How to install Xdebug on Ubuntu?

First, you need to update local packages using the following command:

sudo apt update
# OR
sudo apt-get update

Now you can install xdebug with the following command:

sudo apt install php-xdebug

And configure it as:

sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/xdebug.ini

Add the following code into it:

zend_extension=/usr/lib/php/20151012/xdebug.so
xdebug.remote_autostart = 1
xdebug.remote_enable = 1
xdebug.remote_handler = dbgp
xdebug.remote_host = 127.0.0.1
xdebug.remote_log = /tmp/xdebug_remote.log
xdebug.remote_mode = req
xdebug.remote_port = 9005 #if you want to change the port you can change 

Note: Directory 20151012 is most likely to be different for you. cd into /usr/lib/php and check which directory in this format has the xdebug.so file inside it and use that path.

And then restart the services:

sudo systemctl restart php7.0-fpm
sudo systemctl restart nginx # If you are using nginx server
sudo systemctl restart apache2 # If you are using apache server

I use the following method and it works retrieve content from php info

$ php -i> info.txt

copy all the text in the info.txt file then enter the xdebug installation wizard and follow the ranks available there.

will look like this

Download xdebug-2.7.2.tgz
Install the pre-requisites for compiling PHP extensions.
On your Ubuntu system, install them with: apt-get install php-dev autoconf automake
Unpack the downloaded file with tar -xvzf xdebug-2.7.2.tgz
Run: cd xdebug-2.7.2
Run: phpize (See the FAQ if you don't have phpize).

As part of its output it should show:

Configuring for:
...
Zend Module Api No:      20170718
Zend Extension Api No:   320170718
If it does not, you are using the wrong phpize. Please follow this FAQ entry and skip the next step.

Run: ./configure
Run: make
Run: cp modules/xdebug.so /usr/lib/php/20170718
Update /etc/php/7.2/cli/php.ini and change the line
zend_extension = /usr/lib/php/20170718/xdebug.so

I think that you should update the local package index with the latest changes made in the repositories first by typing the following command :

sudo apt update

Or

sudo apt-get update

The APT package index is essentially a database of available packages from the repositories defined in the /etc/apt/sources.list file and in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory.

Credits