Thread:Project:Support desk/Web installer not updating database schema.

Hello help desk.

Media Wiki 1.11.0, PHP 5.2.17(cgi), MySQl 5.0.92

Installed this wiki about 4 years ago and only have FTP/HTTP access. Don't know a whole lot about Linux and MySQL as you will now see.

Tried to upgrade to wiki ver 1.17.0 following the instructions here Manual: MediaWiki 1.16 and earlier Encountered problems:

Instructions make no mention about whether the installer is expecting all the new wiki files to be located under a particular master directory or not - does the installer just figure this out? Presume it's relative ../mw-config/index.php. If so can I run the installer and then later rename the master folder to ../w/.. later and all the paths still work? Meanwhile some directories need to have their permissions changed eg "config" or is that "mw-config" or both - any others? and what should the permissions be set to - 777?

Instructions say to rename the old LocalSettings.php. Persumably a new one is created and placed somewhere? Install program finds an existing wiki and asks you to insert "$wgUpgradeKey = 'abcdefghij..xyz';" into LocalSettings.php - how can can you if the LocalSettings.php has been renamed? OK - so I upload an old copy of LocalSettings.php with the key and that seems OK but I now have an out of date LocalSettings.php file, as it's not been generated by Ver1.17.0?

Next it appears I need to add these variables: $wgDBadminuser and $wgDBadminpassword in LocalSettings.php (as opposed to AdminSettings.php). Do I set them to the same values as $wgDBname and $wgDBuser - if not - I can't proceed as I have no idea what they should be set to. The instructions cited above just say "3.Make sure the database user has full rights to the database" - how?

So installer then crashs with: "Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@xyz.org and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log." I don't have access to the server logs.

If I try and run the wiki I get this message re: l10n_cache. The database has not been upgraded and fortunately I can switch back to my old wiki install and everything works as it always did. So it appears the installer is having trouble updating the database and noting I can't run ../maintenance/update.php - any ideas? Sorry for being so ignorant and thanks in advance ;--))