Blank Moodle pages

Blank Moodle pages

by Jason Barber -
Number of replies: 7

Hi everyone, I too am new to the Moodle community, and desperately need some help. I have installed, as per the instructions on moodle.org, on a SuSe 9.1 server and am not able to see any of the pages.

I have installed all of the necessary packages, such as php-mysql, and have done the necessary changes to config.php, etc... I have created a MySql database, and have created a user. I have also, in desperation given 777 rights to both the moodle, and moodledata folders, but all to no avail.

Have scoured these forums, but nothing seems to help me. Really need to get this Moodle installation finished as I have deadlines looming.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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In reply to Jason Barber

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by gael gael -
I think there is something in the FAQ related to the blank page.
Also had a look at your apache's log. I had to increase php's memory_limit (etc/php.ini) from 8 to 16
Gael
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In reply to gael gael

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by Jason Barber -

Hi Gael Gael, thanks for your help. I looked at the submission in the FAQ regarding blank pages, and I do have the full pathname in my config.php

$CFG->dirroot = '/srv/www/htdocs/moodle' ;

Also, MySql and PHP are working because I can see the phpinfo page and I can use phpMyAdmin.

Also changed php memory setting in php.ini, as you suggested, from 8M to 16M, and the restarted Apache, but no success.

Any more suggestions?

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In reply to Jason Barber

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by gael gael -
Is there really nothing in apache's log?
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In reply to gael gael

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by Jason Barber -
Afraid not. The log only reflects Apache starting up again and configuring itself when it was restarted. Wish it did say something, however, I can understand why it does not as there are no 404 errors or anything. As far as Apache is concerned the page was displayed corrrectly, except they are blank. Could the problem be with my PHP settings? Also, could it have something to do with the AcceptPathInfo on variable which I have seen mentioned?
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In reply to Jason Barber

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by Keith Breckenridge -

On this same issue, we've enabled the error reporting in index.php and now get the following:

undefined function: mysql_connect() in /srv/www/htdocs/moodle/lib/adodb/drivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php

MySQL, & Php are installed and running (in PhpMyAdmin)

Any comments would be very helpful.  (We are experimenting, not very successfully, with moving off a Windows platform).

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In reply to Keith Breckenridge

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by Steve Singlet -
Keith,

I had the same problems installing on Mandrake 10.0. After many hours
of messing with php.ini, config.php, mysql, .htaccess, blah, blah, I
found that the above error (undefined function: mysql_connect() in
/srv/www/htdocs/moodle/lib/adodb/drivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php) results
when the php mysql.so extension is not loaded. The *frustrating* part
was that browsing whatever/moodle/admin merely gives a blank page; no
errors in the httpd log, the php log, syslog...it just dies silently.
Hopefully we can get a FAQ entry explaining how to change the line
"error_reporting(1)" in moodle/lib/setup.php; this would have saved
hours of headbanging! Oh, well, on to the silver lining. Here's what
worked for me:

According to an obscure comment in /etc/php.ini, mandrake doesn't load
php extensions from the php.ini file, rather it loads them from
/etc/php.d/ In this directory, there are supposed to be files for each
extension. The general form of these files is:

extension = extention_name.so

Now I noticed there is also a /etc/php directory with nothing in it.
I removed /etc/php and made a soft link: ln -s /etc/php.d /etc/php
and verified that /etc/php.d/34_mysql.ini contained the line

extension = mysql.so

Just for kicks, I also added the same line (extension = mysql.so) to
/etc/php.ini, even though the mandrake docs say that this method is
deprecated in favor of the /etc/php.d/extension.ini method.

After all of this, bingo! The admin page comes alive and all is
golden. Hope this helps whomever is facing a similar blank screen
syndrome...

Now I'm off to undo all the damage I did while dinking around with the
other configuration files...
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In reply to Steve Singlet

Re: Blank Moodle pages

by Matt Shaul -

Keith:

Thanks!

You saved my a lot of time. I had the same problem - and used your fix - on a Moodle 1.3.3 Fedora 2/Apache2.0.50/PHP4.3.8/MySQL4.0.20 box.

Almost through the upgrade...

Matt

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