Apache won't run

[JoanW]

I wanted to stop and restart Apache. I went to Start - All Programs - apachefriends - xampp - CONTROL XAMPP SERVER PANEL and stopped Apache from running. But now I can't get it running. It says it is started, but it doesn't run. Even rebooting doesn't fix the problem.

Please advise what I need to do to fix this.

Thank you.
Joan

[JoanW]

More information on this problem.
The little apache icon says: Running none of Apache services.
When I click on the icon, and click Start I get this message:

The requested operation has failed!

I have gone into Apache/bin and double clicked on apache.exe. But still, nothing changes.

I went to apache_installer.bat and get this:

Installing Apache2 as an Service
[Sun Dec 04 17:25:40 2005] [error] Apache2: Service is already installed.
Now we Start Apache2
The Apache2 service is starting.
The Apache2 service could not be started.

A service specific error occurred: 1.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3547.

I go to cmd.exe and input the above and get this:

C:\>NET HELPMSG 3547

A service specific error occurred: ***.


EXPLANATION

A service-specific error occurred.

ACTION

Refer to the Help or documentation for that service to determine the problem.

Is there a way to reinstall only Apache through xampp? Would that help?

[bill oakley]

Hmmm., just a quess but did you modify the httpd.conf file in /xampp/apache/conf directory to have it point to a separate directory? Check the httpd.conf fiel and make that both parameters are set to an existing directory.
Make sure both DocumentRoot and Directory are set up properly.

---from httpd.conf file

ServerName localhost:80

#
# UseCanonicalName: Determines how Apache constructs self-referencing
# URLs and the SERVER_NAME and SERVER_PORT variables.
# When set "Off", Apache will use the Hostname and Port supplied
# by the client. When set "On", Apache will use the value of the
# ServerName directive.
#
UseCanonicalName Off

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "c:/apachefriends/xampp/htdocs"

#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories).
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of
# features.
#
<Directory>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>

#
# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow
# particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as
# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it
# below.
#

#
# This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
#
<Directory "c:/apachefriends/xampp/htdocs">

#

One way to set a new diretory at least for a test bed whilst maintaining access to the original xampp pages is to set up a virtual host (very end of httpd.conf file) such as:

#NameVirtualHost *:80

#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for requests without a known
# server name.
#
<VirtualHost test:80>
ServerAdmin test@test.com
DocumentRoot j:/www
ServerName test:80
</VirtualHost>

Now you can type in //test and go to your development directory and maintain the original xampp stuff.

If worst come to worse see the httpd.default.conf file
Don't forget to restart apache after changes.
Regards