Permissions and setup issues

jinfinite8

Summary: automatic installer throwing permission errors when I attempt to run installer.php on Vanilla v 0.9.2.6.

Hi, I'm a Vanilla newbie and REALLY want to get my installation up and running ASAP. I'm not technical as many are here but not completely clueless either (depends on your persepective of course so bear with me).

After following the automated installation instructions to the letter on two different hosts (I use 1 & 1 and MediaTemple) Vanilla tells me I need to change my file permission to read/write on selected files. No problem. I granted read/write/exectute permission (777) on the entire Vanilla directory and contents and still nothing. The same exact thing happens on both my 1&1 mySQL database and MediaTemple mySQL database. I know the database settings I am using are good because they work fine on my Wordpress blog installations.

I am looked at the troubleshooting section but no joy there.

I DID try the manual config instructions but I'm beyond my knowledge on this because when I run either of the two shown mySQL commands shown from the instructions on my SSH client I get an 'Invalid Command' error. I did follow the syntax exactly and have tried it a half dozen times. I'm at the limit of my knowledge on using SSH and running commands - if I'm not just copying something and following instructions I have NO clue how to diagnose myself.

Shown below is the ugly ugly list of errors I receive from the automated installer.

ithcy

that's a very short list...

this problem has been discussed (over and over) here. a quick comment search for 'permissions' should bring up several threads.
i think what usually helps is rolling back everything to 666 because apache freaks out if everything has execute permissions.

jinfinite8

Thanks ithcy. I'll give your suggestion a try. I had done some searching to no avail but I'll try again. Sorry about the omission of the errors (it was too long to post it all).

jinfinite8

I tried changing the specified files in the installation instructions to read/write permissions 666. No joy. I went searching again in the forums for my problem but found no one with the exact problem that I described. Any other ideas anyone?

jinfinite8

Error excerpt:

Vanilla Installation Wizard (Step 1 of 3)"); if ($WarningCollector->Count() > 0) { echo("
Oops. We came across some problems while checking your permissions... ".$WarningCollector->GetMessages()."

Let's try this again...
"); } echo("

Before we can do much of anything, we need to make sure that you've got your directory & file permissions set up properly.

Vanilla is going to need read AND write access to the following files:

* ".$WorkingDirectory."appg/settings.php
* ".$WorkingDirectory."appg/extensions.php
* ".$WorkingDirectory."appg/language.php
* ".$WorkingDirectory."database.sql

Vanilla is also going to need read access to the following folder:

* ".$WorkingDirectory."languages/

And finally, the filebrowser and thumbnailer will need read AND write access to the following folder:

* ".$WorkingDirectory."images/

If you are running a *nix server and you have command line access, you can achieve these permissions by navigating to the Vanilla folder. Once you are sitting in the same folder as the installer.php file, run the following commands:

chmod 666 appg/settings.php
chmod 666 appg/language.php
chmod 666 appg/extensions.php
chmod 666 database.sql
chmod 757 images/

Once you've got your permissions set up properly...
Click here to check your permissions and proceed to the next step
"); } elseif ($CurrentStep == 2) { echo("
Vanilla Installation Wizard (Step 2 of 3)
"); if ($WarningCollector->Count() > 0) { echo("
Oops. We came across some problems while setting up Vanilla... ".$WarningCollector->GetMessages()."

Let's try this again...
"); } echo("

Below you can provide the connection parameters for the mysql server where you want to install Vanilla. If you haven't done it yet, now would be a good time to create the database where you want Vanilla installed.

MySQL Server
MySQL Database Name
MySQL User
MySQL Password

Click here to create Vanilla's database tables and proceed to the next step
"); } elseif ($CurrentStep == 3) { if ($PostBackAction != "User") $CookieDomain = ForceString(@$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], ""); echo("
Vanilla Installation Wizard (Step 3 of 3)
"); if ($WarningCollector->Count() > 0) { echo("
Oops. We came across some problems while setting up Vanilla... ".$WarningCollector->GetMessages()."
"); } echo("

Now let's set up your administrative account for Vanilla.

Username
Password
Confirm Password

Up next we've got to set up the support contact information for your forum. This is what people will see when support emails go out from the system for things like password retrieval and role changes.

Support Contact Name
Support Email Address

What do you want to call your forum?

Forum Name

When members use the \"remember me\" feature of the sign in form, we assign a cookie to their browser. That cookie is normally associated with your domain name, but you may want to associate it with something else like the sub-folder in which Vanilla resides (if Vanilla is in a sub-folder). Specify your cookie domain here.

Cookie Domain

Finally, select the language you want Vanilla to use. If you don't see your language here, you should ".GetEmail("support@lussumo.com", "contact us")." about setting up a Vanilla dictionary for your language!

Language
".$LanguageSelect->Get()."

Click here to complete the setup process!
"); } else { echo("
Vanilla Installation Wizard (Complete)

That's it!

Vanilla is set up and ready to go, so what do you do next?

Before you start inviting your friends in for discussions, there are a lot of other things you might want to set up. For example, in the settings tab, you can:

* Turn some of the extensions on, like...
o The category quick-jump that allows members to jump between categories from their control panel
o The clipboard that allows members to quickly paste snippets of information into their comments
o The Html Formatter that allows members to use a limited set of html when adding their comments to discussions
o And lots more!
* Fine-tune application settings like...
o Change the number of discussions or comments per page
o Allow the public to browse your forum without an account
o Disable discussion categories and run your forum as one giant discussion container
o Allow your members to change their usernames at will
o Much, much more!
* Create new roles with various different permissions
* Create new categories, and even limit which roles get to access them
* Allow new users to be automatically granted access when they apply for membership

And that's not all. There's also the latest version of the Lussumo Filebrowser and Thumbnailer sitting in your images folder.
Go sign in and have some fun!
"); } ?>

Minisweeper

Your server doesnt seem to be parsing php very well?

Mark

Yeah, it looks like you've got bigger problems than Vanilla's permissions.

What version of PHP are you running?

Create a plain text file named phpinfo.php and put this inside:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Then upload to your server and view in a web browser.