Nat,

I have done 4 or 5 Windows installs of MediaWiki. I never bothered to change permissions.

What the install script does is to write the answers you provide into a file called LocalSettings.php which is located in the \config directory.

The reason for the note about changing permissions on \config is the installation script writes a new LocalSettings.php into the \config directory, hence the script needs permission to write to the config directory. As mentioned earlier, I have never had to change permissions on a Windows box.

After the install completes the LocalSettings.php must be manually moved from the \config into the main installation directory. This is the top level directory for your wiki installation, containing the folders for extensions, bin, etc.

Why all this moving around? Here is what I believe is happening:

When you navigate to the page //localhost/whatever/index.php, a script checks to see if there is a LocalSettings.php file in your /whatever directory. If there is a LocalSettings, the script goes on its way reads LocalSettings to obtain configuration information and opens the index page as requested.

If there is no LocalSettings, the installer script, which lives in the config directory is run. Configuration variables are initialized based on your responses and LocalSettings.php is then created. Next step is to move that new LocalSettings to the main directory.

The reason for this is MW relies on the DefaultSettings.php file to run. Under no circumstances should you change this file. The LocalSettings file consists of a subset of DefaultSettings and is where installation specific information is kept and it may be customizied for your installation. Basically, the devs are protecting you from shooting yourself in the foot by messing with DefaultSettings.

Sorry for the long winded answer. It was for my edification as much as yours. I have to go over this with a few team members tomorrow.

John

----- Original Message ----- From: "Nat Colley" nat.colley@yahoo.com To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 3:18:30 AM Subject: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem

I am trying to install MediaWiki on a windows machine (wamp) as a testing server. As near as I can tell, all has gone right with the download and installation of the wamp – php info comes up, for example. But navigating to index.php gets me this:

"* If you are reading this in your web browser, your server is probably not configured correctly to run PHP applications! "

Then the install.php comments say:

"To run the install script, you'll need to temporarily make the 'config' subdirectory writable by the web server. The simplest way to do this on a Unix/Linux system is to make it world-writable:

chmod a+w config

Hop into your browser and surf into the wiki directory."

Well, obviously I am not on unix or linux. Right clicking on the config folder and going to properties tells me that this file is read only, but if I uncheck the box it goes right back to being read only anyway. I seem to remember that in Windows you have to go up to the highest folder because all these properties are normally inherited downward. I did that all the way up to my drive itself, and it still doesn't stop them from being read only.

Your assistance, patience, and wisdom are greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

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Platonides,Sorry, I am just now seeing your response. I don't think it is a write access problem anymore. Since this is a wampserver stack I am using, I cross posted this at the wampserver forum: When setting up mediawiki, got this message:

"PHP is linked with old MySQL client libraries. If you are using a MySQL 4.1 server and have problems connecting to the database, see [dev.mysql.com] for help.  Attempting to connect to database server as wikidb_user...failed due to authentication errors. Check passwords."

If you follow the link you learn all about old and new passwords in MySQL since 4.1. But when I look at what is in wampserver, they are all 5+ so i shouldn't be having this problem at all.  Someone suggested searching for my.ini outside of the wamp folder, but that came up empty. So I don't think there is some stray old mysql out there causing me problems. I created the wiki db and user myself in phpmyadmin, and the installation script was able to connect, but then I got this same old libraries error message again. And no, mw is definitely not installed. Thanks for your time and insights.

--- On Mon, 3/28/11, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:

From: Platonides Platonides@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Monday, March 28, 2011, 7:07 PM

Nat Colley wrote:

I am trying to install MediaWiki on a windows machine (wamp) as a testing server. As near as I can tell, all has gone right with the download and installation of the wamp – php info comes up, for example. But navigating to index.php gets me this:

"* If you are reading this in your web browser, your server is probably not configured correctly to run PHP applications! "

That points to php not working on your server. You need to fix it first.

Then the install.php comments say:

"To run the install script, you'll need to temporarily make the 'config' subdirectory writable by the web server. The simplest way to do this on a Unix/Linux system is to make it world-writable:

chmod a+w config

Hop into your browser and surf into the wiki directory."

Are you also seeing

Setup has completed, your wiki is configured Please delete the /config directory for extra security. Can't write config file, aborting To run the install script... Checking environment... Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation

problems.

PHP " . htmlspecialchars( phpversion() ) . " installed

etc. ?

(a mixture of all possible messages given by the installer)

Then it is a consequence of not having php enabled. Goto step 1.

Well, obviously I am not on unix or linux. Right clicking on the config folder and going to properties tells me that this file is read only, but if I uncheck the box it goes right back to being read only anyway. I seem to remember that in Windows you have to go up to the highest folder because all these properties are normally inherited downward. I did that all the way up to my drive itself, and it still doesn't stop them from being read only.

Your assistance, patience, and wisdom are greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

If your issue is really with permissions writing the config folder, I would wait for 1.17rc1 (planned for this Friday) and install it. It uses a new installer that gives you LocalSettings.php for download instead of writing it itself.

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I agree that mismatched components defeats the purpose of a stack. I don't really know what is going on here. There was a link to a mysql forum thread about how to downgrade mysql to make it compatible with php, but a lot of the comments talked about just changing passwords. That's what I was hoping to accomplish in phpmyadmin. After I did that, as I say it connected to the database, but then I got this same error. You asked about the output of MW, well, that was it. So I refreshed and then I was right back at the link that takes you to set up the first time, so clearly it did not install. John Durant on this thread suggested starting over, not using a stack, and deleting any AMP files in add/remove programs and also in the registry. The only AMP files in my registry were old tomcat files from some program I was testing that needed them. I have deleted them. I suspect the reason no other AMP shows up is a function of how the stack was put together. I did not see WAMP in either add.remove programs or the registry.

--- On Fri, 4/1/11, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:

From: Platonides Platonides@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Friday, April 1, 2011, 5:32 PM

Nat Colley wrote:

Platonides,Sorry, I am just now seeing your response. I don't think it is a write access problem anymore. Since this is a wampserver stack I am using, I cross posted this at the wampserver forum: When setting up mediawiki, got this message:

"PHP is linked with old MySQL client libraries. If you are using a MySQL 4.1 server and have problems connecting to the database, see [dev.mysql.com] for help. Attempting to connect to database server as wikidb_user...failed due to authentication errors. Check passwords."

I doubt this is your problem, since you are using a server stack that cointains both apps. It would be very silly to create a package containing mysql and php, with php unable to connect to mysql.

If you follow the link you learn all about old and new passwords in MySQL since 4.1. But when I look at what is in wampserver, they are all 5+ so i shouldn't be having this problem at all. Someone suggested searching for my.ini outside of the wamp folder, but that came up empty. So I don't think there is some stray old mysql out there causing me

problems.

I created the wiki db and user myself in phpmyadmin,

If you can connect from phpmyadmin, you shouldn't have those problems in mediawiki.

and the installation script was able to connect,

Good. I assume that your php files are finally trated as such?

but then I got this same old libraries error message again. And no, mw is definitely not installed.

Which message is it? What's the output of MediaWiki installer?

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Nat,

I found installing PHP in Win2003 a problem ...mainly because the distros weren't complete for 5.2.13+ and 5.3.x....(I had to install some of the extensions etc from previous installs. Are you using the windows.php.net website ? it's a good resource..

Jon.

-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Nat Colley Sent: 02 April 2011 10:17 To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem

I almost have it. I installed mysql, php and apache. Both apache and mysql seem to be working correctly, but not php. I don't know where I got that wrong. It is the same as before: seeing the code instead of the install page. Ideas welcome while I tinker...

This e-mail was sent by GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited (registered in England and Wales No. 1047315), which is a member of the GlaxoSmithKline group of companies. The registered address of GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited is 980 Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex TW8 9GS.

I now have a new error, which is as follows: Checking environment...Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation problems.§ PHP 5.3.6 installedCould not find a suitable database driver!§ For MySQL, compile PHP using --with-mysql, or install the mysql.so modulenow, even though it's happening in a different place, as I understand it from my extensive study of this tortured relationship between PHP and MySQL, this is really still the same error I've been having for almost a month now: that PHP and MySQL can't talk to each other. In the earlier incarnations of this problem, I was at least getting further along with the mediawiki install. In those days, I always crashed and burned at the inability of PHP to work with MySQL's password regimen. The reasons for this depend entirely on whom you choose to believe: the people who work at PHP, or the people who work at MySQL. But supposedly, fortunately, all this was fixed as of PHP 5.3, because from that point forward they were using MySQLnd, which is to say, native driver. Apparently people who were putting out their own stacks of PHP, such as the person I got my wamp stack I've already mentioned, have their own reasons for not including MySQL native driver, which is why I was never getting anywhere even though I thought I had PHP 5.3, in fact had a modified version which was missing the thing I needed most. All right. So now I've got all the latest software direct from the source, and everything should flow smoothly this time. Both Apache "it works" and the PHPinfo screens show themselves. I've checked to see that indeed this version of PHP does have mySQL native driver. All lights are green and then I try to install MediaWiki and I get this error that I mentioned at the beginning. So I wasn't even getting as far as I had without MySQL native driver. There's an interesting thing about this error message because it says it could not find a suitable database driver and then as for MySQL specifically indicates that I should compile PHP, which of course I have no idea how to even begin to do, or install MySQL.SO. Now when you say install something, that makes it sound like it's a package or application that you can get somewhere and just stick into your computer, but no, that apparently is not the case. Various web forums I looked at have said the file I need is MySQL.dll and that somehow that magically "installs" MySQL.SO. I don't pretend to be making sense of any of this I'm simply reporting what I've tried to do so you can find a way to help me if that's possible. But here's the thing: I thought mySQL native driver eliminated the need for MySQLI. That being so, why is MediaWiki looking for this old driver instead of the new one, mysqlnd?  In his last helpful posting on this topic Platonides suggested that I needed to do something with Apache. But you will recall that I said I'd followed the instructions of some Australian webmaster, and among his instructions was doing exactly what Platonides had suggested, so obviously that by itself isn't the problem. One thing that was different from the PHP website was another line about add handler, so I cut and paste that in but, yes, you guessed it, it made no difference. So the other suggestions I've tried were telling PHP where the extensions directory was, uncommenting MySQLI specifically, but it was already uncommented, and other devices that sort. I guess that brings you up to date. I have no more magic. If you have any, fire away. --- On Mon, 4/4/11, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:

From: Platonides Platonides@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Monday, April 4, 2011, 5:35 PM

Nat Colley wrote:

I almost have it. I installed mysql, php and apache. Both apache and mysql seem to be working correctly, but not php. I don't know where I got that wrong.  It is the same as before: seeing the code instead of the install page. Ideas welcome while I tinker...

You need to configure apache so that it loads php and interprets php files as php. See http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.apache2.php

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I went back to test mysql. it did not pass, so I uninstalled 5.5 in favor of trying 5.1. Long story short, that didn't work, either: <?php # Define MySQL Settingsdefine("MYSQL_HOST", "localhost");define("MYSQL_USER", "root");define("MYSQL_PASS", "password");define("MYSQL_DB", "test"); $conn = mysql_connect("".MYSQL_HOST."", "".MYSQL_USER."",  "".MYSQL_PASS."") or die(mysql_error());mysql_select_db("".MYSQL_DB."",$conn) or die(mysql_error()); $sql = "SELECT * FROM test";$res = mysql_query($sql); while ($field = mysql_fetch_array($res)){$id = $field['id'];$name = $field['name']; echo 'ID: ' . $field['id'] . '<br />';echo 'Name: ' . $field['name'] . '<br /><br />';} ?> */Fatal error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in C:\Apache2\htdocs\mysql_test.php on line 9/*

In custom set up, I noticed some lib files were 'optional'. Since it looked like these might be the connectors/extensions I needed, I added them, but it made no difference.

--- On Sun, 4/10/11, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:

From: Platonides Platonides@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 3:40 PM

Nat Colley wrote:

I now have a new error, which is as follows: Checking environment...Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation problems.§    PHP 5.3.6 installedCould not find a suitable database driver!§    For MySQL, compile PHP using --with-mysql, or install the mysql.so modulenow, even though it's happening in a different place, as I understand it from my extensive study of this tortured relationship between PHP and MySQL, this is really still the same error I've been having for almost a month now: that PHP and MySQL can't talk to each other. In the earlier incarnations of this problem, I was at least getting further along with the mediawiki install. In those days, I always crashed and burned at the inability of PHP to work with MySQL's password regimen. The reasons for this depend entirely on whom you choose to believe: the people who work at PHP, or the people who work at MySQL. But supposedly, fortunately, all this was fixed as of PHP 5.3, because from that point forward they were using MySQLnd, which is to say, native driver. Apparently people who were putting out their own stacks of PHP, such as the person I got my wamp stack I've already mentioned, have their own reasons for not including MySQL native driver, which is why I was never getting anywhere even though I thought I had PHP 5.3, in fact had a modified version which was missing the thing I needed most. All right. So now I've got all the latest software direct from the source, and everything should flow smoothly this time. Both Apache "it works" and the PHPinfo screens show themselves. I've checked to see that indeed this version of PHP does have mySQL native driver. All lights are green and then I try to install MediaWiki and I get this error that I mentioned at the beginning. So I wasn't even getting as far as I had without MySQL native driver. There's an interesting thing about this error message because it says it could not find a suitable database driver and then as for MySQL specifically indicates that I should compile PHP, which of course I have no idea how to even begin to do, or install MySQL.SO. Now when you say install something, that makes it sound like it's a package or application that you can get somewhere and just stick into your computer, but no, that apparently is not the case. Various web forums I looked at have said the file I need is MySQL.dll and that somehow that magically "installs" MySQL.SO. I don't pretend to be making sense of any of this I'm simply reporting what I've tried to do so you can find a way to help me if that's possible. But here's the thing: I thought mySQL native driver eliminated the need for MySQLI. That being so, why is MediaWiki looking for this old driver instead of the new one, mysqlnd? In his last helpful posting on this topic Platonides suggested that I needed to do something with Apache. But you will recall that I said I'd followed the instructions of some Australian webmaster, and among his instructions was doing exactly what Platonides had suggested, so obviously that by itself isn't the problem. One thing that was different from the PHP website was another line about add handler, so I cut and paste that in but, yes, you guessed it, it made no difference. So the other suggestions I've tried were telling PHP where the extensions directory was, uncommenting MySQLI specifically, but it was already uncommented, and other devices that sort. I guess that brings you up to date. I have no more magic. If you have any, fire away.

You don't need mysql.so (.so are for Linux), you need php_mysql.dll (well, and having mysql installed)

Your steps would be like * Download php from http://windows.php.net/download/ * Copy php.ini-production to php.ini * Uncomment extension_dir = "ext" * Uncomment extension=php_mysql.dll * Restart apache

Note that you still need to enable mysql extension for php, and that mysqli is a different extension than mysql.

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This problem has been partially solved with fresh installs of AMP, but all that means is I am back to my original problem of being unable to install because MW says php is using old libraries. This problem was supposedly solved in php 5.3 by the addition of mysqlnd (native driver), but obviously not for me. I am exactly where I was when I started four weeks ago, and I can't even begin to describe the frustration.

--- On Wed, 4/13/11, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:

From: Platonides Platonides@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Install on Windows Problem To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 6:01 PM

Nat Colley wrote:

I went back to test mysql. it did not pass, so I uninstalled 5.5 in favor of trying 5.1. Long story short, that didn't work, either: <?php # Define MySQL Settingsdefine("MYSQL_HOST", "localhost");define("MYSQL_USER", "root");define("MYSQL_PASS", "password");define("MYSQL_DB", "test"); $conn = mysql_connect("".MYSQL_HOST."", "".MYSQL_USER."", "".MYSQL_PASS."") or die(mysql_error());

Note that all those . "" are uneeded.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in C:\Apache2\htdocs\mysql_test.php on line 9/*

The mysql extension is not enabled. Did you took the steps I mention about changing php.ini? Do you get any warning about "not being able to load mysql extension"?

Does adding dl('php_mysql.dll'); to the top of the script help? (you may have to run in in console for dl() to work)

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Nat Colley wrote:

Now fully solved.

Finally! :)