Installation Woes: Nothing seems to work right.

[♥Skittles]

I have been trying to install osCommerce all day. I have spent the past seven hours searching through this forum and trying the various suggestions that seemed feasible for my problems.

 

Background: I have a dedicated server, and pay the host to manage it. Fantastico wasn't working yesterday. A previous install of osCommerce on another [test] site (same server) wasn't working. There was no access to MySql databases, either. Trouble ticket was "completed" this morning. Fantastico back up and running(?), other site still down. PHP version: 4.4.2; MySQL version: 4.1.19-standard.

 

I named my catalog directory "kiosk", not "catalog".

 

First, attempted to install using Fantastico, SSL server: false. Index.php partially loaded, without images or stylesheet. admin/index.php partially loaded. Both configuration files had secure server listed (https:...) I changed https to http. Images and stylesheet loaded in catalog/index.php. No change for admin.

 

.htaccess file, in catalog directory, includes the following code, comments removed for brevity.

 

<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>

<IfDefine SSL>

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" \

nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \

downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

</IfDefine>

</IfModule>

 

<IfModule mod_php4.c>

php_value session.use_trans_sid 0

php_value register_globals 1

</IfModule>

 

All attempts to follow links from catalog produces a blank page (no source code whatsoever.)

 

All attempts to follow links from admin caused a 401 error code ("Unauthorized"). Directory is password protected, and username/password were entered to open admin.

 

Couldn't get it to work, so used Fantastico to uninstall.

 

Second attempt. Downloaded update 051113 and followed installation instructions for new installation. Uploaded files using WS_FTP Pro, verified beforehand that PHP files are uploaded in ASCII mode. PhpMyAdmin wouldn't allow me to create a new database, so created one from cPanel MySQL Account Maintenance.

 

Opened .../kiosk/install and selected options exactly as stated in the documentation. No problems until step 2. Hitting "continue" created a blank page. Couldn't find anything on the forum that helped with that, so I renamed the directory, and deleted the database.

 

Third, I tried installing the program a third time (definitely not "a charm"), again using Fantastico. This time I spent a lot more time on the forum, but I still can't find anything that will help.

 

 

I realize it could be a problem with the server, but I don't want to open another trouble ticket until I'm sure I haven't screwed something up.

 

Any and all help is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

-Skittles

[♥Vger]

The most common cause for installation getting stuck in step 2

is that most recent PHP installations have register_long_arrays = OFF

This needs to be turned to ON in the php.ini file (you will need to

stop and restart your server to get this change to take effect.)

 

Vger

[♥Skittles]

The most common cause for installation getting stuck in step 2

is that most recent PHP installations have register_long_arrays = OFF

This needs to be turned to ON in the php.ini file (you will need to

stop and restart your server to get this change to take effect.)

 

Vger

 

Vger,

 

I found the php.ini file. I did not find "register_long_arrays" anywhere in the file. Does that mean it is set to OFF somewhere else? Should I go ahead and add "register_long_arrays = ON" in php.ini?

 

Also, I am a bit wary about restarting my server... (I'd be a fool not to be cautious here.) WebHostManager allows a "Graceful Server Reboot", which "...attempts to shutdown all processes on your server and then reboot the system". Have you, or anyone else out there, had success with this command.

 

Or should I ask the techs to do this for me?

 

Thanks for you super quick response, by the way. It is great to have this kind of support.

 

-Skittles

[♥Skittles]

FYI update...

 

I asked my host's tech support what I should do

 

'... I made the change to my php.ini file. Now I need to "restart" my server. Should I use "Graceful Server Reboot", or will it suffice to use "Restart Services" and just restart the "HTTP Server (Apache)".'

Their reply was to use the Restart Services from my WebHostManager and restart both "HTTP Server (Apache)" and "SQL Server (MySQL)":

'Try just restarting apache and mysql from whm, if you have any issues let me know...'

 

BTW, they did just update PHP and MySQL. Said my MySQL "failed and would not start."

 

My last (3rd) install was using Fantastico. Without making any other changes, I took a quick look at index.php and admin/index.php.

 

There is no change in the admin. Still won't fully load, and links cause a 401 Unauthorized error.

 

However, there are some changes in the catalog. I can now access other pages, but none of the pages load completely.

 

I'm off to uninstall and try manual install per Vger's instruction.

 

I'll let you all know the results, either way.

 

-Skittles

[♥Skittles]

It's been a long time since my last post.

 

In the interim, I installed XAMPP on my computer and had no problems installing osCommerce. The Download Controller contribution gave me a little trouble. osCommerce wanted to choke when it couldn't send the confirmation email. I made changes to the wrong copy of php.ini (there are three... look for the one in the "xampp\apache\bin" directory!)

 

Since then the local install has worked like a champ.

 

While I was busy reworking my web site, the trouble ticket for my server disappeared into the bit-bucket. Getting really close to finished, I contacted them to see how things were going, and they couldn't find the ticket! The tech I was on live chat with suggested I start a new ticket, and he'd look into it. By the next morning (yesterday, in fact) they emailed it was fixed.

 

I ran a manual install, and voila, it worked!

 

I don't know what the problem was, per se. But the server had been running PHP 4.4.2. It is now running version 4.4.4.

 

I need to reply to the trouble ticket, and let them know it's working. I'll ask if all they did was upgrade the PHP, and let them know I want to post here if it was.

 

Back to work...

-Skittles