Manual talk:Installation

Anyways mediawiki
doesnt seem to work with addon domains. The website is nationofshadows.com but the directory is root/public_html/nationofshadows. Can someone help me out. When i open the localsettings.php it says "This file is part of MediaWiki and is not a valid entry point". I dont understand what is going on. I am so upset cause I actually had to upgrade my server software which meant thsadasat i had to move my ENTIRE website including all 5 of my domains to a different box for the sole purpose of getting mediawiki. And now i cant install just cause it is on an addon domain!

Aceofspades1217((cannot log on))

CAN ANYONE HELP ME! Aceofspades 00:35, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Conclusion: MediaWiki does not play well with others.^_^


 * I'm experiencing the same problem, I think. I've installed mediawiki to test.domain.tld, and it doensn't work. I'll try to re-install it in the www-space now. 62.233.4.3 08:53, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Uploading images: Which function actually makes the upload?
Hi,

I have massive problems with safe mode and uploading images to my wiki. I did create the directories and made them 777. I did apply the changes to the LocalSettings.php. But I still get errors like Could not copy file "/tmp/php8DaiV2" to "/home/ws/ry149/.public_html/wiki/images/Cutplane_snapshot.png".' I have no idea what could cause this error.

Now I am looking for the function call that actually makes the upload of chosen file to the /tmp/somename file. I only find the function that copies/moves the tmp file to the correct named file.

I use Wiki 1.5.3. I found the function 'function processUpload' in 'SpecialUpload.php'. This functions comments made me think that this is the function I am looking for. But I can't find the part that uploads the local file to tmp/somename.

Please please please...

Someone an idea?

Thanks, K.B.

I also have similar problems. For you I would make sure that your server isn't running in safe-mode. Also there may be imagemagick issues. Personally i get " Warning: shell_exec has been disabled for security reasons in /home/.iroquois/zorlac/sporewiki.com/includes/Image.php on line x" when it tries to create thumbnails. Safe-mode is off, chmodding is correct, path to imagemagick is correct. -Zorlac

Where can I go for help??
Hi,

I really need help upgrading my version of MediaWiki. I was wondering if there's a forum I can go to for help? The thing I find about this Wiki, and in general - there's just no central place for help. Am I meant to post questions here, or where? It's all so disorganised.

Anyway, my problem is that I've just upgraded from 1.4 ro 1.5rc4 because we need good user management. Now, there's very little documentation about upgrading, and what there is implied that this was possible, and that the data itself would just be upgraded fine.

So I backed up my database and then did the upgrade. The upgrade worked, except now all my data is gone. The little info there is on upgrading did not say this was going to happen!! So my question now is, how do I restore my data? I've got it in SQL statements and an XML file.

But I'm guessing I can't just run those SQL INSERT's to restore it because the structure has changed.

What do I do?

thanks if anyone reads this. (86.128.156.139 12:55, 15 September 2005 (UTC))

I have set up a forum MediaWiki Users It's brand new but hopefully some knowledgeable people will find it and contribute. As for your DB, you might be able to use phpmyadmin to restore it. -TS

Troubleshooting
If you cannot use the install script for some reason, follow these steps

Can't Even Get Started
Okay, so I've unzipped the mediawiki file and uploaded all of the files to my hosting server. I don't see any "config" file or anything that looks like a directory (just regular files). I am not a programmer by any definition, so maybe I just don't know what to look for. When I click over to the /wiki folder in my brower, I'm told I don't have permission to look at the page.

Help!! (email@tonyfleming.org)
 * I'm on the same boat. I also want My very own wiki site but we need a tutorial ([mailto:Eddie@EddieSegoura.com Eddie@EddieSegoura.com]) -- EddieSegoura 10:25, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

- Try changing the permissions in the window where you uploaded the files to the server. Right click on the file (where it's hosted) and selected properties (or attributes). There will be an area where you can check boxes, giving permissions.

Running in a subdomain
I found that installation itself was fine, but due to the way redirects work, I haven't been able to get the wiki to be addressable from both the subdomain and the subdirectory of my site.


 * http://wiki.mydomain.com    needs $wgScriptPath= "";
 * http://www.mydomain.com/wiki needs $wgScriptPath= "/wiki";

So the two aren't compatible. If I choose the latter configuration, I get page not found from the subdomain. If I choose the former, I get bad wiki links in the subdirectory.

I have the same problem. Anyone know how to work around this?

Questions about installation (apache and domains for languages at webhost)
Two questions about installation, and thanks very much to anyone who can help! I want to upload mediawiki on a domain provided by a web host, which will be paid for. But I am less than an amateur about installing things like MediaWiki, and could use really some help.


 * 1) It says on the Installation page that you first need MYSQL, and PHP, and Apache. The web hosts I am considering all say they have MYSQL and PHP, but none of them mention Apache. Once I have the domain thru my web host, can I upload Apache myself? How?
 * 2) I want to start with more than one language domain, like in Wikipedia. To do that, when I purchase space from my webhost, must I purchase a license for more than one domain? Or are the language domains really subdomains?
 * 3) Is there some sort of easy step-by-step guide for "regular" people like me who purchase space on a web server, and have never set up a website before?

Thanks!
 * Apachee is the name of the web server. The webhost you are using is probably already running apachee. If they are not you will need to move to one that is running apachee. I imageing you could get MediaWiki to work on other servers but it would not be worth the effort.
 * Language domains can be just subdomains. Yoiu should be able to use either in exactly the same way.
 * This guide is the only such guide i know.

Minimum system requirements

 * Question from 129.42.208.182 moved from Help page:

How much RAM does PHP require on a unix webhost ?

Depends on your trafic

Aceofspades1217

Installation goes nowhere
I successfully went throught all steps of the installation process. In the end the install tutorial even said " installation succesfull, now visit your wiki!" But when I do visit the wiki nothing happens. I mean, really nothing, the page loads, stop and it seems I am still in the same page I was before. I tested in a pc (Firefox & ie) and a mac (safari & mozilla). Only safari did something different that was to give me the following error message:

Safari can't open the page. Safari can't open the page: "http://www.wanderingabout.com/kiwi/index.php/Main_Page" because it could not load any data from this location.

I am completely lost, any tip? If it helps, the only warning output was about my "register globals" being activated which seemed a minor security issue, and the information that the problem persisted even afetr I changed folder permissions (chmod) back o normal.. --Avsa 20:05, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

After Installation Missing images
I went through the installation process without problems. Uploaded the latest cur file and the Wikimedia Commons images used on the English Wikipedia. Everything works except that the images don't display. I know there is something simple I've missed and would appreciate any hints. Thanks

Moving an installation
How does one go about moving an installation of MediaWiki to a new location on a server? Can I assume that I can move the entire directory and that I'll then need to make changes to my database? If so, what are the changes necessary?

In my specific case, I am running a wiki at http://www.blisteredavalon.com/wiki/index.php, which can currently be accessed through the redirect domain http://pcpedia.blisteredavalon.com. I have decided I want to change http://pcpedia.blisteredavalon.com to a fully hosted subdomain and run the wiki from there, instead (now that I know how to add a fully hosted subdomain to my site).

Galatea 17:46, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)

> It seems to me like f it works with your redirect from the http://pcpedia.blisterredavalon.com/ URL, moving it to the same FQDN shouldn't hurt it. I'm about to try moving mind from one FQDN to another, and if it works, I'll let you know.

.htaccess
my hosting "company" does not allow .htaccess files to used. all such changes must be made through a web interface. What do I need to do to make MediaWiki work? GigaClon

My miserable experience
I have previously installed Wikimedia on my Windows desktop on top of EasyPHP. Everything went very smoothly. Today I decided to try to install Wikimedia on our SuSE server. I expected it to me pretty easy. No such luck. The information here about installing Apache, PHP, MySQL etc is woefully inadequate. I've spent most of the day hacking around and am getting pretty close - I'm at config/index.php, but cannot access the MySQL database... User:Very Frustrated 13:04, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Update: Actually a lot of the problems I encountered were a consequence of me installing the wrong versions of Apache and MySQL on SuSE. I got different results depending on whether I use the SuSE graphical packing managemnt tool or the shell RPM command.  SuSE seems to be not very joined up in this respect.  Once I got the right packages installed then the Wikimedia install was nice and smooth. User:Very Happy Now 10:13, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Move or copy LocalSettings.php?
The install process says "To complete the installation, move config/LocalSettings.php to the parent directory.". But this wiki page says to copy it.

>You can copy it or move it, as far as I know, and since copying it is less destructive, it's what I did. The LocalSettings.php that the Wiki uses is the one in the parent directory.

Move is just as good, it suggests to remove the config/ directory for added security anyway

You can place it in the root and if you have access to the httpd.conf, setup a symlink.
Create a symlink from what to where?!?

What I tried which works: 1) download the tar file to /tmp, 2) create the document root for the (virtual) web server (or use /usr/local/www/data), 3) unpack the directory, 4) symbolic link from 'wiki' to 'mediawiki-VERSION'.: cd /usr/local/www/virtuals/mediawiki.example.com tar xvfz /tmp/mediawiki-1.6.8.tar.gz ln -s mediawiki-1.6.8 wiki

The statement about httpd.conf doesn't seem to be anything to do with the symbolic link -- you only need to change httpd.conf if you need to tell your web server software (presumed to be Apache) about your new virtual server.

When I do this again I might try just renaming the directory: mv mediawiki-1.6.8 wiki

Hope this helps someone.

Jonathan.

Help needed
Okay, I need alittle help on this one. The server is Lycos. PHP 4.3.10 MySQL 4.0.18 Upload and post max size 50MB. Max execution 30MB, Memory limit 16MB. These functions are disabled, but they claim I should be able to run Mediawiki:
 * highlight_file
 * diskfreespace
 * exec
 * passthru
 * system
 * popen
 * pfsockpen
 * show_source
 * php_uname
 * ini_alter
 * ini_restore
 * ini_set
 * getrusage
 * mysql_list_dbs
 * get_current_user
 * set_time_limit
 * getmyuid
 * getmypid
 * dl
 * leak
 * listen
 * chgrp

But when I try to install, I get:

Warning: ini_set has been disabled for security reasons in /data/members/paid/r/e/redge.nl/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 117

Warning: main(includes/Defines.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /data/members/paid/r/e/redge.nl/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 121

Fatal error: main: Failed opening required 'includes/Defines.php' (include_path='.:/data/apache/php/mmp_lib:/data/session') in /data/members/paid/r/e/redge.nl/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 121

I checked, and the file wiki/includes/Defines.php does exist. So what´s going on here? -- Redge (Talk) 17:56, 30 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I have the same issue, and I think I see what it means. I don't know how to fix it however.

The script has a comment saying require_once breaks if a directory in the path is not readable, and tries to work around it with a set_ini changing te include path - which is disabled, so no workaround. Apart from moving files around, I don't see a solution. Here's the relevant bit of config/index.php $IP = dirname( dirname( __FILE__ ) ); $sep = (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR == "\\") ? ";" : ":"; ini_set( "include_path", ".$sep$IP$sep$IP/includes$sep$IP/languages" );
 * 1) Relative includes seem to break if a parent directory is not readable;
 * 2) this is common for public_html subdirs under user home directories.
 * 3) As a dirty hack, we'll try to set up the include path first.
 * 1) As a dirty hack, we'll try to set up the include path first.

mysql permissions
Given that the mysql user and password are within the LocalSettings.PHP file, what should I change the permissions to after the initial setup?

> 400 and making the owner the user that runs the web server should work. Possibly 600 if it needs to change it but I doubt it.

need troubleshooting help
I installed per the instructions, and all seemed to go fine. However, when I use the wiki I find that I can only save edits as an anonymous user. When I log in as a user, even a sysop, I can no longer save my edits. I can not save any user preferences either. It seems I can no longer update anything in the database once I've logged in. When I log out, I can again save edits.

Any ideas? I'm stumped.

I have the same exact problem and if you fix it I'd greatly appreciate if you could let me know on my talk page. Thanks, I'll be searching too and let you know if I find anything. Shashe 23:35, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

> may be you should create a directory "sessions" where you have installed your wiki. >>I'm not sure where I would put this directory, or what it would accomplish.

System requirements / software requirements
This page should probably include details of minimum and recommended software requirements. From attempting an installation I know that

WARNING: PHP 4.3.2 or higher is recommended. Older versions from 4.1.x up may work but are not actively supported.

Installation Error
I am getting this error. One of the errors is even in another language, that I don't know. I only speak English and live in the US. My Errors -

Warning: Die Funktion ini_set, welche dein Script nutze, wurde aus Sicherheitsgründen deaktiviert und kann nicht genutzt werden. in /usr/export/www/hosting/travianwiki/Wiki/config/index.php on line 117 Warning: main(includes/Defines.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/export/www/hosting/travianwiki/Wiki/config/index.php on line 121
 * translation: ...the function ini_set, which your script uses, was deactivated on security grounds and can not be used.--Sf-andrew 19:19, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Fatal error: main: Failed opening required 'includes/Defines.php' (include_path='.:') in /usr/export/www/hosting/travianwiki/Wiki/config/index.php on line 121

I am using Funpic.org

I'm getting similar errors. It looks like the program's looking for the /maintenance directory inside index.php, which fails. Perhaps one of the mirrors has a bad version of the file? I'm going to try downloading from a different mirror and see if that will work.

Downloading from a different mirror worked.

bypassing mysql root user
is there a way to bypass requiring a mysql root user on the first install screen? i've created a database already as well as a new user/pass specifically for mediawiki, but it wants to recreate the same database. $$\frac{aack}{aaahh}$$

<<<< I'm getting tired of it asking for a "superuser". Webhosters will NEVER give you root.

>>>> Update: This is crazy, but trying clearing the "form" data in your browser, and make sure the password for the database itself is correct. Apparently, my Firefox browser was sending in a different password than I told it to. o_0

Installation Error Message "No input file specified"
I have tried to set up the following combination - mediaWiki 1.4.7 on PHP 5.0.4 with MySQL 4.1.13 on IIS 6.0 (Windows 2003 Server). However, when I actually try to access the wiki for the first time I get redirected to index.php/Main_Page (which is good), but then get an almost-blank page with the message:

"No input file specified"

I can run PHP scripts and can send queries to the MySQL database (so I don't think there are any problems there). I only get the error after I have been told that everything is set up, and after having copied the LocalSettings.php file into the parent directory.

Can anyone give me any guidance on what is going wrong? I have looked at permissions, and have set it so that IUSR can "Read & Execute" and "Write" to the entire mediawiki tree, but I cannot get away from the message. I have also tried installing 1.5beta4, which appears to install fine, but gives exactly the same message at the end. --Sf-andrew 18:56, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

'''Solution: It appears that my setup requires "ugly URLs"! This means the following in LocalSettings.php:
 *  # $wgArticlePath     = "$wgScript/$1"; 
 *  $wgArticlePath     = "$wgScript?title=$1"; 

'''Another Question On This Topic: I am having the same problem with the "No input file specified" error on the index.php in my root wiki directory. I am running WIMP (PHP 5.2, MySQL 5.0.27 on IIS 5). I enabled "ugly URLs" on the auto install page and double checked LocalSettings.php per above. I have this set up in ISAPI mode. Any other ideas what may be causing this problem?

Thanks, Jay

Yet Another Question about this error message  I got the same error message when I first tried browsing the directory. I had followed the windows installation info and put the mediawiki in a directory outside of the webroot and created a virtual directory. When I finally moved the files to the web root, the "no input" message went away and the install sailed through. Could we have a path problem here? I'm not familiar enough with IIS to be sure what is happening. 24 January 2007
 * PHP version = 5.2.0 cgi-fcgi
 * Webserver = Microsoft-IIS/6.0
 * Database = mysqlt 4.1.22
 * Operating system = Windows NT 5.2 build 3790

Installation under lycos (spain)
When i tried to start installation, this appeared in my screen:

Warning: ini_set, getrusage, mysql_list_dbs, get_current_user, set_time_limit, getmyuid, getmypid, dl, leak, listen, chown, chmod, chgrp, realpath, tmpfile, link, mb_send_mail has been disabled for security reasons in /data/members/free/tripod/es/f/3/a/f3aindoor/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 117

Warning: main(includes/Defines.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /data/members/free/tripod/es/f/3/a/f3aindoor/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 121

Fatal error: main: Failed opening required 'includes/Defines.php' (include_path='.:/data/apache/php/mmp_lib') in /data/members/free/tripod/es/f/3/a/f3aindoor/htdocs/wiki/config/index.php on line 121

It seems an error in index.php

What sould I do?Thank you

Hello, Same problem on Lycos FR. thank you for helping us ...

Installation of Help: files
This is probably not the right place for this request, but MediaWiki really needs a (simple?) documented process for populating the Help: namespace in a new installation. Oh, and a set of help pages to go with it that don't have links to other namespaces that are not present in a standard installation -- this Meta-wiki's help pages would be a good starting point, but they do contain many links outside of the Help: namespace and to pages that are only relevent here.

Clarify database creation step
In step 3, about creating a database, the second paragraph says

"If you have root access, the setup file will ask you for the root password and automatically setup the database for you. See MySQL config for more details."

This is the first reference to "the setup file". It's not clear to me if this means that there's a step coming up which will do this automagically or if there's some other script (this setup file) to be run.


 * I, too, have questions about this step.


 * I have a MySQL server and an Apache server, running on two separate computers. Now I would like to install the MediaWiki software on the Apache server.  I do not want to install MySQL on the same machine; I want MediaWiki to connect to my existing MySQL server.  I also do not want to allow the wiki software to use the MySQL username root (except possibly during the creation of the wiki database).


 * Can I configure MediaWiki (1.4.9) – before or during installation – to use a host different from localhost as its db server? How?
 * --Verdlanco\(talk) 13:52, 26 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Never mind – I think I found the answer in the configuration settings index.
 * I have added a line to the documentation in case someone else has the same questions as I had.
 * --Verdlanco\(talk) 12:01, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

MySQL Driver problems
J'ai installé Wikimédia, et j'ai obtenu cette erreur au moment du setup :

Checking environment...

Warning: dl [function.dl]: Unable to load dynamic library './mysql.so' - Le module sp飩fi頥st introuvable. in F:\Inetpub\wwwroot\install-utils.inc on line 17 Could not load MySQL driver! Please compile php --with-mysql or install the mysql.so module.

Que dois-je faire ??

Pierre 8 janvier 2006

--same problem in the US: Warning: dl [function.dl]: Unable to load dynamic library './mysql.so' - The specified module could not be found. in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\install-utils.inc on line 19 Could not load MySQL driver! Please compile php --with-mysql or install the mysql.so module.

-- bonjour / hello mon ami... In the php.ini file you must enable the mysql extension. Note that the mysqli (the "improved" one) DOES NOT WORK for this purpose. You must enable the original one. Then, for me at least, it simply worked.

bon chance - good luck! Mark July 11 2006

MySQL Driver problems in Windows
I am getting the problem that the installation script can not find a driver for MySQL.

I have...
 * Altered php.ini so that the php_mysql extention is uncommented
 * put the PHP directory on the system path
 * altered the extension_dir to the ext folder

Please - what have I missed !!!

Gordon Lewis 14 September 2006

updating the Special:Version page
I'm upgrading from version 1.4.9 to 1.4.10

I've updated files and ran the update.php file from the command line however the Special:Version page still shows version 1.4.9 what do I need to do to upgrade this?

--Kayotic 21:10, 29 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Update, Nevermind I just installed to a new directory and moved my images, and files over once it worked I overwrote the original and it works great.

--Kayotic 21:54, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

How to add an initial administrator user?
I created the database before running the install script. How can I add an administrator now? Either through the site or directly in the database? -- anon


 * I also had problems with the initial set up of the first administrator user. It's supposed to happen automatically, but for me something went wrong too. Could be there's a bug there, but maybe I just did something stupid.


 * Anyway I suppose the first tip would be to go to your 'Special:ListUsers' page, that's wiki URL/index.php?title=Special:Listusers  ...It should list your administrator user, with "(Bureaucrat, sysop)" by the name.


 * I had the problem that I was unable to login with that user. Requesting it to email the password is the first thing to try I suppose, but for me this was not working (don't think any email features are going to work for me). I got around this by making a temporary security loophole, modifying includes\SpecialUserLogin.php -- Harry Wood 10:14, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

question about problem with installing
Notice: I had a problem while installing. I filled in the form as desired and with the right database password but still got an error that the database password was wrong. The problem was the encoding the browser used (utf-8) and special characters in the password. After changing the encoding to ISO-8859-15 everything worked fine. (But I am not sure whether this is a problem of the browser, the server or the media wiki)

You might see:

"Sorry! The wiki is experiencing some technical difficulties, and cannot contact the database server." This isn't a particularly useful debug output and you might spent ages chasing your tail, but check your version of php and mysql. There is a basic incompatability between the php-4 and mysql-4. in terms of password authentication.The mysql client within php4 used an older method of encryption. The capability to use older style sql passwords exists via an "old_password" function, but that defeats the improved security. At present I haven't found a solution - other than moving to php-5 which I think is a little drastic. Surely this is a config setting?

As a workaround, after you get the above error log into mysql and reset the password created using the "old_password" function (Documented at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/old-client.html):

set password for wikiuser@'%' = OLD_PASSWORD('YOUR_PASSWORD'); set password for wikiuser@localhost = OLD_PASSWORD('YOUR_PASSWORD'); set password for wikiuser@localhost.localdomain = OLD_PASSWORD('YOUR_PASSWORD');

Re-run the web page and it should now work.

Questions about chmodding
Question - The LocalSettings.php file is created by the web server with a+w permissions. Is it a security risk to leave it writeable by all users, or even the web server?

Guess? - Mine was just created 644, maybe this was changed/fixed or specific to your os / apache setup?

I believe it is not a security risk. If the permission is not 644, for instance 600 or so, then the web server would not be able to read the wiki's configuration. (the webserver runs with the permission "other")


 * If you move it instead of copying it, then it will be writable by the web server. It may indeed be safer, especially on a multiuser server without safe mode restrictions, to make it owned and writable only by yourself. It must however be readable by the web server or the system doesn't work. --brion 03:52, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Question: I just installed the newest stable Mediawiki. After moving LocalSettings.php to the root directory its permissions is 666. This permissions is probably risky but in the article it is not mentioned what permissions LocalSettings.php should have. Does anyone know?
 * ...and does anyone know how to change these permissions?

Question: Do you mind: You will need to set the permissions (chmod) the config directory to 600 (instead of 0600) ? --AmbroiseIngold 09:43, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Historically, the chmod command used octal notation, so the leading 0 was significant. More recent versions of chmod will do the right thing without the leading 0. Actually, what he probably should have written instead was 0700. If you use 0600, the directory is not executable to the owner. 0700 is read+write+execute for owner. For directories this means that the owner is able to change current dir to it.


 * Also, nowadays, if you use a non-zero digit for the first of four, that controls the SUID/SGID/sticky settings. I don't know just how it worked back in the all-octal days, if they needed a fifth digit in there when they were setting S*ID bits or what. But the extra isn't purely a useless holdover these days. -- John Owens 20:54, 2005 August 1 (UTC)

It's still producing 0666/rw-rw-rw for me in 1.5beta4, so given others' statements that they got 644, I'd imagine it probably depends purely on your umask setting for the user your webserver runs as. And I do feel that there should be a note to check its permissions right alongside the note to move LocalSettings.php into the wiki root. --John Owens 20:54, 2005 August 1 (UTC)


 * My LocalSettings.php is also 666 (ooh, how devilish!); does anyone know how I can change this? Say's I'm not allowed like...

I found a nice way round this:

cp LocalSettings.php LocalSettings1.php

touch LocalSettings.php

chmod 644 LocalSettings.php

more LocalSettings1.php &gt; LocalSettings.php

more LocalSettings.php    (to check all is well)

rm LocalSettings1.php

What should the permissions be on the other folders? There are currently 755, but are then accessible online. Should I create a .htaccess file? Thanks!

The minimum permission required to get it working is 0644 (octal) or rw-r--r--, not 0600 as it says in the install guide. The web user (nobody,www,whatever) must be able to read this file. This still means that the file is world-readable. Not ideal, given that it contains the MySQL database name, user and password. Fair enough, with the current build, if you try to access it directly, you get "This file is part of MediaWiki and is not a valid entry point", but it should probably be moved above the web root, or protected using .htacess file.

Index.php
I've uploaded my files, created my MySQL database, and chmoded the config directory... then I got to www.mysite.com/wiki and there's a link that forwards me to the config directory.

Which then tells me that index.php is not found, even though I'm looking directly at it should I tab over to my FTP client.

Is this a common problem? Is there just something I did wrong in the installation? Or something set-up wrong in general?

reply
Your host may be using php4 by default. I am trying to install this on a 1and1 account (without luck yet) and had to add an .htaccess file specifying to use php5. This solved my problem. See http://faq.1and1.com//scripting_languages_supported/php/9.html

same boat
I'm in the same boat - I get a 404 error when I click the "setup the wiki" link on wiki/index.php. The config/index.php file is right where it's supposed to be, and the link is pointing at the right location. I also tried the .htaccess thing, but it didn't work. I also tried it with version 1.6.10, but it won't go.

reply II
I made such an .htacces and did it into the wiki root AND the root/config, but it does not help!!! I have 1und1, too... :(

I`m receive this warning during installing Wiki
Warning: shell_exec has been disabled for security reasons in /config/index.php on line 1320

I`m receive this warning during installing Wiki & then Thumb`s don't created
Warning: shell_exec has been disabled for security reasons in /config/index.php on line 1320

Hosting support service advice use GD library, how make instalation or configuration Wiki to use GD?

Or repair automatic Thunbnail creation using comand?

$wgUseImageMagick = false; file: includes/image.php find (it is around line:1065 and line:1052): $conv = shell_exec( $cmd ); change with: $conv = exec( $cmd );
 * To use PHP's GD library, add following line to LocalSettings.php:
 * If you change shell_exec command used in Mediawiki with exec command, you don't get any warnings and can able to create thumbs with ImageMagick:

Most instructions assume that you do your own hosting
...and do not address issues when someone else is hosting. For example, how do you back up mysql through phpAdmin?

Using diff3 on Windows/IIS
I managed to get a working installation of MediaWiki (1.5.3) on my webserver, but I am unable to get the diff3 utility to work properly. I have set the path to the GnuWin32 utility in LocalSettings.php, and played around with permissions in that directory to no avail. I continue to get these errors on the edit conflict page: Warning: popen(C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\diff3.exe -a --overlap-only "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\mer1E.tmp" "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\mer1D.tmp" "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\mer1F.tmp",r) [function.popen]: No error in F:\wiki\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php on line 812

Warning: fgets: supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in F:\wiki\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php on line 814

Warning: pclose: supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in F:\wiki\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php on line 819

Warning: popen(C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\diff3.exe -a -e --merge "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\mer1E.tmp" "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\mer1D.tmp" "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\mer1F.tmp",r) [function.popen]: No error in F:\wiki\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php on line 824

Warning: fread: supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in F:\wiki\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php on line 827

Warning: pclose: supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in F:\wiki\mediawiki\includes\GlobalFunctions.php on line 833

Any ideas?

Works ok with me, this line in LocalSettings.php: $wgDiff3 = 'C:\www\GnuWin32\bin\diff3.exe';

And thats where I downloaded.

I did set permission for diff3.exe to EVERYONE, since for some reason my computer doesn't have the ISUR_XXX and the WUSR_XXX accounts. Maybe because its a company machine. But diff then works.

?Recommended Hosts?
I am currently running MediaWiki on a webserver host that does not support ImageMagik, dvips, make, gmake... I am desperate to enable texvc. Can anybody recommend a good webhost for MediaWiki with all this support. Further, it would be nice to synchronize my online database with that on my home computer (using something like Webyog). Do any hosts allow this? Many thanks, Joejk2 15:15, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

How can I install MediaWiki on my PC?
I downloaded MediaWiki, PHP, MySQL, etc, and i want to istall it on my personal computer so that only people on my network at home can use it. How can i do that? 84.109.89.71 00:35, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Not to be flip - but just read & follow the instructions! Installing on your home pc is not really different from a server install - its just that the server is in your house not at some remote location! Last nite I installed all this to my daughter's laptop (Win XP). I DID find a bug in the specific combination of Apache 2.2 with PHP 5. The cure is a ZIP file containing the relinked php5apache2.dll file. THEN I also found, on the mysql site, a replacement extension file - php_mysql.dll + libmysql.dll. AND you need the file vcredist_x86.exe from the Microsoft web site. Sorry but I can't remember the HERO who figured this out and made a note somehere in my internet travels late last nite... But aside from this version specific glitch, this should all take just a half hour or so... Good luck & enjoy!! Mark --24.195.14.18 23:02, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

I've done this before... search the web for "Wiki on a Stick" It will give you good step-by-step instructions on how to set up everything. It's designed to be installed on a flash drive, but it can be put on your hard drive just as easily.

Terrible TERRIBLE FAQ
This Installation guide needs a TOTAL rewrite as it assumes developer knowledge of a fairly high level.

We need a guide for normal people who know how to upload files, what their server adress is and all that but havn't got a clue what to do when it says "If this doesnt work just create a MySQL DB and make a local user on it". WTF???

Please PLEASE rewrite this guide so a non-developer can understand it. It doesnt take dev- knowledge to admin a small wiki so it shouldnt take dev-knowledge to install it in the first place.

I agree whole heartedly. This is a good program that I have seen in practice on other sites but I cannot troubleshoot the problems that this installation guide does not address or address poorly/too advancedly. I really agree with the poster of this message. Raj O Mac 06:27, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Installer not working
I upolad all the files, I am presented the "You'll have to set the wiki up first!" link, then "INTERNAL SERVER ERROR" when I try to access the "config/index.php" page.

My site is hosted by aruba.it ... anyone has already installed mediawiki on aruba?

Thx

Memory limit
Hi, on my hosting there is PHP limit set to 6MB. Installer fails. Is it at least possible to run wiki under these conditions? If so, how do I manually set up the wiki.

Thanks.

MediaWiki 1.5.8 installation
Below is the screen I receive.....Not sure where to go next

 Checking environment...

Warning: umask has been disabled for security reasons in install-utils.inc on line 26

PHP 4.4.2: ok

Warning: PHP's register_globals option is enabled. MediaWiki will work correctly, but this setting increases your exposure to potential security vulnerabilities in PHP-based software running on your server. You should disable it if you are able.

PHP server API is apache; ok, using pretty URLs (index.php/Page_Title)

Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support.

PHP's memory_limit is 80M. If this is too low, installation may fail!

Have zlib support; enabling output compression.

Neither Turck MMCache nor eAccelerator are installed, can't use object caching functions

Warning: shell_exec has been disabled for security reasons in index.php on line 1338

GNU diff3 not found.

Found ImageMagick: /usr/bin/convert; image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads.

Installation directory: /martinway.com/html/wiki

Script URI path: /wiki

Notice: Undefined variable: wgDBpassword in Setup.php on line 144

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 http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/old-client.html for help.

Connecting to wikidb on localhost as root...success.

Connected to 4.0.24-standard; using enhancements for mySQL 4.

Database wikidb exists

There are already MediaWiki tables in this database. Checking if updates are needed...

Notice: Undefined variable: wgDBpassword in index.php on line 590

Granting user permissions...

...hitcounter table already exists.

...querycache table already exists.

...objectcache table already exists.

...categorylinks table already exists.

...logging table already exists.

...validate table already exists.

...user_newtalk table already exists.

...transcache table already exists.

...trackbacks table already exists.

...have ipb_id field in ipblocks table.

...have ipb_expiry field in ipblocks table.

...have rc_type field in recentchanges table.

...have rc_ip field in recentchanges table.

...have rc_id field in recentchanges table.

...have rc_patrolled field in recentchanges table.

...have user_real_name field in user table.

...have user_token field in user table.

...have user_email_token field in user table.

...have log_params field in logging table.

...have ar_rev_id field in archive table.

...have ar_text_id field in archive table.

...have page_len field in page table.

...have rev_deleted field in revision table.

...have img_width field in image table.

...have img_metadata field in image table.

...have img_media_type field in image table.

...have val_ip field in validate table.

...have ss_total_pages field in site_stats table.

...have iw_trans field in interwiki table.

...already have interwiki table

...indexes seem up to 20031107 standards

Already have pagelinks; skipping old links table updates.

...image primary key already set.

The watchlist table is already set up for email notification.

...watchlist talk page rows already present

...user table does not contain old email authentication field.

Logging table has correct title encoding.

...page table already exists.

revision timestamp indexes already up to 2005-03-13

...rev_text_id already in place.

...page_namespace is already a full int (int(11)).

...ar_namespace is already a full int (int(11)).

...rc_namespace is already a full int (int(11)).

...wl_namespace is already a full int (int(11)).

...qc_namespace is already a full int (int(11)).

...log_namespace is already a full int (int(11)).

...already have pagelinks table.

No img_type field in image table; Good.

Already have unique user_name index.

...user_groups table already exists.

...user_groups is in current format.

Initialising "MediaWiki" namespace...

MediaWiki has a problem

Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties.Try waiting a few minutes and reloading.(Can't contact the database server: )

What is the problem?

After moving localsettings - Internal Server Error
In short I am able to successfully install Wikimedia without problems. I then move the 'localsettings' file into the main directory and the problems occur. Once this is done I get a '500 Internal Server' error.

As far as I can see the URL redirects from /wiki to /wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page so it should be working. The index.php and localsettings.php files have CHMOD 755. I'm using the latest version of the software and PHP version 5.0.5.

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction, cheers. Brollachan 09:24, 25 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Try setting the LocalSettings.php permissions to 777; some hosts seem to need that, despite the security risk. // Pathoschild (talk/map) 11:48, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Tried without sucess. As far as I can tell the server doesn't work if the file is CHMOD 777, as when index.php was 777 it wouldn't redirect the url to the main page. Probably worth mentioning that the internal server error page also states "Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request." on its last line. Brollachan 12:14, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * According to my webhosts the server is a 64bit linux machine and you need to talk to the autheoprs of your scripts if there is a problem as they should have a updated code for 64 bit. Hope this new bit of infor may be of some use, as I'd really like to get it working. Brollachan 18:47, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Web and Google access to subdirectories
Once installed, how to make the subdirectories unaccessible to the web viewers and google indexing? Thanks, Justin

Lighttpd
I'm currently running the software on my lighttpd server, and it runs fine. I'm only running 1.5.6, I will upgrade tonight or tomorrow and reply with my results, but I don't see why it can't run the newest version. The main point of this is I'm asking/requesting that it gets added to the Prerequisites space.

Update: The newest version as of writing this (1.6.7) is installed and working on my lighttpd server.

To complete the installation, move config/LocalSettings.php to the parent directory.
To complete the installation, move config/LocalSettings.php to the parent directory. Uh! I tried to copy and move it to all possible places and it still don't change.... Do i need to have the index.php in the config file too?

Tried it in:

/public_html /public_html/config /public_html/wiki

edit: I tried it in /public_html/wiki/mediawiki-1.6.7. And then it worked, but the only thing who appears is this: �‹�

for my installations (at least) I simply moved the LocalSettings.php from from the directory it starts in (which is inside /config) to the SAME directory as the one holding the /config directory. For example, if the directory structure is: c:\wiki\config\LocalSettings.php then move it to: c:\wiki\LocalSettings.php - see - just up one level...

hope that helps.. Mark --24.195.14.18 23:06, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Bad description concerning "Run the installation script"
I urgently recommend rewriting of that section. It says: "Use your browser to visit the wiki directory on your webserver to run the installation script. If you installed into public_html/wiki, this will probably be something similar to  http://www.yourdomain.com/wiki . Depending on how you uploaded the files, you may need to visit  http://www.yourdomain.com/wiki/config  instead."

This is quite irritating (if not wrong) and incomplete.
 * First of all, it is not even mentioned, which file the installation script actually is. You can't expect a newbie to just know that. Thus, it has to be mentioned that it is the index.php in config-subdirectory.
 * Additionally, not every website is by default configured to use "index.php" as default document - especially not on windows servers. In that cases,  http://www.yourdomain.com/wiki </tt> as well as  http://www.yourdomain.com/wiki/config </tt> brings you nowhere.
 * If you installed into public_html/wiki,  http://www.yourdomain.com/wiki </tt> will most probably not run the installation script, as this is located in the config subdirectory. So either the correct URL will most probably be  http://www.yourdomain.com/w--~iki/config(/index.php) </tt> or  http://www.yourdomain.com/config(/index.php) </tt> if the website points directly to the wiki root directory

As to "knowing" that the script to be run is index.php - no, actually you DO NOT need to know that! Because if the server is properly set up, pointing to the /wiki/config directory will AUTOMATICALLY cause that file to load/run! Because part of the PHP installation is to tell the server to do that... like it normally would for index.htm or index.html... If your server's PHP installation uses something other than index.php (let's say START.HERE instead) then you'd need to modify the wiki's files/structure accordingly - renaming index.php (which is actually standard I think) to START.HERE - which would be a maintenance issue I should think...

Your last point is not completely true tho - on my LINUX box I think the wiki automatically pushed me from wiki to wiki/config... on my windows pc, I manually had to go to /config to run it...

enjoy! Mark

User Names
Having finally got Apache and MySQL running reasonably reliably, I'm at the point of entering initial setup details for my new wiki database. I had the idea that the installation script would create an initial user for me, and that that was why it was asking me to specify passwords and usernames at this stage. Unfortunately it seems to want these details already defined, and frankly I'm at a loss how to do it. If someone has explained this already in the text above I do apologise - but I'd be very grateful if someone could give me it step-by-step. Thank you - Fimbulvetr 13:05, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Version 1.6.2 problems I encountered (ENGINE/TYPE and KEY TOO LONG)
I hope this is the correct place. I don't know whether these apply to the current version, or whether this is the correct place.

1. In maintenance/tables.sql (the mysql4 ones) it says ENGINE=InnoDB in several places. Because I'm using an old version of mysql I had to change each ENGINE= to the older TYPE= for it to work.

2. In the same file it gave "key too long" error for the job table. I think this is because the utf-8 thing uses 3 bytes per character so it goes over the limit. Anyway, doing a bit of maths, it seemed to work when I changed the relevant line to KEY (job_cmd(248), job_namespace, job_title(248)).

Hope this helps. Jonathan1 20:21, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Languages folder
Can I remove some files in Languages folder? Especially MessagesAf.php, MessagesAr.php ... MessagesZh_tw.php. I think I need only files for (one!) my language (cs) and perhaps english files, too. Thanks. J. Cerny

Not recognizing MySQL
When I enter my info at the localhost/wiki/config/index.php page, it only lists postgresql as a possible db. I have mysql installed, so why isn't it recognized? Also, the installation won't even work with the postgresql db on my localhost server. (In other words, as my db server, I put "localhost", and it says it can't connect. The postmaster is running.) What am I doing wrong? Thanks, ElAmericano 02:00, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's still not recognizing that I have mysql, but I'm at least getting past it not connecting to the postgresql db. Now I get the following:

PHP 5.0.5 installed Found database drivers for: PostgreSQL PHP server API is apache; ok, using pretty URLs (index.php/Page_Title) Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support. PHP is configured with no memory_limit. No zlib support. Neither Turck MMCache nor eAccelerator nor APC are installed, can't use object caching functions Found GNU diff3: /usr/bin/diff3. Couldn't find GD library or ImageMagick; image thumbnailing disabled. Installation directory: /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki Script URI path: /wiki Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki. Generating configuration file... Database type: PostgreSQL Loading class: DatabasePostgres Attempting to connect to database server as xxxx... Checking for tsearch2 ...OK Checking for plpgsql ...OK

Warning: pg_query [function.pg-query]: Query failed: ERROR: relation "pg_catalog.pg_roles" does not exist in /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/includes/DatabasePostgres.php on line 171 A database error has occurred Query: SELECT rolname FROM pg_catalog.pg_namespace n, pg_catalog.pg_roles r WHERE n.nspowner=r.oid AND n.nspname = 'mediawiki' Function: Error: 1 ERROR: relation "pg_catalog.pg_roles" does not exist Backtrace: #0 /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/includes/Database.php(604): DatabasePostgres->reportQueryError('ERROR: relatio...', 1, 'SELECT rolname ...', '', false) #1 /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/includes/DatabasePostgres.php(518): Database->query('SELECT rolname ...') #2 /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/includes/DatabasePostgres.php(113): DatabasePostgres->schemaExists('mediawiki') #3 /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/includes/DatabasePostgres.php(35): DatabasePostgres->open('localhost', 'xxxxx', 'password', 'wikidb') #4 /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/includes/DatabasePostgres.php(42): DatabasePostgres->DatabasePostgres('localhost', 'xxxxx', 'password', 'wikidb', 1, 0) #5 /Library/WebServer/Documents/wiki/config/index.php(684): DatabasePostgres::newFromParams('localhost', 'xxxxx', 'password', 'wikidb', 1) #6 {main}

What am I doing wrong? - ElAmericano 14:52, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Installation error message
When I attempt to install v1.6.8, I get the following error: Parse error: parse error, unexpected '.' in /home/zippee/descendantsofjulia-www/wiki/includes/OutputPage.php on line 957

I am using a hosted server that passes all of the installation requirements when the install script runs. I think this must be a naming convention problem, but I'm not sure. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

It is now fixed! In the spirit of helping others, I don't know the specific fix, but what I did was go ahead and delete my folder on the server, and then recopied the software to a new folder on my hosted server. It is now working. Obviously, this error must be generated by the installation script when there are missing files.

Installation Timeout
Hey y'all...

I'm trying to install mediawiki on Awardspace.com (a server I have read decent reviews about, including mention of running mediawiki). I hit the initial configuration page, enter all the info, then it goes away to do its thing. Problem is, the server times out...

Error Code 1460: timeout Background: The gateway could not receive a timely response from the website you are trying to access, a DNS server, or another gateway server. This might indicate that the network is congested or that the website is experiencing technical difficulties.

I've tried this several times over the last 6 days...same issue, so not congestion, reasonably sure its not tech difficulties...

I'm wondering if it could be due to the line in the Environment check:

PHP's memory_limit is 16M. If this is too low, installation may fail! Attempting to raise limit to 20M... ok

But I could be talking rubbish...I just don't know.

Anyone have any ideas ay all? I would be really really grateful...if it's not against policy, my email address is: [mailto:eclective@gmail.com eclective@gmail.com]

Failed to open stream
Sorry if this has already been asked, but I didn't see anything that addressed my issue, so...

I'm attempting to install MediaWiki 1.6.8 on a server running PHP 4.4.2 and MySQL 4.1.21. I get this error message when attempting to do so:

Warning: main(install-utils.inc): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/www/wiki.thecrimsondawn.org/config/index.php on line 43

Fatal error: main: Failed opening required 'install-utils.inc' (include_path='.:/home/www/wiki.thecrimsondawn.org:/home/www/wiki.thecrimsondawn.org/includes:/home/www/wiki.thecrimsondawn.org/languages') in /home/www/wiki.thecrimsondawn.org/config/index.php on line 43

I am wondering whether it has something to do with the fact that I'm attempting to install it to a subdomain. I also have a feeling it's getting the path wrong as the path to my wiki directory is /home/public_html/wiki.

I don't really know PHP, but if there's a line that needs to be changed somewhere in config/index.php or something, I can do that.

I also made sure that the config directory is writeable, so it isn't that. -- Amber 17:30, 6 October 2006 (UTC) --- Hi! I have the same problem anyone can help??? 7-10-2007 --- This error means that the file is missing. For some reason I didn't get all of the files when I extracted the them from the archive. Re-extracting the files corrected the issue.

Explanation of Caching options
I've used MW before and now going for a more serious site! ;) I've never changed any caching options (or used caching software) and I think it would be sueful to have an explanation of the ways to speed up the MW process that we can do. On the installation page it says "Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator or APC. Object caching functions cannot be used." (And nicely gives a link to their project pages) but there's nowhere easy that explains the advantages and disadvantags of using them with MW. Just my 2 pence --172.200.182.161 16:35, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Installion guide does not explain how to specify turck mmcache server/port
I have installed turck mmcache but what do input for server and port? I tried localhost:80 with no success. "Shared memory caching: Memcached servers: Didn't get correct memcached response from localhost:80"

Server/Port Problem
I have eAccelerator installed, but MW fails to recognise it. As far as I can tell, eAccelerator does not use a port. It is frustrating that a good wiki engine (MW) comes with so lousy information and without a decent documentation. phom 2007-2-7

Added passage about missing table prefix
My shared host is pair.com. This was the output of a successful install after I applied the prefix hack. My small wiki farm employed many symlinks. My default config page did not present the database table prefix. That's now explained on the main page.

* PHP 5.1.1 installed * Found database drivers for: MySQL * PHP server API is cgi; using ugly URLs (index.php?title=Page_Title) * Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support. * PHP is configured with no memory_limit. * Have zlib support; enabling output compression. * Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator or APC. Object caching functions cannot be used. * GNU diff3 not found. * Found ImageMagick: /usr/local/bin/convert; image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads. * Found GD graphics library built-in. * Installation directory: /usr/www/users/xxx/wikifarm/mediawiki-1.8.2 * Script URI path: /xxx/mediawiki * Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki.

Generating configuration file... * Database type: MySQL * Loading class: DatabaseMysql * Attempting to connect to database server as xxx_7...success. * Connected to 4.1.20-log * Database xxx_wiki exists * Creating tables... using MySQL 4 table defs... done. * Initializing data...   * User xxx_7_w exists. Skipping grants. * Created sysop account WikiSysop. * Initialising "MediaWiki" namespace for language code en...   * Done. Updated: 0, inserted: 1495, kept: 0.

Creating LocalSettings.php...

I didn't attempt to file a bug report with MediaWiki. It's an easy work-around for anyone who encounters the same difficulty once the issue is pointed out. MaxEnt 07:19, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

update from latest svn
I overwrite mediawiki-files from svn downloaded today. When I try open my site I have error

'''VKT Wiki has a problem

Fatal error: Call to a member function selectRow on a non-object in D:\WebServ\xampp\htdocs\mediawiki\includes\User.php on line 701'''

$s = $dbr->selectRow( 'user', '*', array( 'user_id' => $this->mId ), __METHOD__ );


 * I've had this error myself and have seen it several times. I think this post is most likely old, but for anyone else that gets this problem, from what I see it is some SQL problem of some sort. It could happen when the server drops (or so I've read), but in my case (and in the above case) it is because of some change that was made to the DB. For me, I had added another wiki that used the same DB and some little thing I entered differently (the second time around) into the superuser account info boxes during the installation, made the pre-existing wiki no longer recognize the login info given on LocalSettings.php. For me, it was a simple matter of just changing the $wgDBuser variable. I don't know if this is always the case for everybody--I doubt that--but maybe it'll help if you do a little digging around in regard to your SQL settings.

The specific error arises from poor coding practise. The line before makes a call to wfGetDB to get the database object to do a lookup. This fails - could be a variety of reasons including bad data in the mysql tables resulting in no db connection - and so wfGetDB returns something other than an object. Things to check - my guess - db setup params such as user and password between mediawiki and the db as well as corrupted data/tables. We are in the process of rolling back our db to try and fix this problem. (this para added by PC)

Can't create a record in a table
I'm desperate. Every time I try to install MediaWiki 1.8.2 in my computer, I get the following errors:

* PHP 5.1.3 installed * Found database drivers for: MySQL * PHP server API is apache2handler; ok, using pretty URLs (index.php/Page_Title) * Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support. * PHP is configured with no memory_limit. * Have zlib support; enabling output compression. * Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator or APC. Object caching functions cannot be used. * GNU diff3 not found. * Couldn't find GD library or ImageMagick; image thumbnailing disabled. * Installation directory: C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\wiki * Script URI path: /wiki * Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki. * Warning: $wgSecretKey key is insecure, generated with mt_rand. Consider changing it manually.

Generating configuration file... * Database type: MySQL * Loading class: DatabaseMysql * Attempting to connect to database server as root...success. * Connected to 5.0.27-community-nt * Created database mediawiki * Creating tables... using MySQL 4 table defs...Query "CREATE TABLE `user` ( user_id int(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, user_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , user_real_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , user_password tinyblob NOT NULL default , user_newpassword tinyblob NOT NULL default , user_email tinytext NOT NULL default , user_options blob NOT NULL default , user_touched char(14) binary NOT NULL default , user_token char(32) binary NOT NULL default , user_email_authenticated char(14) binary, user_email_token char(32) binary, user_email_token_expires char(14) binary, user_registration char(14) binary, PRIMARY KEY user_id (user_id), UNIQUE INDEX user_name (user_name), INDEX (user_email_token) ) TYPE=InnoDB " failed with error code "BLOB/TEXT column 'user_password' can't have a default value (localhost)".

My box is a Windows XP Professional SP2, running Apache 2.0.54, MySQL 5.0.27 and PHP 5.13.

Other applications requiring PHP or MySQL work properly, so the setup of these pieces of software should be OK. However, the installer keeps complaining about the problem about creating a record in a table with a default value...

Any ideas? Is MediaWiki ready for MySQL 5 or should I use MySQL 4?

Jose.

Well, it's myself again, answering my own question...

I dediced to google for "BLOB/TEXT column ... can't have a default value" and found this:

http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=19498

This page states that MySQL 5.0.18 had a bug: it allowed a BLOB/TEXT, NOT NULL field to have a '' default value. This is exactly what the installer is trying to do, create a field with these characteristics.

I have MySQL 5.0.27 and looks like that bug was corrected, so the attempt to create a BLOB/TEXT, NOT NULL field with a '' default value is simply refused by the db server.

Bad luck. At least the files /maintenance/tables.sql and /maintenance/mysql5/tables.sql need to be patched to avoid this.

Jose.

changed LocalSettings.php does not work
The installation was succesfull. After enabling image uploads, and thus only changing false into true, de LocalSettings.php doesn't work anymore. I get this error: Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /opt/www/avontsk/web/www.derepubliek.eu/vvp/wiki/LocalSettings.php:1) in /opt/www/avontsk/web/www.derepubliek.eu/vvp/wiki/includes/WebResponse.php on line 9

Only the original LocalSettings.php seems to work. I've tried chmodding, but to no effect. Can anyone help me?

Avonts 16:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I found what the problem is thanks to our friends of the Mediawiki-mailinglist. I was editing the LocalSettings.php-file with Windows Notepad. When saving the file, Notepad inserted an invisible character at the beginning of UTF-8 files (the "byte order mark" or BOM).
 * The BOM character, unfortunately, breaks PHP files because it gets sent to output before any of the code is run. So it's necessary to save the file as UTF-8 _without_ BOM, if you have the option available. Now I'm using jEdit.
 * Avonts 08:03, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

needs cPanel instructions
Most webserver hosts will NOT give their clients ssh access to their server OR give them the root pass to the mysql database stuff.PLEASE write a install guide that takes into account the following: If anything the code NEEDS to be rewriten to take into account the above.
 * cpanel
 * lack of access to ssh or the actual server itself
 * lack of linux experence

Config Directory Unwritable
I really have no idea what this means...how does one change the owner to apache and where does that code go?


 * Config directory unwritable: If you have changed the permissions for the config directory and still get an unwritable error try changing the owner to apache.

* chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/mediawiki/*

Raj O Mac 22:04, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Cant install the WIKI
Hello I loaded the Wiki up and then I opened the index.html, but i always come to https://www.configtools.de/xml/config;jsessionid=39947F541243361789908C60311E900D.TC164b!!!!!!!

WHY???!!!!!! ITS FUCKING WRONG!!! I CANT INSTALL IT! WHAT SHOULD I TYPE INTO configtools.de ??!??!?!

Warning: $wgSecretKey key is insecure, generated with mt_rand. Consider changing it manually.
This message seems to appear during every installation.

I have two problems with this message:
 * 1) What is the actual security risk? I found out that mt_rand is based on the Mersenne Twister, and that this random number generator is insecure because it is possible to predict the all random values from a short sequence (about 600) of generated random numbers. There seem to be calls to mt_rand at many locations in the code. Therefore: How would an attack look like that exploits this vulnerability, i.e. gets a sequence of consecutive random values, and what is the benefit for the attacker?
 * 2) What can I do to avoid the security risk? Assuming that the security threat is real, what I have to do to change $wgSecretKey manually?

Failed opening required './LocalSettings.php'
I get the following error:


 * Warning: require_once(./LocalSettings.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/plantsa/public_html/includes/WebStart.php on line 86


 * Fatal error: require_once [function.require]: Failed opening required './LocalSettings.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/plantsa/public_html/includes/WebStart.php on line 86

It's a fresh install, the whole process went smoothly, then I made my changes in localsettings, and went to run it, and get this error. I don't even know what to begin looking at. The only one thing not really in place yet is that the domain name I plan to use is not up yet. But when I try running it using the IP number I get this error. Is that the cause or is there something else I should look at. The path it is looking for the file at seems nonsensical to me. Thanks! Raffi

-- I had the same problem ... turned out that I needed to change permission for LocalSettings.php to "chown www LocalSettings.php"

Installation fails - Wiki 1.7.1 under Kubuntu-6.06 using Postgres-8.1
The description is fine except the following update line.

echo 'update pg_ts_cfg set locale=`$LANG` where ts_name=`default` and prs_name=`default`'| psql wikidb

if the line 'update' in the above box does not work try the following in the psql shell:

psql wikidb update pg_ts_cfg set locale = current_setting('lc_collate') where ts_name = 'default'; \q

I found that in http://www.postgresqlforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&p=178 after googling "tsearch postgres wiki"

Non localhost MySql
I can't seem to connect into a external database. Can anyone help?--X66x66 21:19, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

PHP problem ? PHP 5.0.0 or higher is required. ABORTING.
Hi. When I try to get to the config part (index.php), I get the following error message: PHP 5.0.0 or higher is required. ABORTING. I have no idea why this is doing this as my host has no problem with PHP 5. TheAma1 21:15, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I found this answer from. Apparently, even though hosting providers support PHP 5, they may still be using PHP 4 as the primary. The simple solution for this is to add the following 2 lines to your .htaccess file:

AddHandler x-httpd-php5 .php AddHandler x-httpd-php .php4

Mac OSX MAMP Install Trouble
I have installed MediaWiki on my OSX 10.4.9 box with MAMP - Apache 2, Php 5, MySQL 5.0.33 After successful install, the wiki page is blank - the browser completes loading the page, however there is nothing displayed. Any advice?
 * I have the same difficulty. I had Wikimedia working perfectly on my OS X 10.4.9 with MAMP 1.4.1 (Apache 2.0.59 MySQL 5.0.19 PHP 5.1.6)
 * However, I recently upgraded to MAMP 1.5b1 (Apache 2.0.59 MySQL 5.0.33 PHP 5.2.0) and all of the sudden, it work work.
 * The error occurs on Loading class: DatabaseMysql -- console log error: httpd crashed
 * Evidently, something with connecting to the MySQL database is causing apache to crash. I’m at a loss as to what exactly is causing this, as I’m unable to understand a thread crash report. -- Furthermore, I’m unsure if the problem is with wikimedia with this version of MySQL, or a bug in MAMP. -- Other Web applications, such as phpBB3 work fine. Highway of Life 18:26, 25 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Further testing shows that the problem is the eAccelerator in MAMP 1.5b1 - Disabling this extension (easiest method is MAMP Pro) solves the problem until a patch is created. -- For further details or development, contact me via my account here or on StarTrekGuide - Hopefully that helps others that may be upgrading. Highway of Life 18:52, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Visible in IE7 but not in IE6?
Hi - I successfully installed a MediaWiki and can fully access it with my pc which has Internet Explorer 7 (latest version; it also works with Mozilla). But when I checked on two different pc's that have IE6 or below installed, I land on a blank page... very strange.

Anyone with a similar problem or someone who has a solution to this problem?

Thanks much, --Auctionduke 21:53, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I can't install the software, in my server
When I try install Media wiki, says( the text inside [] is not part of the log): "

Checking environment... [ <-- the title] Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation problems.

Warning: set_time_limit [function.set-time-limit]: Cannot set time limit in safe mode in /www/sites/1/[webdomain]/k/z/[subdomain]/site/[subdirectory]/install-utils.inc on line 31

PHP 5.2.1 installed Found database drivers for: MySQL Warning: PHP's safe mode is active. You may have problems caused by this, particularly if using image uploads. PHP server API is cgi; using ugly URLs (index.php?title=Page_Title) Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support. PHP's memory_limit is 8M. If this is too low, installation may fail! Attempting to raise limit to 20M... failed. No zlib support. Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator or APC. Object caching functions cannot be used. GNU diff3 not found. Couldn't find GD library or ImageMagick; image thumbnailing disabled. Installation directory: [ I don't want write it] Script URI path: [ (there is a subdirectory) I don't want write it] Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki. Warning: $wgSecretKey key is insecure, generated with mt_rand. Consider changing it manually. Generating configuration file...

Database type: MySQL Loading class: DatabaseMysql Attempting to connect to database server as [database server]...success. Connected to 5.0.26-log; enabling MySQL 4.1/5.0 charset mode Database [database server name] exists There are already MediaWiki tables in this database. Checking if updates are needed... ...hitcounter table already exists. ...querycache table already exists. ...objectcache table already exists. Creating categorylinks table...Query "CREATE TABLE `[prefix]categorylinks` ( cl_from int(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', cl_to varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , cl_sortkey varchar(86) binary NOT NULL default , cl_timestamp timestamp NOT NULL, UNIQUE KEY cl_from(cl_from,cl_to), KEY cl_sortkey(cl_to,cl_sortkey), KEY cl_timestamp(cl_to,cl_timestamp) ) TYPE=InnoDB " failed with error code "Specified key was too long; max key length is 1000 bytes ([here said the SQL Adress, I don't want write it])".

The last part says: " failed with error code "Specified key was too long; max key length is 1000 bytes ( [here said the SQL Adress, I don't want write it] )". I think that is the error, and it don't install. 'What I can do? (to installing)


 * If you know the answer, answer it, please, here. (thanks)


 * If the writing (my writing) is not so good, is because I am a Spanish speaker

this is my IP adress in this moment: --200.112.1.253 23:48, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Warning: apache2 and httpd.conf
Apache 2 only has the httpd.conf file for compatibility the instructions should be updated accordingly

What about non internet use
all i want to do is have it on my computer only, i already have made web pages on my computer that aren't online and linked them up, I wanted wiki program because it is easier to link, write, create. I'm trying to write a story and this is perfect for stringing my ideas together, however I cant put it online or risk someone copying my material that i would put on there. ~Fell Skyhawk


 * Peter Blaise says: Install and configure a "web server" (Apache, IIS) on your own computer, then the rest of MySQL, PHP and MediaWiki, then Use http://Localhost to access it locally. Since you're not serving "the web" from your computer anyway, that'll work and keep it private, but accessible to you only.  Are you networked - more than one computer?  Then use http://networkid from other computers on your network to see the wiki.  Tell us more, and please report back how it works for you.  -- Peter Blaise, peterblaise 15:21, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I have found this page: http://www.blindedbytech.com/2006/08/31/how-to-install-wikipedia-for-offline-access/ I don't know if this can help you (except the Wikipedia database dump) SPQRobin 20:45, 6 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Marcio Carneiro says: If you are a Linux user maybe this helps: http://basket.kde.org/

Installation on PHP 6
The dl function being obsolete in PHP 6 (actually became obsolete with PHP 5), in order to install MediaWiki 1.10.1 (and probably older versions as well), you need to change the following line: if (extension_loaded($compname) or dl($compname. '.' . PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX)) { to this: if (extension_loaded($compname)) { in other words, remove the dl part...

Warning: PHP 6 is currently under development, and should not be used for production websites, but only as tests. (I've been using it without any problem for a while, but G-d knows when one can arise.)

Pierre Paquette (pierre [at] pierrepaquette [dot] net), 2007-07-31 05:00UT


 * Actually this is not enough, more errors arise after. The change I gave above only allows installation of MediaWiki under PHP 6, not its use... If anybody has any idea how I could use MediaWiki under PHP 6, please let me know; I accept direct e-mail to the address below.
 * Pierre Paquette (pierre [at] pierrepaquette [dot] net), 2007-07-31 05:14UT

500 Internal Server Error
Hi, I'm getting this error after I move/copy LocalSettings.php My host is using cpanel, with MySQL 4.1.22, and PHP 5.1.6 Can anyone help me fix this? --202.43.230.123 05:21, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Problem with texvc on Fedora 7
Wrote something about a texvc + Fedora 7 related problem here http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Problems_with_texvc#Problems_with_texvc_on_Fedora.

Any help is appreciated, and is probably worth mentioning in the main article.

--Klano16 10:54, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Revert to version of August 17, 2007
Some joker changed the wording install into uninstall. Since I am new to this wiki I will not revert immediately. Any chance tof an original writer to do so? JanEnEm 01:03, 23 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Fixed. In future, feel free to fix this kind of problem yourself - we won't bite! ;-) --HappyDog 16:19, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Moved Content to Other Pages
I've moved most of the content on this page to Manual:Downloading MediaWiki, Manual:Installing Prerequisites, Manual:Installing MediaWiki and then transcluded it back in so that other pages like Manual:Installation guide can link to them as well. If there is a problem with this please let me know and I will revert it. --Cneubauer 17:44, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * No - that's fine. Ultimately, the installation guide will replace this page (once it's sufficiently completed). --HappyDog 18:07, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Database file
The database file systems and Relational Databases versus Object Oriented databases are a nowadays debate. Is it possible to consider http://exist.sourceforge.net/ or http://modis.ispras.ru/sedna/index.htm as options to database file format for MediaWiki? Those two are just a mention of possibility, there is a lot of options of XML Native Database systems out there. There is ODF file format too and the option of OpenOffice become an editor of MediaWiki files. I hope the question I bring here is reasonable to ask.

System requirements
I want to use MediaWiki as the basis for a private intranet. Max 100 users, probably quite low traffic, and not going to be a huge amount of pages. It'll be running on Windows IIS. My question is what hardware do I need for this? I do want quick pageloads. Would I need a decent server, or would the low volume mean I could get away with using a decently specced PC? Bastun 10:01, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Installing with Xampp
This manual page is extremely scary and off-putting, especially if you're on Windows. However, I just installed MediaWiki on top of Xampp, and it was actually extremely simple. It goes something like:
 * 1) Download Xampp
 * 2) Install with default parameters.
 * 3) Download Mediawiki, expand in htdocs folder.
 * 4) Configure as normal.

Perhaps someone would like to update this page to remove all the scariness, or at least give a massive pointer at the top to how easy it is these days? Stevage 15:20, 7 November 2007 (UTC)


 * This page will probably be replaced by Manual:Installation guide before too long, which is closer to what you suggest. --HappyDog 07:49, 8 November 2007 (UTC)