Could not Install Craft CMS on Local Machine and on VPS

Question

I have been trying to install Craft CMS (free version), but failed each time. At first I attempted to install it on a remote VPS with Ubuntu 20.04 server and MySQL database:

1. Installation via Composer failed:

    In CreateProjectCommand.php line 438:
                                                                       
      Could not find package public_html/craft with stability stable.

2. Then I attempted to install Craft CMS on VPS manually. I got as far as running the installer and entering my username, email and password, but that resulted in "Install failed. Please, check your logs for more info" message. Checked the logs and the problem was as follows:

2022-04-06 22:33:39 [-][-][-][error][craft\base\ApplicationTrait::getIsInstalled] There was a problem fetching the info row: SQLSTATE[42S02>
The SQL being executed was: SELECT *
FROM `info`
WHERE `id`=1
LIMIT 1
2022-04-06 22:33:39 [-][-][-][error][yii\db\Exception] PDOException: SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'craftdb.inf>

Then on my local machine with Ubuntu 18.04 using Composer got the same error as under VPS. When attempting the manual install I did not get past the error

HTTP 503 – Service Unavailable – craft\web\ServiceUnavailableHttpException

Perhaps it is the free version problem. Or any other ideas?