Moodle in English: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Joe Fleener - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 10:24 AM

I am trying to install Moodle on a hosted site.

I have done the following:

1. Created a /moodle folder and subdomain pointing to this folder

2. Created a /moodledata folder and subdomain pointing to this folder

3. Ensured the above folders and all subfolders/files are Read/Write/Execute to all.

4. Created a moodledata database and given my user full access to the database.

5. The Install.php works great until I get to the "Configure Database Step"

6. I give the following data:

1. MySQL

2. http://digitalexegesis.com

3. moodledata

4. Username (I give the correct name)

5. Password (I give the correct password)

6. mdl_

When I click "Next" from this screen, everything seems to churn along for a bit and then - BLANK SCREEN.

I have attempted to place a .htaccess file in both my moodle and moodledata folders, but my server will not allow me to have a file beginning with a '.'

Help!?

Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Dennis Flynn - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 11:37 AM

Perhaps delete the database and try again? I had to try 3 times on my first install.

to create a file starting with a period in windows, I've always created a text file, and just renamed it to .<filename>

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Joe Fleener - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 12:01 PM

What did you do different? Just drop and recreate and then it worked?

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Dennis Flynn - Thursday, March 1, 2007, 5:50 AM

exactly...the only thing I ever did figure out that I did differently was, instead of clicking on the Continue link to move things along, I always waited for it to finish and move to the next page automatically.

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Gordon Bateson - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 11:53 AM

Joe, I think number 2 on your list should be "localhost".

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Joe Fleener - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 12:04 PM

I thought so too, but it will not connect to the database if I use that.

hmmm...

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Gordon Bateson - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 1:54 PM

From the sounds of things you have created a MySQL username and password, which means that you, or someone you know, has been able to connect to the MySQL server.

Therefore, just to get things moving, I suggest you use whatever MySQL host + username + password were used by the person who connected to MySQL before. Once you know you can connect with those settings, you can try with the MySQL name + password you want to use for Moodle. If that doesn't work, you know the problem is with the permissions that the Moodle username has.

good luck
Gordon

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Joe Fleener - Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 6:04 PM

Gordon,

Thank you for your helpful replies.

I am the one who created the username and password in MySQL. However, I have only accessed MySQL using phpMyAdmin as provided by my host.

So has far as the MySQL host I am not sure what to use. When I logon to phpMyAdmin I see:

MySQL 4.1.14 running on digitalexegesis.com as yroot@localhost

This is why I have attempted to use both localhost and digitalexegesis.com for the host server.

However, if I use either of those I get an error - cannot connect to the database.

If I place the http:// before digitalexegesis.com then I get the BLANK SCREEN after a bit of a wait once I click next.

Note this happens even if I use the yroot user w/ its appropriate password.

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SOLUTION

by Daniel Del Rio - Saturday, March 3, 2007, 2:57 AM

I ran into this same problem with version 1.8. I found that if you edit your install.php file in the root of your moodle directory on line 406 from:

} else if (($fh = @fopen($INSTALL['wwwrootform'].'/'.$INSTALL['admindirname'].'/environment.xml', 'r')) !== false) {

to:

} else if (($fh = @fopen("'".$INSTALL['wwwrootform']."/".$INSTALL['admindirname']."/environment.xml'", 'r')) !== false)

you should no longer receive a blank page during install. This problem occurs only on some systems in my experience. It occurs because the fopen() PHP function requires a string and is not being given one. Please let me know if this helps.

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Re: SOLUTION

by Joe Fleener - Saturday, March 3, 2007, 10:32 AM

Daniel,

Thanks for your helpful reply. I was realy excited to think this might work.

But, it has not resolved my problem.

I am still getting the blank screen after entering the database info.

It has been mentioned that I should be able to use localhost. However, the installer cannot connect if I use this.

I have been using the full http address of my domain. I have a feeling this may not be right either, but I am not sure what to use.

The script does seem to churn along trying to do something, but then just goes to a blank screen.

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Re: SOLUTION

by Neil D'Costa - Monday, November 5, 2007, 8:52 AM

Same problem here with moodle version 1.8.3.
(WAMP5 1.7.3, Vista Home Premium, Apache/2.2.4 (Win32), MySQL 5.0.45, PHP/5.2.4)

Daniel's solution worked for me (thanks!) - NOTE: there is a missing opening curly bracket at the end of the replacement line.

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Re: SOLUTION

by Daniel Ranz Riera - Thursday, November 8, 2007, 1:54 AM

Worked for me with the same problem.

Thanks!

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Re: SOLUTION

by Ian Semey - Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 1:54 AM

Thanks a lot, the fix worked perfectly.

/Ian

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Re: SOLUTION

by Ivan Aksenov - Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 8:19 PM

Sadly, Daniel's solution did not work for me. There must be either more to it or I didn't follow the fix exactly.

Just to check, here's the modified install.php and yes, I dropped all tables and deleted the config.php before trying again.

} else if (($fh = @fopen("'".$INSTALL['wwwrootform']."/".$INSTALL['admindirname']."/environment.xml'", 'r')) !== false) {

Let me know if I missed something.

cheers
Ivan

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Re: SOLUTION

by Richard Enison - Thursday, November 20, 2008, 4:00 AM

IA,

You have not just shot yourself in the foot, you have amputated your whole leg! The whole purpose of install.php is to create config.php. You already had config.php, so you deleted what you should have preserved at all costs and mangled the script that created it on top of that! (Alright, maybe mangled is too strong a word. The edit you did seems correct, but it doesn't apply to your case.) I hope you have a backup of it. Whatever problem you were having, it wasn't with install.php. It was probably with admin/index.php, where the database tables get created and initialized. See

Installation FAQ#Installation_hangs_when_setting-up_database_tables
Installation FAQ#Why_is_a_particular_page_blank_or_incomplete.3F

RLE

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Re: SOLUTION

by Ivan Aksenov - Friday, November 21, 2008, 3:13 AM

Hi RLE,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I note your colourful expressions, "you have amputated your whole leg!" and and "mangled the script that created it" which make for good reading but seems inappropriate for the steps that I went through. I'll clarify again so we can focus on the facts of the matter.

Problem:
Installation does not complete and stops sometime before the Setup Administrators Account page and shows only a blank page (http://"sitename"/admin/index.php). Database is populated with tables and data, config file is created.

I have tried the installation using Moodle1.93 and 1.8 with the same results. I have since tried the intall on Joomla Stand Alone Server with success.

I've followed the help pages "How to enable and check PHP error logs"

The only error I can see listed is this one:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 50331648 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 24 bytes) in /var/www/u13752099/htdocs/moodle/admin/mnet/MethodTable.php on line 77

Is this error related to the phpinfo() page or is it perhaps a hint to why the install fails to complete?

Ivan

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Re: SOLUTION

by Richard Enison - Friday, November 21, 2008, 8:31 AM

IA,

If you read the rest of my post you know why I used those "colorful expressions". The leg you amputated is config.php. This is what install.php creates and that is all it does. The proof of that is, once config.php exists, if you try to run install.php, it will redirect to index.php. Presumably, that is why you deleted it in the first place.

The point is, the "SOLUTION" you found in this thread from last year is for Moodlers who were unable to get through install.php to create config.php. You had successfully gotten through that phase of the process, and at the threshhold of phase two: the creation of the database tables, which is done by admin/index.php. It is not surprising, therefore, that the error you now post is in a subfolder of admin. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU WANT TO REDO PHASE ONE, WHICH YOU SUCCESSFULLY GOT THROUGH THE FIRST TIME? That just gives you a chance to blow it the second time around!

Anyway, now that you have posted the error msg., we know what the problem really is. PHP ran out of memory. The memory limit (50 MB) is too low. So raise it. See Errors FAQ#Fatal_error_allowed_memory_size_exhausted._How_do_I_increase_my_php_memory_limit.3F.

RLE

P.S. I do like, however, your advice to SvN, to enable debugging. That's my specialty. I get weary of Moodlers who don't give me a chance to help them debug. As soon as I mention the d-word, they stop posting.

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Re: SOLUTION

by Ivan Aksenov - Friday, November 21, 2008, 9:43 AM

Hi RLE,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Its all a learning process.

Well, I'm on my way now, happily, and starting to write the courses that need doing.

Thanks again for your helpful suggestions.

cheers
IA

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hanging index.php page

by Scott van Niekerk - Friday, November 21, 2008, 4:16 AM

Installation hangs for me when running unattended at admin/index.php

I checked the above 2 links from RLE, and cannot see anything I have not done. I created .htaccess and renamed it without the txt suffix

I created php.ini and installed both into moodle root folder

I tried to refresh the hung page, without any luck. Blank screen.

Any help appreciated, thanks

Scott

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Ivan Aksenov - Friday, November 21, 2008, 5:25 AM

Hi Scott,

Looks like the same problem as I'm having.

Have you enabled error logging?

cheers
Ivan

Using ini_set commands: If you are using Moodle 1.7 or higher, the previous steps are not enough. In those versions error logging parameters are dependant on certain administrative settings that you specify in the debugging section. The problem is that if you can't access the administrative pages, you can't set the debugging options. So the only way to modify them is by adding the following lines to your config.php file, just before the last line (the one containing a single'?>' only):

 ini_set ('display_errors', 'on');
 ini_set ('log_errors', 'on');
 ini_set ('display_startup_errors', 'on');
 ini_set ('error_reporting', E_ALL);
 $CFG->debug = DEBUG_ALL;

This will enable the same settings specified above even if Moodle sets them otherwise.

Important: Remember to put them just before the last line of config.php.

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Ivan Aksenov - Friday, November 21, 2008, 8:22 AM

Hi Scott, Hi RLE,

I sent the error, (Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 50331648 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 24 bytes) in /var/www/u13752099/htdocs/moodle/admin/mnet/MethodTable.php on line 77), to my provider and as soon as the memory was increased the install went through to the end.

......"there's a limit to the amount of memory a single PHP script is allowed to allocate. This limit is normaly set to 48MB on my servers. I have increased this to 128MB for your site."

Hope this helps you Scott.

cheers
Ivan

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Scott van Niekerk - Saturday, November 22, 2008, 1:21 AM

Ivan, RLE.

Thanks for trying to help. I think I handled the memory problem with the phpo.ini file I created on notepad (then uploaded to moodle root folder) containing:

magic_quotes_gpc = 1
magic_quotes_runtime = 0
file_uploads = 1
session.auto_start = 0
session.bug_compat_warn = 0
upload_max_filesize = 128M
max_execution_time = 2400
memory_limit = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
SMTP = localhost

Ivan: once I added your recommended ini-set script to config.php:

ini_set ('display_errors', 'on');
ini_set ('log_errors', 'on');
ini_set ('display_startup_errors', 'on');
ini_set ('error_reporting', E_ALL);
$CFG->debug = DEBUG_ALL;
?>

and uploaded it............. then what? How do I restart the moodle install process to get out of the hanging page at: http://mydomain/moodle/admin/index.php

Thanks,
Scott

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Ivan Aksenov - Saturday, November 22, 2008, 7:22 AM

Hi Scott,

After uploading the "debug" config.php I went back to the "blank" page and reloaded the page, or alternatively, if you put in the address http://mydomain/moodle/
you will see it redirect to http://mydomain/moodle/admin/index.php and hopefully the error, if there is one, will be printed at the top of the page.

cheers
Ivan

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Ian Semey - Friday, November 28, 2008, 8:35 PM

Thanks IA,

The insertion of the error-printing lines in config.php helped me to find a file that wasn't copied rigth to the server during upload of the moodle folder. Now I'm just struggling with the error "Backup tables could NOT be set up successfully!", but eventually I'll find a solution for that

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Richard Enison - Saturday, November 22, 2008, 11:48 AM

SvN,

I would add to what IA said, if you don't find it on the blank page, look in the log. The first ini_set line turns error msg. display (on web pages) on, and the second line tuns reporting of errors to the error log on.

RLE

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Re: hanging index.php page

by John Barr - Saturday, November 22, 2008, 4:24 PM

Thanks Richard,

I have studied the Forum and passed the information on to our providers as I can't see the logs. Hopefully the problem wil be solved.

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Scott van Niekerk - Monday, November 24, 2008, 11:36 AM

RLE, Ivan,

Thanks for attempting to help me solve this hanging install page. When I re-ran the debug config file with ini text, I DID get an error message about insufficient memory! Despite this being set to 128M.

I also asked 1and1 to "restart" Apach for me as you suggested RLE. They told me that could not be doe, since I had a business linux package, without this type of control access. I woul dhave to have a business server package and be paying $99+/month!

Scott

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Ivan Aksenov - Monday, November 24, 2008, 5:39 PM

Hi Scott,

In my limited experience, and I mean limited, you have found the problem only seem unable to make the necessary changes. Unless there's another way to bump up your memory allocation your page will hang. So, the situation is you can't go forward with your project and that's what I would be extremely frustrated about. I suggest that either your find out what your webmaster prefers to eat drink or wear and then you send him/her some donuts, bottle of red or a pair of new shoes. Alternatively, consider another provider. I recently moved away from 1und1 and have been happy with my new provider (www.a-mazing.de). I recommend sending an email to Gregor (gregor.hermens@a-mazing.de) explain the situation in either english or german and get a quote. Gregor is approachable and seems to understand Moodle's requirements therefore, he should help you get going pretty quickly.

Cheers
Ivan

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Richard Enison - Monday, November 24, 2008, 9:01 PM

SvN,

Perhaps it would help if you tell them why you want them to restart Apache. The point is, generally, if you have your own server, so you have total control over configuration files like httpd.conf and php.ini, you can restart Apache anytime you want. When you want to change a setting, you edit one of the configuration file, then you restart Apache to make it effective.

When you are using a shared commercial web host (as opposed to a dedicated commercial web host, presumably like the one 1and1 wants to charge you $99+ a month for), you are dependent on the host to provide you with alternate means of changing the configuration for your site, like .htaccess and custom php.ini files, both of which are supported by 1and1. Because they have total control over Apache, PHP, MySQL, and the configuration files, and they apply to all their clients. They're not going to restart Apache or MySQL and inconvenience all their clients every time one of them makes a settings change.

So ask them what needs to be done to make your settings changes take effect; and whether it is possible to raise the memory_limit above 128K. Frankly, that seems a bit high. It makes me wonder whether there is some inefficiency that is causing it to require more memory than it should, and that's a question for the Hardware and Performance forum.

If that doesn't help, perhaps you should take IA's advice and change hosts.

RLE

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Scott van Niekerk - Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 6:34 AM

I tried, but 1and1 insist they cannot restart Apache because it is a shared server, and that will mess up everyone's settings.

After debugging with the ini script in config.php, the error message I get is:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 30932992) (tried to allocate 35 bytes) in /homepages/11/d228891186/htdocs/mfrsuccess/moodle/admin/mnet/MethodTable.php on line 77

Even though I followed their advice which was to change settings in php.ini to 40M and 10M, they wrote me this below:

"the specific limit due to the restrictions set on a Shared Hosting package
is memory_limit = 40M,post_max_size = 10M"

RLE, can you think of any more helpful suggestions?

Scott

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Richard Enison - Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 10:38 AM

SvN,

You tried, but they insist they cannot restart Apache on a shared server? You tried what? Asking them to restart it? That's exactly what I asked you not to try. I said the same thing myself, in my last post; namely, that restarting Apache would inconvenience their other clients. What I asked you to try was asking them what needs to be done for your settings changes (via .htaccess or custom php.ini files) to take effect.

Aside from all that, they seem to be saying that you can't raise the memory limit above 40MB anyway. This seems odd, since they already raised it to 128MB (or did they?). But if that is their position, and the other forum I referred you to cannot help you live within that limit, then you only have one other choice: change hosts.

RLE

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Cassius Cheong - Monday, November 24, 2008, 11:40 PM

I'm pretty happy with Daily Razor.. You should consider them Scott.

My package is pretty close to the bottom rung, yet they've always provided me with very decent service, including resetting my MySQL database after I had problems with UTF8 unicode.

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Re: hanging index.php page

by Alejandro Lengua - Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 4:14 AM

I have the same issues with the current version of Moodle (Moodle 1.9.7+MOODLE_19_WEEKLY) on Apache 2 and PHP Version 5.2.10

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Re: SOLUTION

by karuppavel a - Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 8:14 AM

very nice

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Worked for me Daniel solution

by nasim j - Saturday, April 10, 2010, 11:19 AM

Thank you and it worked for me, only thing you have to add in last another {
Open or Left Curly Brace (medium brackets) {

} else if (($fh = @fopen($INSTALL['wwwrootform'].'/'.$INSTALL['admindirname'].'/environment.xml', 'r')) !== false) {

to:

} else if (($fh = @fopen("'".$INSTALL['wwwrootform']."/".$INSTALL['admindirname']."/environment.xml'", 'r')) !== false) {

Also it created successfully the config.ph file, no problem everything worked good and smooth. those who do not know it was change on line 406 install.php file described by Daniel Del Rio in this form
Naseem
www.RightMotion.com

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Sergiu Zichil - Friday, July 2, 2010, 12:14 PM

AAARRGHHH!

I've had the same problems as most people with the blank page. I must've tried 16-20 times to install moodle and got the blank page right after the continue button.

Eventually, with enabling debug (why didn't I do this before?!), I discovered that index.php in the admin folder couldn't access lib/xmldb/classes/XMLDBConstants.php. The reason for it: when unzipping the file using putty "unzip filename.zip" it extracted the files with lowercase letters: xmldbconstants.php instead of XMLDBConstants.php

I'm adding this here just in case someone runs into this problem. It might help them.

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Tim Hunt - Friday, July 2, 2010, 4:56 PM

Wow! great detective work to track that problem down.

I wonder why some versions of unzip are doing that?!

Anyway, since this problem seems to cause problem for new users, I have added a suggestion to the tracker, that we should detect this situation and display a nice error message. If you agree, you might like to vote for MDL-23055. (However, I expect this bug won't be fixed until after Moodle 2.0 is released

)

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by Sergiu Zichil - Friday, July 2, 2010, 8:56 PM

Thanks! I did vote for it.

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Re: Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step

by kanisious museka - Monday, June 2, 2014, 6:32 PM

I am getting a blank screen before i even log in; the site was working previously however this morning it became blank. I touched nothing on the site. I am wondering maybe it reached some limit. my data file is 130GB.

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Installing and upgrading help

Moodle install gives blank page after Configure Database Step