Hello,
after hours of crawling this forum and the web i still found no solution:
Once i log in as "admin" most admin features just create a blank page. Some admin features, such as basic configuration, database restore and others do work! Strange! Because database backup, admin/index.php and other DO NOT work at the same time!
Server configuration:
- Debian Linux
- Moodle 1.5.3 Latest Stable Branch: Built Daily 18.12.2005 !!
- even tried 1.5.3 from 16th November 2005 => still the same issue
- Apache2 2.0.55 with "AcceptPathInfo on" , PHP 5.0.5(-3) with MySQL and many more
- PHP mem: 256 MB ( should be fine, i guess ;) )
- MySQL 4.1.15
- yes, the database connection runs: Typo3 runs FLAWLESSLY; in moodle i can create courses, delete users, but cannot use many admin features at the same time (as described above)
Errorlogs (Apache2) DO NOT show any error - just normal access! PHP is even configured to put errors on screen: Still ABSOLUTELY BLANK admin/index.php page!!
Any ideas?
Thank you!
Alexander
Hi,
Had the same report earlier this week, it's probably one of the upgrade statements in admin/index.php... If you can figure out which one it would help!
Yu
Hi,
first of all - thank you for the fast reply!
I just COMPLETELY RE-INSTALLED EVERYTHING from scratch: And now it`s even blank after the initial configuration finished.
I manually put "debug on" within moodle. However, it doesn`t show anything. It doesn`t log anything usefull.
Moodle seems to me - as a long year experienced *nix admin - to be a non-serious beta stage software. No error logging, bad commented code, no real support.
I probably will tell my clients, a university and two schools, to think of another system: Not because of this installation trouble, but from the update/upgrade trouble i read here. If such trouble comes everytime once i would like to update - and updates are important to me - this system is not enterprise ready. It maybe fun for students to play with, but not worth for demanding people to work with.
And for the coding part: I work for typo3 a lot of time as well as for some packages in debian. I simply don`t have time left to fix moodles basic install bugs. And i think this understandably applies to most admins either.
Thank you!
Alexander
first of all - thank you for the fast reply!
I just COMPLETELY RE-INSTALLED EVERYTHING from scratch: And now it`s even blank after the initial configuration finished.
I manually put "debug on" within moodle. However, it doesn`t show anything. It doesn`t log anything usefull.
Moodle seems to me - as a long year experienced *nix admin - to be a non-serious beta stage software. No error logging, bad commented code, no real support.
I probably will tell my clients, a university and two schools, to think of another system: Not because of this installation trouble, but from the update/upgrade trouble i read here. If such trouble comes everytime once i would like to update - and updates are important to me - this system is not enterprise ready. It maybe fun for students to play with, but not worth for demanding people to work with.
And for the coding part: I work for typo3 a lot of time as well as for some packages in debian. I simply don`t have time left to fix moodles basic install bugs. And i think this understandably applies to most admins either.
Thank you!
Alexander
I'm running it on a Debian Sarge system, with apache 1.3.x and PHP 4.3.x, MySQL 4.1.x with no problems at all. No problems at install time, and no problems on any of the 4 upgrades I have done so far.
Running with PHP 5.x has not been as tested thoroughly as with PHP 4.x, so there might be part of the problem.
On the other hand, if you run non-thread-safe PHP extensions on a threaded-mode Apache (the default mode in Apache 2.x, if I'm not mistaken) you can be hitting another bug in there (not that I'm saying Moodle uses non-thread-safe extensions, I don't know enough about Moodle to say so).
Oh, bye the way. You can add something like this to your config.php file, to get some error output at least:
Saludos. Iñaki.
Running with PHP 5.x has not been as tested thoroughly as with PHP 4.x, so there might be part of the problem.
On the other hand, if you run non-thread-safe PHP extensions on a threaded-mode Apache (the default mode in Apache 2.x, if I'm not mistaken) you can be hitting another bug in there (not that I'm saying Moodle uses non-thread-safe extensions, I don't know enough about Moodle to say so).
Oh, bye the way. You can add something like this to your config.php file, to get some error output at least:
ini_set ('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set ('display_errors', 1);
ini_set ('display_startup_errors', 1);
ini_set ('log_errors', 1);
ini_set ('error_log', 'syslog');
and have a look at syslog.Saludos. Iñaki.
Dear Alexander
It is too bad you did not get to see Moodle in its full working glory. It works well for my enterprise.
I agree that the setup could be more painless. The Moodle set up has improved but there could be more in the way of fault-finding and error-reporting. I sometimes wonder if the fact that the moodle foundation (moodle partner network) makes its money out of support, bears upon the the effort expended in making the software installation completely automated and bullet-proof. If you were to pay for Moodle support, then I am sure that there would have been little difficultly
With regard to free support, bearing in mind the fact that you were here (time of first to last post) for all of three hours on a Sunday night, I am surprised you find yourself capable of coming to the conclusion that Moodle lacks support.
Season's greatings
Tim
Alex,
Sorry to hear that you couldn't install Moodle, but I think you would be doing a disservice to your clients if you scare them away from Moodle. Thousands of people have successfully installed and upgraded their Moodle deployments, and Moodle currently powers universities with up to 45,000 students. The Open University of the UK has chosen Moodle for its 180,000 students http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=7354 and the future of Moodle has never looked better.
You said you are running Debian, have you seen this, "Moodle is maintained as a Debian package, which means that if you run the Debian operating system, you can install Moodle as easily as this: apt-get install moodle (discussion) Maintainer: Isaac Clerencian".
Another alternative, for no more than $100 you can probably get a Moodle Partner to fix your problem within an hour.
Don't hate the product, hate the bug
Sorry to hear that you couldn't install Moodle, but I think you would be doing a disservice to your clients if you scare them away from Moodle. Thousands of people have successfully installed and upgraded their Moodle deployments, and Moodle currently powers universities with up to 45,000 students. The Open University of the UK has chosen Moodle for its 180,000 students http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=7354 and the future of Moodle has never looked better.
You said you are running Debian, have you seen this, "Moodle is maintained as a Debian package, which means that if you run the Debian operating system, you can install Moodle as easily as this: apt-get install moodle (discussion) Maintainer: Isaac Clerencian".
Another alternative, for no more than $100 you can probably get a Moodle Partner to fix your problem within an hour.
Don't hate the product, hate the bug
I totally agree with Alex. This is not a system for which I am prepared to stand in front of my boss and say "This is what we need and this will work!"
I was so excited when I found Moodle! It seemed like a great solution for my situation (relatively small company but with lots of geographically-separated sites and high need for online resources), I have a soft spot for Aussie developers, I totally support open-source software, and my best friend's partner works for the Open University. What a serendipitous synergy! I was dying to get Moodle up and running so I could get my learning materials up and start teaching!!
Though I am not an IT professional, I am not a computer newbie by any means - I am old enough to know how to make DOS behave (still!), I worked for 18 months on a full-time software development team and 'techno-weenie' is in my genes. I have spent 30 hrs this weekend trying to install Moodle on a BLANK domain, unsuccessfully. The install.php routine is pointless. Many software applications have the flaw of 'not playing well in the sandbox' with other applications. Moodle can't even find the d*** sandbox.
Specific points:
(1) Joachim's enquiry re a checklist of settings echoes my exact sentiments at 5am this morning. (http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=36487) I need a list of settings which I can check with my ISP all at once, an interface which allows me to edit the directory settings in the config file and CRYSTAL clear instructions on the optimum directory structure. The current alternative is analogous to driving into a brick wall, sticking head out of window, asking for directions to the gate, backing up, finding gate, driving through gate,and driving into next brick wall.
(2) The install documentation to which many installation queries are referred(http://moodle.org/doc/?file=install.html#requirements) is completely bass ackwards, as it starts with item 4 - "run install.php". Then item 4.1, 4.2 and perhaps 4.3 say "but first, make sure you've done these things". Ooppssss!! SOME of us do things in the order in which they were written!
And before anybody starts making snide comments about my irritation and lack of patience - Yes, I know this is open-source software; Yes, I know I didn't pay for it and get the developer's phone number (John Eyre - Sunday, 6 June 2004, 04:39 PM) - - - and after my temper simmers down I will probably try to help improve the install documentation - but in the meantime remember that this is a forum for ALL users, frustrated and otherwise. And wonder how many potential users have been lost because WE can't get the installation completed.
I have already put in a request to one of the Moodle Partners for help on Monday morning - but I sure hope the rest of the application works better than the installation.
Cheers,
Ava
@ Timothy Takemoto
First of all thank you for your kind reply. Please let me go into detail:
It works well for my enterprise.
Well, i am honestly happy for you! But it should work for others as well?!
I sometimes wonder if the fact that the moodle foundation (moodle partner making the software installation completely automated and bullet-proof. network) makes its money out of support, bears upon the the effort expended .
I have come to same opinion. I have tested moodle for some weeks. Even for a short time half a year ago. Now i wanted to give it a second try..and the feeling is like limited closed-source shareware: "We know about you problems. Pay us and we fix them instantly. Or feel free to search yourself.."
..all of three hours on a Sunday night..
Welcome to the global world! In germany it was sunday, but early afternoon..
Furthermore i used a second account, which i used at work the times before..
@ Iñaki Arenaza
Running with PHP 5.x has not been as tested thoroughly as with PHP 4.x, so there might be part of the problem.
Aha! But in many other post i read: PHP5 works perfectly..
However, PHP5 is stable and production ready. Many Typo3-Extension even rely on that! So many people, including me, won`t consider downgrading servers as an option just to have one application running. A dual configuration for moodle is no serious choice either.
Oh, bye the way. You can add something like this to your config.php file, to get some error output at least....and have a look at syslog.
Ohh thanks, what a wonderfull advice..please tell me, how to use my mouse either! Did you actually read my post? Sorry, i dislike people just reposting faqs to fill up their post with "content", if honest (and somewhat experienced) people told what they did..
@ Mark Stevens
Sorry to hear that you couldn't install Moodle, but I think you would be doing a disservice to your clients if you scare them away from Moodle...
Now, honestly, i know about your reference projects. However, i have read studies and articles about moodle as well: Many of these criticise exactly the mentioned things in moodle. And i currently agree with these people..
Regarding the debian package: Current version, even for unstable, is 1.5.2 ...
Another alternative, for no more than $100 you can probably get a Moodle Partner to fix your problem within an hour.
Let me guess, you know the right one? ;) I understand that money matters. I am selling Typo3-Webpages, including designs, custom extensions and so on. But i give free & best support since years in the typo3 debian mail list as well in debian forums.
If i were you - may god inhibit it - i would end up (auto)posting this sentence..
Don't hate the product, hate the bug
Product..ok, we finally got that. Now this sentence belongs to true open source friends - not to rip-offs! Using this board for commercial activities (even if you have linked to the partner page) and having fancy oss-logos in your profile is just cheap.
Even this poor attitude won`t change my way: I will still give you honest and "full featured" help once you should have questions regarding typo3 or some debian packages.
Kind Regards
Alexander
First of all thank you for your kind reply. Please let me go into detail:
It works well for my enterprise.
Well, i am honestly happy for you! But it should work for others as well?!
I sometimes wonder if the fact that the moodle foundation (moodle partner making the software installation completely automated and bullet-proof. network) makes its money out of support, bears upon the the effort expended .
I have come to same opinion. I have tested moodle for some weeks. Even for a short time half a year ago. Now i wanted to give it a second try..and the feeling is like limited closed-source shareware: "We know about you problems. Pay us and we fix them instantly. Or feel free to search yourself.."
..all of three hours on a Sunday night..
Welcome to the global world! In germany it was sunday, but early afternoon..
Furthermore i used a second account, which i used at work the times before..
@ Iñaki Arenaza
Running with PHP 5.x has not been as tested thoroughly as with PHP 4.x, so there might be part of the problem.
Aha! But in many other post i read: PHP5 works perfectly..
However, PHP5 is stable and production ready. Many Typo3-Extension even rely on that! So many people, including me, won`t consider downgrading servers as an option just to have one application running. A dual configuration for moodle is no serious choice either.
Oh, bye the way. You can add something like this to your config.php file, to get some error output at least....and have a look at syslog.
Ohh thanks, what a wonderfull advice..please tell me, how to use my mouse either! Did you actually read my post? Sorry, i dislike people just reposting faqs to fill up their post with "content", if honest (and somewhat experienced) people told what they did..
@ Mark Stevens
Sorry to hear that you couldn't install Moodle, but I think you would be doing a disservice to your clients if you scare them away from Moodle...
Now, honestly, i know about your reference projects. However, i have read studies and articles about moodle as well: Many of these criticise exactly the mentioned things in moodle. And i currently agree with these people..
Regarding the debian package: Current version, even for unstable, is 1.5.2 ...
Another alternative, for no more than $100 you can probably get a Moodle Partner to fix your problem within an hour.
Let me guess, you know the right one? ;) I understand that money matters. I am selling Typo3-Webpages, including designs, custom extensions and so on. But i give free & best support since years in the typo3 debian mail list as well in debian forums.
If i were you - may god inhibit it - i would end up (auto)posting this sentence..
Don't hate the product, hate the bug
Product..ok, we finally got that. Now this sentence belongs to true open source friends - not to rip-offs! Using this board for commercial activities (even if you have linked to the partner page) and having fancy oss-logos in your profile is just cheap.
Even this poor attitude won`t change my way: I will still give you honest and "full featured" help once you should have questions regarding typo3 or some debian packages.
Kind Regards
Alexander
Alex, Timothy: would it allay your fears that Catalyst (one of the Moodle Partners with most involvement in the codebase) actively helps the Moodle package in Debian? Or that we contribute changes on a regular basis to make the installation and customization easier? Or perhaps you've seen our team answering questions here daily? Or to know that MD won't let anyone make changes that make installation harder?
Of course, we can't help fix your problem if you can't post good details about the problem you have. There's that gap to be covered, and it's true of any FOSS project. It is honest to say so: I'll answer questions when they are well formed and I know the answer.
But no one here is entitled to help; let's not forget that. Show goodwill and goodwill will rain back on you
Of course, we can't help fix your problem if you can't post good details about the problem you have. There's that gap to be covered, and it's true of any FOSS project. It is honest to say so: I'll answer questions when they are well formed and I know the answer.
But no one here is entitled to help; let's not forget that. Show goodwill and goodwill will rain back on you
Of course, we can't help fix your problem if you can't post good
details about the problem you have. There's that gap to be covered...
WHAT detail do you need? Tell me! Nobody asked before for further details. Please be precise - WHAT would help you?
WHAT detail do you need? Tell me! Nobody asked before for further details. Please be precise - WHAT would help you?
> WHAT would help you?
First, if you could be calm and appreciative of the fact that we are trying to help. And you are telling us how awful our project is. Remember, we are on different timezones, and the person who just /knows/ about the problem may be still sleeping. He/she will read this thread in a couple of hours -- keep your cool to avoid driving kind and knowledgeable people away.
Second, you know pretty well that the stack Moodle is based on just logs stuff. Things don't just disappear. "Blank page" is often a syntax error, or a missing PHP library -- your Typo3 experience should tell you as much. With PHP5, it may be a construct that is valid with v4 and not v5. It must be there somewhere -- but naturally I can't tell myself without looking at your installation. Sometimes it isn't obvious where things are logged -- you could try and make it explicit via an entry in your apache config, telling php to log stuff from that vhost/location/directory to a particular file.
We hack on Moodle a lot, and we break stuff quite creatively. And there is always something being logged. Unless PHP is broken in itself, and then I can't really help much there, but you should see stuff in syslog if apache/php are coredumping.
One thing that you could try too is to set CFG->debug to something really high. You mention you switched it on, I'm not sure what you meant, but beware: it's not a boolean in the DB. Set it to 100 to be sure... the range is 0-7 AFAIK, but it doesn't hurt to go sky-high.
First, if you could be calm and appreciative of the fact that we are trying to help. And you are telling us how awful our project is. Remember, we are on different timezones, and the person who just /knows/ about the problem may be still sleeping. He/she will read this thread in a couple of hours -- keep your cool to avoid driving kind and knowledgeable people away.
Second, you know pretty well that the stack Moodle is based on just logs stuff. Things don't just disappear. "Blank page" is often a syntax error, or a missing PHP library -- your Typo3 experience should tell you as much. With PHP5, it may be a construct that is valid with v4 and not v5. It must be there somewhere -- but naturally I can't tell myself without looking at your installation. Sometimes it isn't obvious where things are logged -- you could try and make it explicit via an entry in your apache config, telling php to log stuff from that vhost/location/directory to a particular file.
We hack on Moodle a lot, and we break stuff quite creatively. And there is always something being logged. Unless PHP is broken in itself, and then I can't really help much there, but you should see stuff in syslog if apache/php are coredumping.
One thing that you could try too is to set CFG->debug to something really high. You mention you switched it on, I'm not sure what you meant, but beware: it's not a boolean in the DB. Set it to 100 to be sure... the range is 0-7 AFAIK, but it doesn't hurt to go sky-high.
Running with PHP 5.x has not been as tested thoroughly as with PHP 4.x, so there might be part of the problem.
Aha! But in many other post i read: PHP5 works perfectly..
Aha! But in many other post i read: PHP5 works perfectly..
It all depends on a lot of factors (and being an experienced sysadmin and developer you should be aware of it). It depends on your PHP compilation settings, on your module choice, on your module & php settings, on your moodle settings (do you use ldap or not, MS SQL or not, etc.)
So it may be run flawlessly somewhere and crash somewhere else due to any of the above things.
Oh, bye the way. You can add something like this to your config.php file, to get
some error output at least....and have a look at syslog.
Ohh thanks, what a wonderfull advice..please tell me, how to use my mouse either! Did you actually read my post?
Ohh thanks, what a wonderfull advice..please tell me, how to use my mouse either! Did you actually read my post?
I _did_ read your post. You just told that you had configure PHP to put errors on screen, not telling _what_ kind of errors. Execution errors and syntax/startup errors are different things on PHP and their logging is activated separately. Without you telling which one you activated, how should we know? I didn't mean to say you were not able to tell the difference, just wanted to make sure both things get logged.
If you are still considering using moodle (your choice obviously), posting a copy of your php.ini file (sanitised of course), your config.php file, your virtual host settings for moodle, telling us if you have compiled apache and/or php and their associated modules yourself (using which specific options), that _might_ get us somewhere.
And yes I _do_ have experience. And no, I won't ask you for money
Saludos. Iñaki.
Hi Alex,
I am surprised that you have had so many problems! Dig a little deeper, and you'll find that Moodle works pretty well. Granted, there are some bugs in the code, and sometimes PHP's error handling isn't the most helpful. However, it will be logging something somewhere if you tell PHP to log E_ALL and set debug on on Moodle.
If everything else fails, try apt-get install moodle. The version will be a little bit old (feel free to grab the very latest from sid, Isaac Clerencia is doing a great job with it).
In terms of quick-fire assessments of "enterprise readiness"... c'mon! WE don't like flamefests here
A lot of people are running in enterprise environments, and even in educational environments. We have installs with over 50K users and really heavy traffic. You will see people with problems installing. Sure! But do compare the number of "help me" posts with the daily download counts in the download page.
(unix sysadmin here too, and debian packager in NM queue)
I am surprised that you have had so many problems! Dig a little deeper, and you'll find that Moodle works pretty well. Granted, there are some bugs in the code, and sometimes PHP's error handling isn't the most helpful. However, it will be logging something somewhere if you tell PHP to log E_ALL and set debug on on Moodle.
If everything else fails, try apt-get install moodle. The version will be a little bit old (feel free to grab the very latest from sid, Isaac Clerencia is doing a great job with it).
In terms of quick-fire assessments of "enterprise readiness"... c'mon! WE don't like flamefests here
A lot of people are running in enterprise environments, and even in educational environments. We have installs with over 50K users and really heavy traffic. You will see people with problems installing. Sure! But do compare the number of "help me" posts with the daily download counts in the download page.
(unix sysadmin here too, and debian packager in NM queue)
However, it will be logging something somewhere if you tell PHP to log E_ALL and set debug on on Moodle.
please sse above.
If everything else fails, try apt-get install moodle. The version will be a little bit old (feel free to grab the very latest from sid, Isaac Clerencia is doing a great job with it).
1.5.2 in all trees, at least in RIGHT NOW in packages.debian.org ..
In terms of quick-fire assessments of "enterprise readiness"
Please see above: It truly was no quick-fire, as you imply. Enteprise readiness for software means being high dependable - moodle, esp. after reading this forum and having strange problems - not on all - but many servers is not enterprise ready. Commercially-boosted installations at some reference universities (such as the always mentioned OU) wan`t change this. Take the dependabilty of typo3 as an example for your work, honestly!
Honestly THANK YOU for not offering me commercial help! I am running and sponsored debian.charite.de and many other true open source projects: OSS doesn`t stop at the download of the source code! Of course selling templates and help is GREAT AND FAIR - esp. for the developers! - but selling basic install & update support is a shame - at least over here in good old europe.
Best Regards
Alexander
please sse above.
If everything else fails, try apt-get install moodle. The version will be a little bit old (feel free to grab the very latest from sid, Isaac Clerencia is doing a great job with it).
1.5.2 in all trees, at least in RIGHT NOW in packages.debian.org ..
In terms of quick-fire assessments of "enterprise readiness"
Please see above: It truly was no quick-fire, as you imply. Enteprise readiness for software means being high dependable - moodle, esp. after reading this forum and having strange problems - not on all - but many servers is not enterprise ready. Commercially-boosted installations at some reference universities (such as the always mentioned OU) wan`t change this. Take the dependabilty of typo3 as an example for your work, honestly!
Honestly THANK YOU for not offering me commercial help! I am running and sponsored debian.charite.de and many other true open source projects: OSS doesn`t stop at the download of the source code! Of course selling templates and help is GREAT AND FAIR - esp. for the developers! - but selling basic install & update support is a shame - at least over here in good old europe.
Best Regards
Alexander
Have you _tried_ apt-get install moodle? Did it work, even if it was 1.5.2? Isaac has committed 1.5.3 to the SVN repo in Alioth, but apparently not uploaded it yet. Or the mirroring is slow.
> Honestly THANK YOU for not offering me commercial help!
You are welcome! Now, can I ask you a favour back? Let's be positive about getting you some help. I guarantee that PHP will be logging something, somewhere. Let's find it, and post it, and we'll figure out WTF is going wrong.
(I know you've posted you haven't seen anything logged. Which most probably means you haven't found it. Please, check, it must be logging somewhere, even if apache/php are dying you'll see that in syslog.)
If you are on debian, do apt-get show moodle to see what debian dependencies you want to make sure you have. Just in case.
One thing you mentioned is that you are using a bleeding edge PHP version. As any "enterprise solution" support guy would tell you: That's unsupported! Now, does it get better if you downgrade to a supported PHP version?
Other candidate for the problem -- one of the 1.5.3+ last week (thursday-ish) had a fatal bug. Make sure you have todays 1.5.3+.
Ranting is fun, but of limited use. Let's focus on the real fun: solving problems.
> Honestly THANK YOU for not offering me commercial help!
You are welcome! Now, can I ask you a favour back? Let's be positive about getting you some help. I guarantee that PHP will be logging something, somewhere. Let's find it, and post it, and we'll figure out WTF is going wrong.
(I know you've posted you haven't seen anything logged. Which most probably means you haven't found it. Please, check, it must be logging somewhere, even if apache/php are dying you'll see that in syslog.)
If you are on debian, do apt-get show moodle to see what debian dependencies you want to make sure you have. Just in case.
One thing you mentioned is that you are using a bleeding edge PHP version. As any "enterprise solution" support guy would tell you: That's unsupported!
Other candidate for the problem -- one of the 1.5.3+ last week (thursday-ish) had a fatal bug. Make sure you have todays 1.5.3+.
Ranting is fun, but of limited use. Let's focus on the real fun: solving problems.
> Have you _tried_ apt-get install moodle?
No, for various reasons:
- it just ONE installation, i need many
- it will change and possibly destroy apache2/php5-config that works over here for 20 huge typo3 websites, 3 portals and some minor web services
- it has many bugs open (bugs.debian.org..)
Package installation of moodle/squirrelmail/typo3/websoftware_in_general is only a good idea for private 3 domains servers. ;)
And: Moodle should be installable the normal way...
>(I know you've posted you haven't seen anything logged. Which most probably
>means you haven't found it. Please, check, it must be logging somewhere, even >if apache/php are dying you'll see that in syslog.)
Again, for the last time:
Apache2_Error_Log_for_this_domain => No entry
Apache2_Access_Log_for_this_domain => Normal http request
No PHP screen output either => blank. Although configured to render EVERY ERROR OR WARNING on screen!
> Make sure you have todays 1.5.3+.
PLEASE READ MY LIPS - IT WAS WRITTEN IN MY OPENING POST:
- Moodle 1.5.3 Latest Stable Branch: Built Daily 18.12.2005 !!
- even tried 1.5.3 from 16th November 2005 => still the same issue
You people here just chattin` around and not even reading the opening post and accusing ME of ranting.
Well thanks, i just installed http://www.atutor.ca/ . Flawlessly. It might (currently) be not as feature-rich as moodle. But has a much cleaner design and according the forums there less "fee-based-installation/update-trouble" at least in my "ranting" view..
Moodle seems just to be an other way of selling the course management system, right? It just more clever to attract people with "oss"..once they need for serious usage they need "partner services"..in this case even i do prefer WebCT/Blackboard. Its honest and they have to fullfill a contract.
I am donating the course management to both schools, so i hope they will have a look on Atutor..
Alexander
No, for various reasons:
- it just ONE installation, i need many
- it will change and possibly destroy apache2/php5-config that works over here for 20 huge typo3 websites, 3 portals and some minor web services
- it has many bugs open (bugs.debian.org..)
Package installation of moodle/squirrelmail/typo3/websoftware_in_general is only a good idea for private 3 domains servers. ;)
And: Moodle should be installable the normal way...
>(I know you've posted you haven't seen anything logged. Which most probably
>means you haven't found it. Please, check, it must be logging somewhere, even >if apache/php are dying you'll see that in syslog.)
Again, for the last time:
Apache2_Error_Log_for_this_domain => No entry
Apache2_Access_Log_for_this_domain => Normal http request
No PHP screen output either => blank. Although configured to render EVERY ERROR OR WARNING on screen!
> Make sure you have todays 1.5.3+.
PLEASE READ MY LIPS - IT WAS WRITTEN IN MY OPENING POST:
- Moodle 1.5.3 Latest Stable Branch: Built Daily 18.12.2005 !!
- even tried 1.5.3 from 16th November 2005 => still the same issue
You people here just chattin` around and not even reading the opening post and accusing ME of ranting.
Well thanks, i just installed http://www.atutor.ca/ . Flawlessly. It might (currently) be not as feature-rich as moodle. But has a much cleaner design and according the forums there less "fee-based-installation/update-trouble" at least in my "ranting" view..
Moodle seems just to be an other way of selling the course management system, right? It just more clever to attract people with "oss"..once they need for serious usage they need "partner services"..in this case even i do prefer WebCT/Blackboard. Its honest and they have to fullfill a contract.
I am donating the course management to both schools, so i hope they will have a look on Atutor..
Alexander
Hi Alexander,
First of all, people here are trying to help you, I understand that you're frustrated that you haven't been able to get Moodle to install properly, but understand that we want to help you get up and going.
Now, to answer a few points:
> PLEASE READ MY LIPS - IT WAS WRITTEN IN MY OPENING POST:
Actually, you wrote that you've tried 1.5.3. Martin is asking that you try 1.5.3+. Note the + in that version number. 1.5.3 and 1.5.3+ are different versions of moodle.
As far as php error handling, there are some places where there is a call to error_reporting(0) and then error_reporting(originalvalue) wrapped around a block of code. It's possible the installation is failing at that point, and that's why you're not seeing any errors.
I am confused by your problem. Do you go through all the 'setting up database' screens? And then die? You say 'some admin functions' don't work - perhaps if you told us which ones?
Can you access admin/phpinfo.php ? Perhaps if you pasted that?
Now, we do want to help you, but coming on to the moodle forums and talking loudly about how bad moodle is and how great atutor is is probably not going to earn you any points, or encourage people to be helpful.
First of all, people here are trying to help you, I understand that you're frustrated that you haven't been able to get Moodle to install properly, but understand that we want to help you get up and going.
Now, to answer a few points:
> PLEASE READ MY LIPS - IT WAS WRITTEN IN MY OPENING POST:
Actually, you wrote that you've tried 1.5.3. Martin is asking that you try 1.5.3+. Note the + in that version number. 1.5.3 and 1.5.3+ are different versions of moodle.
As far as php error handling, there are some places where there is a call to error_reporting(0) and then error_reporting(originalvalue) wrapped around a block of code. It's possible the installation is failing at that point, and that's why you're not seeing any errors.
I am confused by your problem. Do you go through all the 'setting up database' screens? And then die? You say 'some admin functions' don't work - perhaps if you told us which ones?
Can you access admin/phpinfo.php ? Perhaps if you pasted that?
Now, we do want to help you, but coming on to the moodle forums and talking loudly about how bad moodle is and how great atutor is is probably not going to earn you any points, or encourage people to be helpful.
Dear Alexander
I had a good look at ATutor too. It is a good product. However, aside from the lack of features...
Greg Gay of ATutor plans to release a pro (that is to say fee paying) version of ATutor at some point in the future. I am not sure how much he plans to charge for it but if it is only a 10th of the price of BlackCT it is still going to be more expensive than Moodle support. It is already not as easy to get support at ATutor due to the fact that the forums are pretty much dead. When that happens, it is going to be alot more difficult to get more difficult to get suppport over at ATutor, I think.
It is impossible to subscribe to the ATutor forums, only to threads upon which one has posted. A very large proportion of support requests are serviced by the man himself. I am sure that Greg and his team could work on improving the ATutor community, but perhaps if he were to spend effort in that way, it might result in a community viable enough to provide a free fork of ATutor to match the planned enterprise edition.
The lack of a thriving community also impacts upon the rate of development. ATutor was behind on features 18 months ago. I am willing to wager that it is getting further behind.
IMHO the business model is bound to influence development priorities but, you are not thus bound. So, it would be great if you stayed on an wrote us a nice diagnostic, click-clickable, Fantastico-style, ATutor-beating installation package.
My guess is that as you say there is something amiss with the flavour of php that you are using.
I am using php 4.4 and I have never had an installation problem in about 15 Moodle upgrades and installs (other than forgetting to set up a cron etc.)
Tim
1.5.2 in all trees, at least in RIGHT NOW in packages.debian.org ..
Hummm, are you running testing/unstable by any chance? Because you only have 1.4.4 for Debian Stable (not that it doesn't run 1.5.2 from testing/unstable)...
Saludos. Iñaki.
Yu and All,
I'm suffering the same problem using Debian. Found this line the one that causes the blank page (number #253-244):
/// Check all blocks and load (or upgrade them if necessary)
upgrade_blocks_plugins("$CFG->wwwroot/$CFG->admin/index.php");
Commenting out this line the admin/index.php page re-appears.
I'm suffering the same problem using Debian. Found this line the one that causes the blank page (number #253-244):
/// Check all blocks and load (or upgrade them if necessary)
upgrade_blocks_plugins("$CFG->wwwroot/$CFG->admin/index.php");
Commenting out this line the admin/index.php page re-appears.
Hello Andrea Bicciolo
thank you for this hint!
Unfortunately it has no effect here - but it was the first real and short help i looked for! Thanks!!
I will now try to find the bug - hoping i will succeed and hoping that the time after that will remain more bugfree.
Kind Regards
Alexander
thank you for this hint!
Unfortunately it has no effect here - but it was the first real and short help i looked for! Thanks!!
I will now try to find the bug - hoping i will succeed and hoping that the time after that will remain more bugfree.
Kind Regards
Alexander
Hello again,
after commenting out the following three lines:
///Upgrade backup/restore system if nec.....
// require_once...
// upgrade_backup_db...
The fresh installation proceeded - and just stopped again right after configuring the admin user: ../moodle/user/edit.php => BLANK
Shall i continue to uncomment lines in other files? I guess no.
Seems to be something deeper, possibly related to PHP 5.0.5-3 (latest on debian).
Anybody else successfully using this PHP-Version on debian with moodle?
Thanks!
Alexander
after commenting out the following three lines:
///Upgrade backup/restore system if nec.....
// require_once...
// upgrade_backup_db...
The fresh installation proceeded - and just stopped again right after configuring the admin user: ../moodle/user/edit.php => BLANK
Shall i continue to uncomment lines in other files? I guess no.
Seems to be something deeper, possibly related to PHP 5.0.5-3 (latest on debian).
Anybody else successfully using this PHP-Version on debian with moodle?
Thanks!
Alexander
Alex,
Specifically, what version of Debian Linux are you running, and on what hardware?
Also, in looking around the web, it appears that for some versions of Debian, mysql 4.1.15 and PHP 5+ have some bugs, particularly if you installed your packages ( for mysql, apache, and php) by ignoring the dependencies. What is your Debian Linux version, and did you install the packages clean, and/or have you ignored or disabled any dependent libs?
David
You might benefit from reading, understanding and internalizing this:
I guess it is too late for Alexander, but I tought I would share my experience here so other people don't think running this on Debian with the config specified by Alexander is not posible.
I have setup a Debian testing (etch, in fact) installation from scratch with VmWare. I guess Alexander is running either testing, unstable or experimental, as the versions of apache and php he uses are not available in stable (Sarge), but only in the other versions.
I have installed apache2 (2.0.55), php5 (5.0.3), mysql-server (4.1.5), php5-mysql, php5-gd and all the dependencies of the above.
I have edited httpd.conf to add the 'AcceptInfoPath' setting, php.ini as suggested by the installation docs and activated the mysql and gd extensions.
I have otherwise followed the installation instructions exactly (except the cron setup part, as this is not required to initially setup Moodle), and have created config.php by hand (as my moodle directory is not writable by the web server user).
Guess what? It just works (tm).
So I guess Alexander has something specific to his setup (apache, php, whatever) that is preventing moodle from running the installation and spitting the error information in the usual places. I don't know what it can be, but it definitely seems to be something Alexander has done to his setup.
Saludos. Iñaki.
I have setup a Debian testing (etch, in fact) installation from scratch with VmWare. I guess Alexander is running either testing, unstable or experimental, as the versions of apache and php he uses are not available in stable (Sarge), but only in the other versions.
I have installed apache2 (2.0.55), php5 (5.0.3), mysql-server (4.1.5), php5-mysql, php5-gd and all the dependencies of the above.
I have edited httpd.conf to add the 'AcceptInfoPath' setting, php.ini as suggested by the installation docs and activated the mysql and gd extensions.
I have otherwise followed the installation instructions exactly (except the cron setup part, as this is not required to initially setup Moodle), and have created config.php by hand (as my moodle directory is not writable by the web server user).
Guess what? It just works (tm).
So I guess Alexander has something specific to his setup (apache, php, whatever) that is preventing moodle from running the installation and spitting the error information in the usual places. I don't know what it can be, but it definitely seems to be something Alexander has done to his setup.
Saludos. Iñaki.
Inaki,
I am not surprised by your results of a clean install.
Many of the less-technical members of this community have struggled with installing Moodle and getting it running. And yet they have succeeded.
Yes, even those of us who are "more" technical have had our challenges with installing, configuring, and running moodle. But, we persevered, and we are also successful.
I suspected that Alexander was not coming forward with the specific information that we needed to help him, because he did not know how to communicate that information. He expected us to hand the answers to him on a platter. Without the information we need, we can't help him.
I concluded that it was 'something' in his environment that did not line up, and so therefore, moodle was not working for him. I have had several clean moodle installs in unix/linux environments, and I am by no means a seasoned unix admin. However, I have 35 years of computer background as a developer and an admin, so I know the pitfalls and problems one can run into. However, I also know that there is very little that I can't fix. Alexander was just a little too demanding, and too impatient for us to help him. My guess, is that he is that way with most everyone.
So, I say, that's life and I move on with the successful self-evident installations of moodle that are all over the world.
A few naysayers out of thousands of successful implementations is not too bad. Actually, it's pretty darn good.
Cheers and Happy Holidays...
David
Howdy,
I had the same problem after doing the upgrade process. The main page was missing everything except the site news, and the admin page came up blank. How I installed the upgrade is what caused the problems. The moodle page tells you to rename your old "moodle" folder to moodle.backup but I couldn't because a font file was being used (access denied). I then just unzipped the upgrade and overwrote everything. This (I guess) is what caused the problem. Not sure what the problem was but I fixed it by deleting everything out of the original moodle folder (except for that darned font file) and re-unzipping the upgrade into the (almost) empty moodle directory. I ran the admin page, all the databases upgraded and all my previous information popped up, including the admin page.
The only thing that isn't quite right is now my main page's "Site News" appears in the middle of the page instead of the top. But that is no biggie. Maybe someone knows how to fix this?
-DJ
Hi,
With several german users we experienced installation trouble with showing up blank pages, too. Main reason for this behaviour was almost a "brand-new" version of PHP or special parameters for compiling PHP. If it comes so and PHP5 is a "must-have" I suggest to setup PHP4.1.x in CGI-Mode parallel to PHP5. In almost any cases this worked perfectly - with fastCGI you even won't experience a great lack of performance.
Many things in this thread really made me sad. Some thoughts:
If you run into trouble with commercial software products - How long will it take to get help by the developers themselves if you are just a "normal" client?
I was really impressed about the way some people here tried to give help and in such a friendly way they did.
I am really impressed about the work the community puts into moodle and it's further development.
I am really impressed about the way the developers are treating their clients without getting any money for this.
Maik
Many things in this thread really made me sad. Some thoughts:
If you run into trouble with commercial software products - How long will it take to get help by the developers themselves if you are just a "normal" client?
I was really impressed about the way some people here tried to give help and in such a friendly way they did.
I am really impressed about the work the community puts into moodle and it's further development.
I am really impressed about the way the developers are treating their clients without getting any money for this.
Maik
Of course I suggest PHP4.4.x in CGI-Mode....
At least it was for me. . . .
When you 'apt-get install moodle' it doesn't include php4-mysql since by default it uses Postgres for the backend. BUT you can select MySQL in the configuration which causes a missing dependency which isn't caught. If you install php4-mysql likely your problem will go away. It did for me.
I am going to email the Debian maintainer that a warning should be added or just add php4-mysql as a dependency.
When you 'apt-get install moodle' it doesn't include php4-mysql since by default it uses Postgres for the backend. BUT you can select MySQL in the configuration which causes a missing dependency which isn't caught. If you install php4-mysql likely your problem will go away. It did for me.
I am going to email the Debian maintainer that a warning should be added or just add php4-mysql as a dependency.
Debian Stable (aka, Sarge) includes moodle-1.4.4dfsg.1-3, which depends on php4-pgsl or php4-mysql. If you have any of them, then dependencies are satisfied (and there is no default or preferred dependency, btw). The package can't know in advance what dbms you will be using. And forcing you to install support for both dbms is not an sensible option, IMHO.
Debian Unstable/Testing includes moodle-1.5.3-1, which depends on the same packages for the same reasons.
Maybe a notice while installing the package is not a bad idea, but I wouln't recommend changing dependencies.
Saludos. Iñaki.
Debian Unstable/Testing includes moodle-1.5.3-1, which depends on the same packages for the same reasons.
Maybe a notice while installing the package is not a bad idea, but I wouln't recommend changing dependencies.
Saludos. Iñaki.
Yeah I was thinking along those lines too, that if you pick mysql-server as the database perhaps a warning before the next step that you must have php4-mysql (and mysql-server) installed. I haven't dealt with Debian packaging so I am not really sure what is available when doing the configure steps.
The problem is you can go through the Debian configure, pick mysql-server but not have php4-mysql installed and you don't get any meaningful errors indicating what is wrong. . . just a blank page. I ended up sticking print statements in until I found that the Connect failed and the lightbulb finally when off on what was wrong.
The problem is you can go through the Debian configure, pick mysql-server but not have php4-mysql installed and you don't get any meaningful errors indicating what is wrong. . . just a blank page. I ended up sticking print statements in until I found that the Connect failed and the lightbulb finally when off on what was wrong.
I've had never problems installing moodle - till now. I'm using debian testing:
apache:
Installiert:1.3.34-2
Mögliche Pakete:1.3.34-2
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 1.3.34-2 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
mysql-server-4.1:
Installiert:4.1.15-1
Mögliche Pakete:4.1.15-1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4.1.15-1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
php4:
Installiert:4:4.4.2-1
Mögliche Pakete:4:4.4.2-1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4:4.4.2-1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
php4-gd:
Installiert:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Mögliche Pakete:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4:4.4.2-1+b1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
php4-mysql:
Installiert:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Mögliche Pakete:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4:4.4.2-1+b1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
I could track the failure down to
/usr/share/moodle/lib/setup.php at line:
$dbconnected = $db->PConnect($CFG->dbhost,$CFG->dbuser,$CFG->dbpass,$CFG->dbname);
Mysql has a database and a user "moodle" and I've played around a bit with these without problems.
apache:
Installiert:1.3.34-2
Mögliche Pakete:1.3.34-2
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 1.3.34-2 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
mysql-server-4.1:
Installiert:4.1.15-1
Mögliche Pakete:4.1.15-1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4.1.15-1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
php4:
Installiert:4:4.4.2-1
Mögliche Pakete:4:4.4.2-1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4:4.4.2-1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
php4-gd:
Installiert:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Mögliche Pakete:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4:4.4.2-1+b1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
php4-mysql:
Installiert:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Mögliche Pakete:4:4.4.2-1+b1
Versions-Tabelle:
*** 4:4.4.2-1+b1 0
990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
I could track the failure down to
/usr/share/moodle/lib/setup.php at line:
$dbconnected = $db->PConnect($CFG->dbhost,$CFG->dbuser,$CFG->dbpass,$CFG->dbname);
Mysql has a database and a user "moodle" and I've played around a bit with these without problems.
I have the blank page problem and get the following PHP error:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 92160 bytes) in /srv/www/htdocs/moodle/lib/moodlelib.php on line 6954
The answer was to increase the memory size allow by php from 8M to 100M (actually I don't know how much was actually needed but I erred on the large size).
>8M seems a bit greedy!
I should add I increased the size in php.ini (/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
max_execution_time = 30 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 60 ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 100M ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)
Cheers,
SA
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 92160 bytes) in /srv/www/htdocs/moodle/lib/moodlelib.php on line 6954
The answer was to increase the memory size allow by php from 8M to 100M (actually I don't know how much was actually needed but I erred on the large size).
>8M seems a bit greedy!
I should add I increased the size in php.ini (/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
max_execution_time = 30 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 60 ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 100M ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)
Cheers,
SA
This doesn't fix the problem for me. I still get a "bad server response".
Arnor
Here are two suggestions for this: check if you are connecting through a proxy, check if compression (mod_gzip) is enabled. If any of these are enabled, try disabling them. Also, can you post the error in any log files (apache, php), then we can try to narrow things down more 
.
Ken
Bingo! Disabling ob_gzhandler fixed it.
Thanks
Thanks
I know this is an old thread but we had a similar problem. It turned out that when we ftp'd the site from one server to another, the ftp client had a limit on directory depth. This in turn missed some of the php libs and the require_onece(); statements failed leaving us with a blank page.
Namely: lib/xmldb/classes/generators/XMLDBGenerator.class.php
Namely: lib/xmldb/classes/generators/XMLDBGenerator.class.php