Manual talk:Running MediaWiki on GNU/Linux

Dear all,

as I am running Debian stable the question occurs to me: are the any efforts to make a .deb-package?

Best regards 134.2.226.18 22:35, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)


 * It's a pretty good idea. There'd probably be some problems with the standard layout -- we'd probably have to put LocalSettings.php and the LanguageXX.php files up in /etc somewhere. I'm a Debian maintainer... maybe I'll ITP this. --Evan 23:30, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I downloaded the CVS phase3 module HEAD a couple days ago, Feb. 23, and installed it on my Linux system. It seems to be working ok except for texvc. I went down into the math subdirectory and tried the manual test suggested in the README there, and that didn't work. So I just wonder whether I made a mistake in installing, or whether that code is not in working order right now. Is WikiTeX going to be put in the CVS repository soon? Maybe I should just wait for that. GregLee 18:56, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
 * WikiTeX is in CVS; should have a patch to integrate it with Phase 3. Danenberg 12:01, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

LocalSettings.php problem
I try to install wikimedia 1.5.2 [100webspace] account. I upload the files, make the MySQL database and make the CHMOD for config folder to 777. I fill config/index.php and press Install!. But there was no LocalSettings.php file in config folder. So I tried to install it on Windows XP (Apache + MySql) and there was no problem.

Similar problem: index.php not understood by server
I try to install wikimedia 1.5.7 on a webspace account. I upload the files, make the MySQL database and make the CHMOD for config folder to 777. I enter the file config/index.php and get an internal server error: [error] [client 83.173.247.89] Premature end of script headers: php-script

Install problems with MySQL
When I try to install MediaWiki from the command line and I'm asked for the root password for the MySQL server - and I've changed the relevant user info - I get the following error line repeated several times:

"Warning: mysql_query: supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /var/www/html/wiki/wiki/Database.php on line 165"

How can I troubleshoot this?

I'm using a commercial web hosting package, and although I've set up a new mySQL database and username, and entered those into the setup page, I keep getting "connection failed" in red, next to the field for "My SQL server".

It seems like I'm doing something simple wrong.... what is it?

--> OK I fixed it! If you're on a commercial host, you won't have root access to the mySQL server, so you need to leave that field blank. Once you've created the new database and user in your control panel, you enter that information in those fields (using "localhost" as the server) and it works.

--> How did you debug this? I get the same problem using MySQL on RH9. If I start MySQL with the --skip-grant-tables option I can get further, but then the db users can't be setup properly :(

Problems creating thumbnail images
I have installed Wikimedia Software on Suse Linux 8.1. Everything is fine exept the wonderfull thumbnail feature. When an image is uploaded, the appropriated folders in the upload directory for the image and the thumbnail image are created. But the thumbnail image isn't right there. Can anyone help? --Sebastian Wallroth 06:57, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * Did you enable it? LocalSettings.php fragment example:

$wgDisableUploads		= false; $wgUseImageResize		= true; $wgUseImageMagick          = true; $wgImageMagickConvertCommand = "/usr/bin/convert";
 * If you don't want to use the external ImageMagick conversion, it'll try to use the GD library bundled with PHP. Also note that thumbnails aren't created when images are uploaded, but when you first view a page that uses the image at a given thumbnail size. --Brion VIBBER 03:16, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * SELinux also prevents the user apache to access to the wiki/images directory. You may try "setenforce 0" to disable selinux, or use "chcon" to set the wiki/images directory to the user apache. I used "chcon apache:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t /var/www/html/images -R"

Blank Page after Install
I have configured the wiki on this Debian box, but all I get is a blank page, and all logs are empty. How can I turn on debugging? Is this a known problem? I can't find any reference to it anywhere, although I notice another guy had the same issue in Windows. If I could get debugging turned on, that would be great help, and I humbly suggest this is added to the distributed docs.

--Mike, 21 Apr 2004


 * Were you able to complete the install (or even start it)? If not, then maybe the permissions are not such that the install can proceed. See the page for instructions how to do this. It's not very secure, but you can first install it, and then fix up permissions to your desire. Dori | Talk 20:47, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * The install worked OK, I got the success screen, but when I move LocalSettings.php and try to start the actual wiki...nothing. Mike 21 Apr 2004


 * This seems to be a bug. The discussion is continuing on the mailing list (in case someone else is following here), and I don't really know more: Dori | Talk 21:11, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * I had the same problem, and tracked it down. In my case, php.ini was not set to load mysql (had to uncomment extension=mysql.so).  The reason there is no feedback is in include/Database.php, line 94 (or thereabouts, I've got version 1.2.6 of Mediawiki). It is as follows:




 * Note that the @ suppresses the output of any error messages, thus, you miss the error message that PHP would otherwise produce (something about function mysql_connect being undefined). --Yath 22:05, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * I have the same problem, a blank page after a well done installation. (PHP5, MySQL 4.0, APACHE 2.0.50, with mysql extension activated..., on mandrake 10.1) Can't solve the problem, no logs in /var/log/httpd/error_log... but lynx http://myIP/wiki/ return a 500 Internal Server Error.

Does anyone got the solution, because it's driving me crazy. (DoLF 18 April 2006)


 * I had the same problem on my MikiMedia 1.9.3. I disabled extension eAccelerator for my wiki VirtualHost and problem was solved. But, how can I solve problem without disabling eAccelerator?? :-( (DJ_XaKeP 18 March 2007)


 * Solution for me: Read access for Public (744) on LocalSettings.php is required. -82.171.229.231 14:41, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Can't find "xhtml_slim.pt".
I get the following error (all on one line) after the install completes and I move the settings file to the proper place:

[filenotfound: message="xhtml_slim.pt not found" code=0 mode=return level=notice prefix="" info=""]

Did I do something wrong?

--Joey Day, July 16, 2004.

Installing default content?
I installed 1.3.11 on Red Hat 9 from the tar.gz download, and have everything up and running, but I'm missing some default content, such as my Help:Editing page (which is blank - does not exist). How do I install such content so people editing content on my mediawiki can access editing help?

--DavidBiesack 15:15, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Source code?
Hello all, I downloaded the tar from sourceforge, but the source code is in, or they are only config files? The CVS contains all the versions of code, but it's the only way to obtain the code, or the tar contains the code also? Yes, I'm a bit green/newbie on this linux-free software ;), but I want to go into it.

Thanks in advance

J.

Trying to install, but getting "Failed to Open Stream--no such file or directory" error
I downloaded the latest version of MediaWiki (1.40). I followed all the instruction for moving to my servers. Change the permissions on the config file, but when I run the config installation script, I get the following error:

Warning: main(convertLinks.inc): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home3/www/toppup/stream/maintenance/updaters.inc on line 9 Fatal error: main: Failed opening required 'convertLinks.inc' (include_path=' ') in /home3/www/toppup/stream/maintenance/updaters.inc on line 9

I've tried a variety of things to get this to work, but I can't. I tried installing the older 1.3 version of MediaWIki, and it installs fine, but for some reason, 1.4 gives me this error.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks, Russell

More: I have realized that this is most likely a problem with PHP. I loaded this on a different server, different hosting company, and it works fine. But, I'm not sure how to address this from a PHP point of view. Any thoughts?


 * --- 8th of April 2005 --- Hi, I get the same error with MediaWiki 1.4.0, i.e. (Fatal error: Failed opening required 'convertLinks.inc' (include_path=' ') in /home/sites/site58/web/edit/maintenance/updaters.inc on line 9). My Internet Provider uses MySql version 3.23.54-1 and PHP version 4.1.2-3 of which it can be said that both versions are bit old. Requirements for MySQL seems to be version preferably 4.0 or eventually 4.1 according to the release notes

Russell.. I have encountered this twice (I am on a second install and forgot about encountering this initally..duh). I don't remember what I did the first time, but this time I edited the affected line (9) and subsequent (10) line of updaters.inc as follows:

require_once 'convertLinks.inc'; TO --> require_once '/absolute/path/wikidir/maintenance/convertLinks.inc'; require_once 'InitialiseMessages.inc'; TO --> require_once '/absolute/path/wikidir/maintenance/InitialiseMessages.inc';

Note: /absolute/path/wikidir means (for you probably) /home/sites/site58/web/edit/ etc. Hope this works for you-- tlshd

I also came across this and found that the file 'InitialiseMessages.inc' did not exist at all, apparently it didn't upload successfully. When I uploaded the file, it worked fine. - Kevin

on a SUN Cobalt Raq
"Fatal error: Failed opening required 'includes/Defines.php' (include_path='.;/home/sites/site21/web/mediawiki-1.6.3;/home/sites/site21/web/mediawiki-1.6.3/includes;/home/sites/site21/web/mediawiki-1.6.3/languages') in /home/sites/site21/web/mediawiki-1.6.3/config/index.php on line 41"

Odd. 82.152.46.201 14:12, 29 April 2006 (UTC)