...installing Drupal 6 onto XAMPP

By markgriffith on 7 Jul 2008 at 22:01 UTC

I'm watching the relatively clear step-by-step video about installing Drupal 6 on a remote server from an Apple Mac.

Can anyone say which steps I need to do differently if I'm installing Drupal 6 on XAMPP running on a Word machine?

Thanks!

Mark G.

Comments

"Word machine"? What could

lionheart8 commented 7 July 2008 at 23:48

"Word machine"? What could that be?

...word machine = Microsoft/IBM

markgriffith commented 8 July 2008 at 11:01

Sorry to be unclear Lionheart. As in "not Apple", and "not Linux".

I suppose I made it sound a bit like a typewriter, didn't I?

Ok, well if you have XP or

lionheart8 commented 8 July 2008 at 15:14

Ok, well if you have XP or something similar

You need to start Xampp. If during installation u installed Apache & MySQL as services (u are prompted to decide)
then they are running. If you didnt, then u have to start them manually everytime via the Xampp control panel. There you
can also install them subsequently as services.

The root folder of Xampp is "htdocs" and that is where you should place your unzipped Drupal folder or other scripts u want to test.
For simplicity rename (Drupal-6.2 or whatever) to "drupal".
You can access your new site at http://localhost/drupal
If you do so the first time, Drupal will prompt you to start the installation.
Before that however, you need to create a database as the installation requires that information related to it.

To do so, go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin

Create database, e.g. called "drupal".
It should appear in the left column, but will be having "no tables".

Go back to the phpmyadmin index page and look for the "Privileges" link. Go there,
Create a user, who you could call "drupal"
Select "localhost" as you host
Create a password

Select ALL privileges for your user.
Note all the info above as you will need it to install your Drupal.

Go to http://localhost/drupal and start the installation!

Some problem at times experienced later is that links seem to be faulty.
It is Xampp related and can be corrected by going to & editing the file below as explained:

xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf
and uncomment
#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
restart xampp apache

Good luck.

...blimey

markgriffith commented 8 July 2008 at 17:00

Cor, thanks, lionheart. Most kind.

If you're going to be at Drupalcon down in Szeged next month, I definitely owe you a drink.

Alas, I cannot make it! That

lionheart8 commented 8 July 2008 at 19:01

Alas, I cannot make it!
That alone would be a good enough reason for turning up. ;)
Regards

...looking good, lionheart, thanks

markgriffith commented 10 July 2008 at 13:15

I think it has partly worked. I followed your instructions, including going into the XAMPP code to uncomment that line you mentioned.

If anyone has any ideas, I am still getting an error message saying my username and password is not recognised. I might try again tonight.

But at least I successfully set up the database with no tables on XAMPP, installed Drupal 6, and now seem to be just grappling with the last teeny bit where I try to get the two little buggers to talk to each other...

getting an error

saketi3t commented 29 August 2009 at 04:49

Warning: fopen(./sites/default/default.settings.php) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\install.inc on line 188

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\install.inc:188) in C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\install.inc on line 618

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\install.inc:188) in C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\install.inc on line 619

I don't know how to change the permissions of the folder .... I have tried to uncheck the read only option but it's not working
please can anyone help me

I had similar problem

Allthegearnoidea commented 27 September 2009 at 15:42

saketi3t - don't know if you sussed your problem or not (as it was a month ago). But I had the same issue.

The problem was at the start of my install it told me to replace default.settings.php with settings.php. I did this by duly re-naming default.settings.php to settings.php. I'm not sure this is waht you are actually supposed to do as it appears it needs the default.settings.php file.

The way i solved the problem that you've got is copying default.settings.php back in to the folder.

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When I read your response, I

lionheart8 commented 10 July 2008 at 17:00

When I read your response, I was in the process of installing a new Drupal 6.3 site on Xampp. :)
After configuring the database related stuff, next is the "Configure site" page, where you set the Site name, admin username, password, email etc.

On setting these, on the next page I got this:

Congratulations, Drupal has been successfully installed.

Please review the messages above before continuing on to your new site (link).

The only error message I got was regarding email, because i had not configured Xampp to allow sending the confirmation email to me (administrator) with the login details.

On that next page (new site link), one is already logged in. I immediately logged out & back in with the username & password I set before with NO problem.

I'm sure there's some small mistake involving the login details which can be solved.

If you dont get a better suggestion, simply "drop" the database you already created, which is now populated with content of the site u had made + a new copy of Drupal (since settings.php was changed) and re-do the installation. It should take a few minutes & you will be back on track ;)
Alternatively, make another database + use a differently named Drupal folder. (I suppose u have not thrown away the downloaded Drupal file yet). This allows you to try out another solution from forum readers on the site you already have, while giving u the opportunity to try out another installation.

...aha

markgriffith commented 10 July 2008 at 20:59

Thanks - this sounds interesting, lionheart.

...but "the copy of the site I made"? I haven't made any site yet - could this be where I am going wrong? The database you suggest I drop has nothing in it, no content, no website.

Confusingly, I should right now try to put Drupal onto my Apple [at least there is a video for this], because I'm travelling with the Mac tomorrow, so getting the version of Drupal running on XAMPP on the other, IBM, laptop might have to wait until I return on the 20th.

gosh... Thanks again for all this helpful, step-by-step stuff...

That's quite surprising if

lionheart8 commented 11 July 2008 at 10:00

That's quite surprising if your DB is empty! ;) Normally Drupal cannot exist without its DB files, so I wonder where/what site could not recognize the login data.

OK, look - you have an existing (empty - tableless) database called , let say "drupal"
I will assume you followed the instructions above & created a db user (called him "drupal" or whatever), db host (localhost), db user password and have them ready somewhere.
I will also assume you untarred your downloaded Drupal file & say renamed it "drupal" (or whatever) & placed it in "htdocs"

Of course Apache & MySQL are running ... (as services or manually turned on via Xampp control panel)
From here it should be quite easy.

The moment you go to http://localhost/drupal ...... FOR THE FIRST time, Drupal will redirect you to the installation page, asking u to select the install. language.
Next page, you will be prompted to feed in the above DB info.
At this point, the DB will be populated with initial Drupal content. (You dont seem to have reached this point before).
Unless there's a problem you will be sent to the "Configure site" page, etc as mentioned above.
Unless your Xampp (smtp server) is configured to deal with mail, you will get an (irrelevant) error related to mail, because Drupal will try to send you the admin login data but cannot.
That is all.
On the next page u are logged in as site administrator & ready to play around ...

Dont give up ... it is not hard as I would not have managed to ...

Regards

Hello! Everyone I m new in

FrankDrupal-1 commented 13 July 2008 at 06:23

Hello! Everyone

I m new in this community but before I came, I already did most of the solutions described above.
I am using 'root' for database user having all preveleges but I am getting

Err

user warning: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ') ORDER BY fit DESC LIMIT 0, 1' at line 1 query: SELECT * FROM menu_router WHERE path IN () ORDER BY fit DESC LIMIT 0, 1 in C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\menu.inc on line 315.

this hapens on drupal installation page .
My concern is with the 'database type' choice I had to choose to set up drupal database, with only mysqli and pgsql, I was suspisious with my server since it does seem to only have mysql.

I gues I should spend more time in differentiating the two.

Pls anyone with help concering this would be much appriciated........thanks in advance.

Creating a site on Xampp in 5 minutes

lionheart8 commented 13 July 2008 at 13:04

This is what I did to create a Drupal site on Xampp within 5 minutes.

I gave the default user "root" in phpmyadmin a password
created a DB also called "root"
inserted a freshly untarred Drupal file, renamed to "drupal" in "htdocs"
I went to http://localhost/drupal & was prompted to choose the installation language
Filled in the database details on next page. Yes, there are 2 Database types - I leave it at the preselected "mysqli"
Next page: "Configure site" - where you fill in Site Name, Site Address, Site Admin name & password, etc
Drupal installation complete -

Congratulations, Drupal has been successfully installed.
Please review the messages above before continuing on to your new site.

That is all!
If all that goes well, the only error message you should get should be that Drupal could not send the confirmation email with your log in details UNLESS the mail server in Xampp has been configured prior to this stage. This error however is "harmless".
You are already logged in as administrator on the NEXT PAGE if you click the link "your new site" & and can work on it.

I am not sure about the source of your error. I dont know the other Database type enough to say it's associated with the error - but in case you selected it, this time use "mysqli" - also here I must say I dont know why it's not called "mysql" like in older Drupal versions like 5, but what I know is it works. (They seem to be the same. Tried to look up Mysqli on Wikipedia but was redirected to Mysql) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQLi:)

I hope this helps.

Creating a site on Xampp/Wamp in 5 minutes--and mysqli extension

suzannera commented 14 July 2008 at 18:43

Lionheart et al,

The mysqli extension is the new SQL extension that was introduced with PHP 5.0. To read more:

http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/Converting_to_MySQLi

Regarding creating a new Drupal site...

I tried to install a local version of Drupal 6.x on my laptop last week in anticipation of the Lullabot Intensive in Providence, RI. Could not get it to install. I was using:
* Wampserver with latest (i think) versions of Apache, Mysql, PHP
* Windows XP

Could not get it to install. Called in my application-developer-IT-savvy husband. (NOTE: I have no formal computer education myself.) Kept getting messages complaining about my mb_string. We went through every possible fix at: http://us3.php.net/mbstring. No dice. My husband thought the WAMP stack might be the problem--after I went to bed he tried Xamp for the install. Still couldn't get it to work. I gave up hope and just went to the training without a local copy; used the provided sandbox to play in instead.

Later that week, my husband had the idea of trying the 5.x version of Drupal. I was able to install it using Wampserver on my own, with no problems. Was even able to do things like go into php and manually provide an e-mail address. So, I now have a local working copy of Drupal 5.8.

Perhaps v. 6 is not as compatible to install on Windows as previous versions??

Cheers,

Suzanne

Thanks for your contribution

lionheart8 commented 14 July 2008 at 20:39

Hi Suzanne

Thanks for your contribution, including clarifying what MYSQLi is :)

Regarding Xampp, I have personally had no problem installing anything including Drupal under it on different Windows XP/XP Prof. PCs. I started about 3 or so years ago. The current version is much easier to install and work with.

I have run all the D6 versions from 6.0 - 6.2 with no problem. I also have a copy of my D 5.8 community site + a couple of other D5 sites there. The newest version 6.3 , which is just a few days old for some reason lacks the sites/default/settings.php, which is a key file as it is where the db settings are written & other useful stuff. I suppose it's an oversight which has probably been corrected as without it it's not possible to install at all and one gets an error message indicating it is missing or should be made writable. I downloaded it the day or day after it was released & I think not only I but a couple of other people raised this in the Drupal Installation Forum.
Having said that, normally in the same folder is another file default.settings.php which seems to have the exact or similar content. I carried out the installation I mention above by saving this file as settings.php.

With that Drupal installation runs as smoothly as it always has.
I think the PHP & MYSQL versions with Xampp are always up to date. The latest version 1.6.7 has:

* Apache HTTPD 2.2.9 + Openssl 0.9.8h
* MySQL 5.0.51b
* PHP 5.2.6
* PHP 4.4.8
* phpMyAdmin 2.11.7
* FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.25
* Mercury Mail Transport System 4.52

Time to check out WAMP, though :)

Regards

I am a mac user but I did

darumaki commented 13 July 2008 at 06:31

I am a mac user but I did install drupal on windows to test it and I used wampserver which I think is way better than xampp, it's easy to setup.

...happy to see...

markgriffith commented 20 July 2008 at 23:19

...you've been chatting among yourselves while I've been in France, and that it's not just me that gets muddled up with this stuff.

Thanks - this all looks useful. Will try to understand the helpful hints and catch up in the conversation tomorrow when I am not tired from a solid day of buses, trains and aeroplanes...

Hey Now that you have rested

lionheart8 commented 23 July 2008 at 09:23

Hey
Now that you have rested enough ...
Have you had time to try out Drupal on the "word" machine and if so how did it go?

;;)

...returns from rest...

markgriffith commented 23 July 2008 at 21:16

Ah, hello, lionheart!

After I did lots of sleeping, caught up with my static HTML weblog, started weight-training again, and did some proofreading for a client - I guess you are right, tomorrow is Drupal 6 installation time, attempt 2.

My word machine feels ready...

Mentioning Drupal 6 -

lionheart8 commented 24 July 2008 at 22:00

Mentioning Drupal 6 - suggests you will be installing the newest version 6.3.
It seems to have a minor problem highlighted here, unless it's been updated, i.e. involving settings.php. In case you get some error mentioning it, a working solution is suggested here http://drupal.org/node/285278

Regards

...thanks

markgriffith commented 28 July 2008 at 08:23

Goodness - thank you.

Should I be installing a slightly older version where all the bugs have been found and fixed, perhaps?

Thanks for this information

vezuv34 commented 28 July 2008 at 11:23

Thanks for this information

Hi actually Drupal 6.3 cam e

lionheart8 commented 29 July 2008 at 22:01

Hi
actually Drupal 6.3 cam e as e result of some minor bugs in found 6.2 corrected. It's otherwise definitely OK.
It's however just a mystery why settings.php - a key file with the indispensable database info was not inserted and more still, why it was not added in spite of several people raising the issue in the forums over a good number of days.
It is possible, though the problem has recently been resolved (i.e. a settings.php included in the drupal 6.3 downloadable file) OR that for some reason it was left out deliberately and there is an explanation somewhere.

This I think only affects people making a new installation, as those updating can use the existing settings.php file.

As explained, saving a copy of default.settings.php seems to solve the problem because the 2 have the same content. My installtion run smoothly after that and a couple of other people have said the same.

...phpMyAdmin...

markgriffith commented 31 July 2008 at 00:33

The phpMyAdmin interface page is pretty badly designed, isn't it?

Could be so much clearer if the programmer had just put complete sentences in English on the page.

I followed kind lionheart's instructions carefully, and http://localhost/drupal
gives me a 404 no-such-page error message.

I must be doing something very simple wrong here. Can anyone tell me?

Apologies...

Mark

...solved...

markgriffith commented 31 July 2008 at 01:31

Right - pathetic I know, but I feel terribly clever.

Managed to instal Drupal 6.3 at last.

! :)

In XP I was unable to make that special file writable [the necessary item is just missing from the list] and I used my own e-mail address which of course it can't write to, but it seems to be installed at least!

Have I made a rod for my own back with these non-standard features, or is this at least a start?

found another way

markgriffith commented 31 July 2008 at 22:33

Found another way to make the file and folder write-enabled.

Now to try to actually build a website. I'm exhausted!

Thank you

crystal_spice commented 27 March 2009 at 19:02

To lionheart8:

I've been trying to install drupal 6.10 on Xampp. I ran into problems. After following your directions in this thread (and also reading everyone else's comments), I was finally able to get it running. Thanks again!