Thread:Project:Support desk/Retrieve password... safe mode problem./reply

We really recommend avoiding using safe mode if possible. It doesn't actually make anything "safer" but is a giant pain.

This particular message seems to be related to sending email. This particular issue has been fixed on the unstable version MediaWiki. The ways around this problem are:
 * Use MediaWiki 1.19 or higher. This isn't officially released yet, so you'd need to download from svn, etc. Should be out in a month or 2 though.
 * Find the file includes/UserMailer.php in your mediawiki install, and make the change described by the diff at 99411
 * Use manual:$wgSMTP to send mail (may or may not be possible on your set up)
 * Use one of the alternative methods that don't require email support to reset the password (there's a list of methods at Manual:Resetting_passwords)

Hope that helps.