Community Documentation

Troubleshoot installation problems

Last updated August 15, 2011. Created by tgeller on August 4, 2009.
Edited by Haza, arianek, Kami Petersen, LeeHunter. Log in to edit this page.

Links to some of the more common installation issues are listed below. More troubleshooting information is available at the Troubleshooting FAQ.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of n bytes exhausted

The error "Allowed memory size exhausted" indicates that Drupal needs more memory than has been allocated under current settings. This error can be resolved by adding an extra line to Drupal's configuration files.

Failed to connect to your MySQL database server

The installation script cannot connect to the database. Check if the username, password and hostname that you provided are correct.

Cannot create directories 'files' or 'private'

The installation script needs permissions to create these directories inside the sites/default folder.

Cannot write to configuration files settings.php

The installation script needs permissions to write to the configuration files settings.php.

Blank page (White Screen of Death)

Occasionally the page is completely blank (No content. No errors.) This is what is sometimes referred to as the "White Screen of Death". There are several reasons why this might occur.

"Your PHP configuration only supports the SQLite database type" on the database configuration page during install

Drupal 7 now requires PHP to have the PDO (Php Data Object) extension enabled or compiled in. Older or home-brewed versions of PHP may not have this enabled by default. Check your phpinfo for the "pdo_mysql" extension, or see the instructions for enabling it. Discussion

Other errors

Comments

not sure...

I'm not quite sure what to make of this page at the moment.
Most importantly it does not contain information about errors messages I encountered during my installation process.
- missing directories
- wrong permissions for manually set up directories (and I still don't know which permissions are needed, so they arenow set to 777)
- need to reset permissions for settngs.php
- long and repeated error messages about time zones

***
Missing directories and timezone errors need a faq on the the page

Permissions and settings.php are on the page now.
bekasu

Windows errors

I ran into an install error on Windows XP and found several posts for assistance with the same error (SMTP server response: 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for .... in ....\includes\mail.inc on line 193. Unable to send e-mail....) Maybe someone (me?) should add a page for common Windows install errors.

Pat Johnston
Aromas, California

Getting an SSI error:

Getting an SSI error: recursion exceeded. Anyone know what this means

Re: Troubleshoot installation problems

Hi,
I am getting the following error and I have seen several posts with it but none of them has a solution:

PDOException: SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 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: SELECT * FROM {menu_router} WHERE path IN ( ) ORDER BY fit DESC LIMIT 0, 1; Array ( ) in menu_get_item() (line 443 of C:\AppServ\www\drupal-7.0\includes\menu.inc).

I am trying to install Drupal 7.0 over Windows 7 64-bit (previously installed Appserv 2.6.0)
Let me know if you find any solution.
Regards,
Alejandro.

nobody click here