I have set up a Wordpress blog using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

It runs, but a couple of scripts don't work here and there and it can be sort of unresponsive at times.

Can someone give me like a guide on how to set up my server to run Wordpress efficiently?

Basically like, how to install PHP, MYSQL, etc. What other things do I need to do to make sure it runs at it's best so that it supports all my scripts, etc.

Please and thanks.

For ease I would use the lamp stack script if you are new to all of this. Then I would install or enable the proformance mods such as,

so the follow ing mods

mod_deflate (compresses files for delivery)
mod_mem_cache (holds you site in heap memory for fast speeds)
mod_expires(leverages browser cache)
mod_pagespeed(still in a sort of beta, but does speed things up)

I would also search for the W3 total cache plugin for wordpress this will speed things up a great deal. I will say that some of the word press components do not like to be cached, for example the "featured post / image thing on the main page of the Arras theme"

I would also go to gtmetrix.com to test yours sites speed and other aspects of your site that will need optimizing.

Other things to concider are;

image size keep this as low as you can without distroying the look of the image, "yahoo smushit" is a great tool for this.

minify the following; (can be done with w3 - total cache, but you will have to enable each thing to be minified one by one to make sure what you minify can be minified.

css
html
php
javascript
and any other scripts that can be as this will speed up your site

Keeps your scripts at the bottom of the page were you can that way the user will see something first and will be only waiting for the background stuff to load.

Try to keep you scripts images and large file size down to a minimum.

and apply the rulles to your .htaccess files to enable the filtering and use of the mods above to you sites content.

I have played around with the setting for apache but I would not suggest this unless you are getting 15k hits a week.

I have a main site with a lot of visual content at
www.zeropointproductionsco.uk and this is wordpress with the above installed.

I have another site that is a work in progress that I am making becuase I want a fast site rather depending on wordpress. using the above I have got the site to load really quick. www.zppwebpress.co.uk

I hope this helps you From James

Lol I'll be rebuilding and trying this method. Thanks a lot

well this fella needs some sleep now,
Let me know how it goes and gl