I would strongly recommend that you turn register_globals *off*. MediaWiki doesn't need it, and it may be a security risk in general.
Ah - then I've read some old instructions that told me to turn them on...
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Documentation:Installation Build and install as instructed. Set "register_globals" on
I do see, at the bottom, the following:
Solution: use on of the newer versions 1.2++ and you don't need register_globals anymore!
which I hadn't seen before. And also: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FAQ MediaWiki currently depends on http://www.php.net/register_globalsregister_globals (http://www.php.net/register_globals), which is off by default in most PHP installations since version 4.2.0. Until a version is released that does without, you'll have to enable it.
Are these just old bits that aren't updated for the Phase III code?