setup blues

theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Wed, 2004-12-29 13:52

G2 intructions say "G2 will walk you through the process of validating that your system is properly configured and will set everything up for you. "

- - but they dont tell you how to start the configuration wizard. As I understand it, all the details are configured as you proceed through different stages.

But how do you start this?

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Wed, 2004-12-29 17:11

Basically, there are a few files there and a few directoreis, but no "configuration wizard link".

Whats going on?
:-(

 
h0bbel
h0bbel's picture

Joined: 2002-07-28
Posts: 13451
Posted: Wed, 2004-12-29 20:02

[Moving to G2 forums]

Did you read the README.html file in the gallery2 directory?

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Fri, 2004-12-31 21:42

Yes.

Can anyone help me? I'm getting nowhere....been stuck for about 2 days.
I navigate to the install directory as the readme file says, there's no auto script and clicking on the various .php files just tries to dowlnoad them and open them on my hard drive. I have cheacked the chmod and all these files are RWX for the user - me.

I've reinstalled the files about 3 times, checking they were loaded in binary mode, tried v1.4 also....no joy.

What gives?

 
mindless
mindless's picture

Joined: 2004-01-04
Posts: 8601
Posted: Fri, 2004-12-31 21:50

does your webserver support php?

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 09:34

yes and I told the administrator about the problem and he told me other php run sites are working OK

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 09:42

have you run G2 yourself? what's SUPPOSED to happen in the install directory/setup configuration? How is it supposed to begin?

 
mindless
mindless's picture

Joined: 2004-01-04
Posts: 8601
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 17:12

haha, funny.. yes, i've run G2 myself.
go to the G2 Demos sites topic in the G2 Development forum and add "/install/index.php" to any url you find there.. you'll see what the first screen of the installer looks like.

create a file called test.php with this content: <?php print "PHP" ?>
and access it from your browser.. if you don't see just PHP then G2 won't work. try renaming the file to test.php4 or test.php3 and see if either of those extensions work.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 18:19

ok: same problem - it tries to download and open the the test.php from my hard drive. One thing that confuses me though - when you say "access it" do you mean with an ftp URL, or an http URL?

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 18:27

......anyway the http URL doesn't work at all: you get a blank page

 
mindless
mindless's picture

Joined: 2004-01-04
Posts: 8601
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 18:32

http url.. show that url to your site administrator and ask them why it doesn't work.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 18:41

ok thanks.
Should it work then? With a .php extension?

There seems to be something wrong here at 'base level' and I just dont know what it is.

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 18:50

theredfox, the bottom line is that if you open a url that ends in ".php" on the server, it should give you an HTML page in the browser, not offer to download the .php file to your hard drive. If it offers to download, then PHP is misconfigured on the server. Your system administrator should be able to sort this out for you.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 18:54

ok so this is really is clear-cut, that php is not working?
- got to be clear, before I 'confront' them with this. They've already said that php is working, because other sites are using it on the same server. But I guess my ftp space has a seperate configuration?

And when you say an HTML page, do you mean one with a .php extension? - that's still HTML?

 
mindless
mindless's picture

Joined: 2004-01-04
Posts: 8601
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 19:39

yes, it is that clear cut.
if the server is configured correctly so it knows .php extension is php then it will "run" the php script and it will send html to your browser.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sat, 2005-01-01 19:45

ok I'll send them a .php URL and ask them why its not working.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Sun, 2005-01-02 20:05

OK I've received this:

"if the script calls anything by the domain name and you've
viewing
it via the IP address, such issues can arise and are normal. The script
looks fine to me and once the domain is in use the problem won't
arise."

Is this an accurate diagnosis, or can you just point the browser to the install/index.php file and run it, regardless of domain name servers etc?

It may be right, because they've installled a php bulltein board as a test, and its fine...

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Mon, 2005-01-03 08:55

It's hard to be certain, because I can't see your webserver. It might be time for you to give us your URL so we can check in more detail. But I can tell you that G2 uses the same address as you provided in the browser (if you go to it using an ip address, it'll generate new links with ip addresses). So I'm a little suspicious of their reply...

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Mon, 2005-01-03 13:36

Me too - not sure how the script works, but if it sets up links etc based on an IP address then using the IP address shouldn't be a problem - regardless of setting up the domain name or not.

Anyway, I've now set up the DNServers to use my domain name so that diagnosis is irrelevant now.

And the situation is exactly the same: I can't run the php installation script - or any other php script, like the test files people suggested. And yet the sysadmin HAS installed a php forum in my server space, suggesing that php is OK.

Not sure what you mean by giving my URL bharat....at the moment theres a temporary index file which is opening OK, but that doesn't give you any access to what's happening on the server.

?

Oh, and thanks for the attention.
Pesky computers, heh.

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 05:40

Post the URL to your copy of Gallery2, and the URL to the working PHP forum demo that your sysadmin has installed and we'll see what we can glean from looking at it that way.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 13:56

I'm a little confused, in relation to ftp/http and the way G2 installs. If I post the install directory URL, won't anyone be able to break in and mess with the files?

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 13:57

(not you bharat, but anyone else....)

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 20:10

G2 is as secure as we can make it. We know of no way to hack your G2 install if you provide us with a url, whether it's properly configured or not.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 21:31

OK so no worries then.

The forum install is here:

http://217.68.23.9/~jameslomax.com/qiqtest/

And the gallery install is here:

http://217.68.23.9/~jameslomax.com/gallery/install/

The gallery install is bringing up permission errors but I dont understand this because I've set the files and directories to CHMOD 777

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 21:52

Aah, ok. The problem you're seeing is totally unrelated to Gallery (ie, we don't have that error message in our code). This is some security procedure your ISP has put in place. I've never seen this variation before, it's entirely possible that it's some homegrown system of theirs. So I'm inclined to believe what they say in this case. I'd read their documentation for installing scripts again, carefully and follow whatever they tell you.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 22:58

OK thanks.
Well, am I right in thinking that this is a bit odd, because both the forum and gallery are at the same directory level, but php seems to run on one but not the other? The sysadmin installed the forum, which may be significant.

And when you say my ISP, do you really mean on the server? I've ftp-ed before, but never used this server space before which is a 3rd party company.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 23:15

oh and the sysadmins is recommending i use CHMOD 600 or 644 for php scripts, and 755 or 711 for directories.

I dont understand this: I opened up the permissions with 777 thinking I could close them down as necessary (asking for advice here) once everything was installed. Is that how it works, thatl 777 access covers all requirements if you are in doubt, or does it create access problems in some circumstances?

Sheesh, this is like wading through thick treacle and not seeing any way out of it.

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Tue, 2005-01-04 23:24

G2 isn't doing anything very special here. It sounds like your ISP (which in this case is the 3rd party company that is hosting your website) has some special restrictions on how you host applications on their site. I don't know what they are, but it sounds like they're permission related. On a normal Unix system, modes of 777 are fully permissive and G2 should work just fine with that. But they have some additional restrictions that I don't understand. This is pretty unusual.

Do they have a FAQ or documentation explaining how to install scripts on your site?

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Wed, 2005-01-05 00:19

No nothing like that. I'm really scrabbling in the dark because I've never set up server scripts before, not used this company before, and there are numerous technical details I have to learn. So the other possibility is: I'm doing something wrong. For example, I'm not entirely clear about binary/ascii mode - but actually loaded the files doing it both ways - and i'm thinking maybe that is wrong, that some have to be binary and some have to be ascii?

I'd like to work this out, because gallery is pretty cool and'll be nice to 'know' it.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Wed, 2005-01-05 00:36

...but heres another thing: I wanted to see if I could install Wordpress/Pictorialis and its not done yet cos its more details to configure, but you can start the .php process here:

http://217.68.23.9/~jameslomax.com/pictorialis/pictorialis/

....which is not something you can do with the G2 files. Conclusion? - maybe that I've done soemthing wrong with the G2 files.

 
bharat
bharat's picture

Joined: 2002-05-21
Posts: 7994
Posted: Wed, 2005-01-05 09:34

Hrm. Ok, you've got me interested. Is there any way that I can get direct access to your files so that I can tinker with it? I'm curious to see what went wrong (maybe we can figure out a way to avoid it in the future). PM me with access details.

 
theredfox

Joined: 2004-11-01
Posts: 133
Posted: Wed, 2005-01-05 18:23

see pm bharat....