Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Proud Chuwongprateep -
Number of replies: 14

Helle everyone! I need your help.


I have downloaded moodle 2.8.5+ and extract file in C:\AppServ\www\moodle and created a blank database in phpMyAdmin named 'moodle'.

But when I try to install by putting this url 'localhost/moodle/' on the web browser and enter, it said


Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=0 in C:\AppServ\www\moodle\index.php on line 79

Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=0 in C:\AppServ\www\moodle\index.php on line 79

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in C:\AppServ\www\moodle\index.php on line 79


What should I do? I have tried another version (2.8.5) as well ,but the result was the same. I hope there are some solutions. Thank you in advance.

Attachment Screenshot 2015-04-02 14.48.07.png
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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Proud Chuwongprateep -
Please kindly help?
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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Just H -
What version of PHP are you running? First thing that came up when Googling your warning is this.
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In reply to Just H

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Proud Chuwongprateep -
I'm using PHP version 6.0.0 dev which was included when I installed Appserv 2.6.0.

What should I do next? Change to PHP 5.4.4 following the requirements of Moodle 2.8.5+, isn't it?
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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Just H -

This is getting outside my comfort zone (I'm not that techy) but given there may never be a PHP 6 series I certainly wouldn't be using a dev version of PHP 6. I don't know if it will fix the issues you are having but personally I would downgrade to the current stable version at least.

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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Bret Miller -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Backslashes (\) have special meaning in php. Try replacing them with forward slashes (/) and see if that fixes it. I know us Windows users have a hard time. I assume you had to put in a path somewhere in the setup process... Think c:/...

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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

In IIS you'll find WPI (Web Platform Installer), use that to install PHP 5.5.x and then do the install. Setting up PHP manually require adding handlers to the IIS, which I assume you may haven't done already, whilst WPI takes cares of all the things including adding handlers, and adding php files to default documents.

Alternatively, if you want to test run Moodle on a localhost, rather  individually setting up IIS/PHP & MySQL, just uninstall IIS and all the things that you have installed with it, download Windows Installer Package from Download area, and you are good to go, that package has Apache, PHP and MySQL already to take care of your Moodle installation. Be assured to un-install/remove IIS before that, else you'll find yourself into more trouble of releasing ports.

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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Luis de Vasconcelos -

First check your Moodle config.php file very carefully. Did you manually create it or did the Moodle installer create it for you? If you created it manually check for any '\' characters that don't belong there. Alternatively, delete the config.php file and recreate it again - or let the Moodle instaler create it for you.

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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Proud Chuwongprateep -
Thank you for all of your help! For now, I installed Moodle packages for Window: Moodle 1.9 19+ instead the 2.8.5+ version and it works well without error while installing. As a beginner, I think I will try this version first and if I can use it fluently, I will update to the newest version again. BTW, Thank you for helping me again.
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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Just H -

There have been fairly massive changes between 1.9+ and 2.8+ that I personally think you would be better off persevering and installing 2.8+ (that way you can bypass the frustration a lot of us had to go through with the changes, particularly how files are handled).


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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

File management changed in version 2.0 onwards, so if you are learning 1.9 then you are simply not doing any favor to yourself, if 1.9 version ran at your server, means there was PHP issue which you weren't able to solve despite all that assistance provided.

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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Proud Chuwongprateep -

I understand your point and I gree with that. So, now I'm trying again on Moodle Windows Installer 2.8.5+ and I found an error after a 'Server checks' page.

And I'm going to follow this page https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/Using_slash_arguments to enable the use of slash argument.


Attachment Screenshot 2015-04-14 15.02.06.png
Attachment Screenshot 2015-04-14 15.14.44.png
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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Just H -

That's strange, never seen "Other checks" before and just checked a 2.8.5 site and it's not there either; dumb question but are you definitely trying to install 2.8.5 and not 2.9?

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In reply to Proud Chuwongprateep

Re: Can't install moodle 2.8.5+

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

OK, lemme be clear at one point, slash arguments are a REQUIRED part in Moodle 3.0 (A Future Release), and as of current releases, its a RECOMMENDED Part.

Now to make things bit more clear, Moodle installation shows 2 options only when assessing server requirements, REQUIRED (Highlighted  in Red) and RECOMMENDED (highlighted in Orange Color). While without meeting Required part, you cannot install Moodle, whilst with RECOMMENDED part, you can still install and work on Moodle.

and regarding the "Error" its not an error, its Blank Screen. as Error always leave a track to follow the issue.

for this "so called error", just get rid of the "cache" and "local cache" folders inside your moodledata directory. and refresh the page. Moodle will self re-create those folders in Install.

Sometimes cache gets corrupted showing blank screens, just delete the folders and you'll be good to go.

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