phpMyAdmin: secret passphrase? blowfish_secret

The secret passphrase in the configuration (blowfish_secret) is not the correct length. It should be 32 bytes long.

Just like you, I was having problems with this error When $cfg['blowfish secret'] is set, the configuration file will now require a secret passphrase (blowfish secret). In order to use PHPMyAdmin securely on ubuntu.

Solution : blowfish_secret of not exactly 32 characters causes server error

Install phpMyAdmin directly in /var/www/html folder

• Step 1 : Got to https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/
• Step 2 : Login to your server through terminal or putty
• Step 3 : Change Directory to : cd /var/www/html
• Step 4 : Download phpMyadmin zip file from official site

wget https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpMyAdmin/5.2.0/phpMyAdmin-5.2.0-all-languages.zip

• Step 5 : unzip the file with unzip command : unzip phpMyAdmin-5.2.0-all-languages.zip
• Step 6 : Change the filename config.sample.inc.php to config.inc.php
• Step 7 : Create a passphrase 32 char long with this command

openssl rand -base64 22

• Step 8 : Edit the config.inc.php and paste passphrase

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'passphrase here';  // use here a value of your choice

• Restart php and server

sudo service php7.4-fpm restart
sudo systemctl restart  nginx

• Done