Installation Problem

[jimsick]

I'm trying to install OCS on a MacBook Pro. I have installed and configured MAMP 1.7 and tested it via the browser. When I try to install OCS, I am always stopped by "a database error has occured: Can't connect to Local My SQL server through socket 'temp/mysql.sock." I have double checked the MySQL user (root) and password via MAMP Pro, and they are correct. Any ideas or advice?

[asmecher]

Hi jimsick,

I'd suggest configuring your MySQL stack to listen via TCP/IP, if it is not already configured to do so. The standard TCP/IP port for MySQL is 3306. See your MySQL configuration file, my.cnf, for specifics.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jimsick]

Hi Alec,

Thank you for the suggestion. I tried switching MySQL to port 3306 but it made no difference. Initialization of OCS 2.0 always stalls with the forementioned error message. However, what should the "host" setting in the ocs installation page be set to if we are trying to access MySQL via TCP/IP rather than the local domain socket? Should it still be set to "local host?"

I also tried uploading and installing on my Siteground host. Here, directing the browser to http://www.mydomain.com/ocs-2.0 resulted in a redirection loop.

Any further ideas or suggestions?

Many thanks

Jim Sick
J. F. Oberlin University
Tokyo

[asmecher]

Hi Jim,

Just to confirm -- it should be set to "localhost", without a space, not "local host".

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jimsick]

Yes, I meant to write "localhost." I've tried it with blank, localhost, and many variations of the path to the MySQL, such as "localhost:8888/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock". Also tried manual creating a new database called "ocs" via PhpMyAdmin. No go. I may have to give up.

Jim Sick
J. F. Oberlin University
Tokyo

[jimsick]

Hi Alec,

I seemed to have solved the problem, at least for installing on the MacBook to get on with some learning sessions. I am not sure exactly what did the trick. I recently installed MAMP, a comprehensive package that includes php, mysql, and apache, etc. It seems that I needed to turn the Mac's built in "personal web sharing" OFF to prevent localhost from pointing to the Macs own built in Apache server. I also set the ports to 80/3306. And contrary to instructions in the MAMP manual, I put the OCS 2.0 folder in my user "Sites" folder rather than in the MAMP htdocs folder. Anyway, I've completed step 1.

Any suggestions about getting ocs to install in my SiteGround hosting service? After ftp-ing to the public folder and directing the browser to the ocs folder, Firefox reported it could not load the page because of a "loop" of re-directions.

[asmecher]

Hi Jim,

Some servers don't support the kinds of URLs used by OJS by default; try turning on the disable_path_info option in config.inc.php to work around it.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jimsick]

Alec,

Thank you for the support. Turning on disable_path_info did the trick, up to creating the ocs database. But that appears to be an issue on the host service end. I'm looking in to how to install the db manually. Would importing the db, say from the fresh installation on my laptop, be a good strategy for this?

TIA

[asmecher]

Hi Jim,

Can you provide any details on the error you're encountering now?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jimsick]

Hi Alec,

SiteGround, my hosting service, requires that new MySQL dbs and db users be created with cPanel, and permissions and pws assigned to each user for each db. The ocs script cannot create a new db it seems, because it does not have root access to the server. And if I create an ocs MySQL db called "ocs" with a password and permissions, the php script cannot create it because it already exists. So, I either get a "access denied for root@localhost" error, or if I create a db with password in advance, a "cannot create database: already exists" error.

I've just tried creating the db through cPanel, and then restoring it from an export dump uploaded from the laptop install. Then tried to run the ocs install with "create a new database" unchecked. But still got a database error message: "Duplicate entry Password_RESET-CONFIRM" for key 2."

Still tinkering

TIA

[asmecher]

Hi Jim,

There's a checkbox on the installation page that tells OJS whether or not it needs to create the database before installing; I'd suggest turning off that checkbox and creating a fresh database via cpanel.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jimsick]

Hi Alec,

That's what I've done. I exported and then restored an installed ocs database via phpMyAdmin. However, when I tried to install ocs with the create database unchecked, I got the "Duplicate entry Password_RESET-CONFIRM" for key 2" message.

UPDATE: Okay, problem solved. I created a new, empty database via cPanel, gave ocs-user permission to write to it, and installed with with "create new databse" unchecked. Installation completed successfully.

Thank you for all the help