx servers that need PHP:

include hhvm.conf;

After your MariaDB and nginx are configured, start your services:

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl start hhvm
sudo systemctl start mysqld

Now you should be good to go!