Hi there,
I'm trying to install Moodle 1.7 into XAMPP 1.5.5 on a Windows XP machine. I've tried various combinations - the pre-packaged Moodle+XAMPP, XAMPP separately from Moodle, EasyPHP and Moodle - but I can't get past the install screen where it asks for the data directory. I've created the folder for the Moodle data in advance, but it does not make any difference. I've changed the PHP.INI memory_limit to 32M, but that made no difference either. I've also created my database etc, but I never get to the point where the installer would ask for the DB account anyway. It simply hangs for a while after I click "Next" on the Moodle locations page, then displays a blank page and goes no further. As far as I can tell, no errors have been logged by Apache, and the config.php file has not been created.
I've been trying to install Moodle off and on for about a week now, and to be honest I am now pretty much fed up with the thing. It may be a great product, but it's not much use to me if I can't install it.
Can anybody point me towards a solution to this problem, or to a "manual installation" process that would create the config.php file etc without having to go through what appears a non-functional automated installation?
Thanks for any help!
Chris
Greetings, Chris!
I have used the windows complete installer for some time, and never had the problems you describe. However, you might take a look at this documentation
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Windows_installation_using_XAMPP
This is the main page with links to all the documentation on windows installs.
I couldn't tell if you had already tried this or not. http://docs.moodle.org/en/Windows_installation
I believe Skype is often a problem because it also tries to use port 80. Do you have that installed? Also, if you are running IIS on your machine that may be another problem. You don't say if the machine you are using is a server or not.
Hopefully, something in here will help!
atw
I have used the windows complete installer for some time, and never had the problems you describe. However, you might take a look at this documentation
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Windows_installation_using_XAMPP
This is the main page with links to all the documentation on windows installs.
I couldn't tell if you had already tried this or not. http://docs.moodle.org/en/Windows_installation
I believe Skype is often a problem because it also tries to use port 80. Do you have that installed? Also, if you are running IIS on your machine that may be another problem. You don't say if the machine you are using is a server or not.
Hopefully, something in here will help!
atw
Thanks for replying, Prof Wyatt.
I've finally managed to complete the installation by hacking the CONFIG.PHP file myself, based on advice found in another useful post:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=54784
The post tells you which parameters to set in your own CONFIG.PHP file based on the CONFIG-DIST.PHP file in your Moodle directory - DB name, user, password, file locations etc. Then you re-start your servers and browse to http://localhost/moodle/admin (I think - I spent so long on this my brain is starting to dissolve) and complete the process of building the DB structures etc.
It seems like a lot of people are encountering this problem, so I hope somebody out there has some idea why the current installation process seems not to be working properly, and how it could be fixed for new Moodlers in future. If it's any help, I did find that when using EasyPHP instead of XAMPP I got into the DB setup screen, but I couldn't proceed with this installation because my copy of EasyPHP had very old versions of PHP and MySQL. Perhaps it's something to do with conflicting versions of the various products within XAMPP? But I still don't see why many other people should be able to install Moodle using XAMPP without difficulty.
As for me, now I've installed the thing, it's time to find out how it works!
Thanks for your help, and Happy New Year to all!
Chris
I've finally managed to complete the installation by hacking the CONFIG.PHP file myself, based on advice found in another useful post:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=54784
The post tells you which parameters to set in your own CONFIG.PHP file based on the CONFIG-DIST.PHP file in your Moodle directory - DB name, user, password, file locations etc. Then you re-start your servers and browse to http://localhost/moodle/admin (I think - I spent so long on this my brain is starting to dissolve) and complete the process of building the DB structures etc.
It seems like a lot of people are encountering this problem, so I hope somebody out there has some idea why the current installation process seems not to be working properly, and how it could be fixed for new Moodlers in future. If it's any help, I did find that when using EasyPHP instead of XAMPP I got into the DB setup screen, but I couldn't proceed with this installation because my copy of EasyPHP had very old versions of PHP and MySQL. Perhaps it's something to do with conflicting versions of the various products within XAMPP? But I still don't see why many other people should be able to install Moodle using XAMPP without difficulty.
As for me, now I've installed the thing, it's time to find out how it works!
Thanks for your help, and Happy New Year to all!
Chris
I thought about sending you a copy of my config file as an example, but I did not know if that would actually be helpful or not. I am not a server expert, or php/mysql, although I know enough to follow someone else's directions!
I also think that getting old versions of the software causes a lot of problems--there are so many possible combinations of things that it can be quite hard to identify the real culprit!
I think that once you get it going, you will like Moodle. There is a robust toolset and many modules to add if you feel like experimenting! Don't miss looking in the database for add-on blocks and modules.
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6009
I am glad you have gotten your development server running!
atw
I also think that getting old versions of the software causes a lot of problems--there are so many possible combinations of things that it can be quite hard to identify the real culprit!
I think that once you get it going, you will like Moodle. There is a robust toolset and many modules to add if you feel like experimenting! Don't miss looking in the database for add-on blocks and modules.
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6009
I am glad you have gotten your development server running!
atw