Installing XamppLite to a USB Hard Drive

[shoelace1291]

I just recently bought a Western Digital USB External hard drive so I can develop my websites on it and take it with me to school. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, but I keep coming up with the same problem. Every time I visit localhost in my web browser(Firefox) I get a Firefox "Unable to Connect" message. I've checked the ports with the Xampp port-checker but everything is free. I am also having trouble with the Xampp Control Panel. I try to start Apache, but the "Start" button still remains. The same thing happens when I attempt to start MySQL, even though the Control Panel says that both services have been started. I have tried using PortableApps but nothing seems to be working. I would really appreciate it if someone would walk me through the complete process of installing XamppLite for Windows to a USB hard drive.

[Izzy]

The readme file and the XAMPP for Windows Home Page both have installation instructions already written for installing to a USB drive.

Please tell us exactly what you are doing to install XAMPP Lite on your USB drive and what OS you are using.

[shoelace1291]

I think it might be a problem with vista. Every time I try to start apache or mysql, xampp crashes for a couple of seconds, comes back, but neither service is started. I got it working on a school computer that uses XP, but it's still not working with Vista.

[Izzy]

Try starting Apache using the apache_start.bat file as it usually tells you why it can't start and also look in the apache\logs\error.log file for clues.

[shoelace1291]

This is my error log. I'm guessing the listening socket error means that the port is unavailable? How do I fix this?

[Tue Sep 29 12:18:14 2009] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:14 2009] [notice] Digest: done
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:17 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.12 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.12 OpenSSL/0.9.8k mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:17 2009] [notice] Server built: Jul 22 2009 11:35:54
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:17 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1852
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:31 2009] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:31 2009] [notice] Digest: done
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:34 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Child process is running
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:34 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Acquired the start mutex.
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:34 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Starting 150 worker threads.
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:34 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Starting thread to listen on port 443.
[Tue Sep 29 12:18:34 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Tue Sep 29 12:20:47 2009] [notice] Parent: Received shutdown signal -- Shutting down the server.
[Tue Sep 29 12:20:47 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Exit event signaled. Child process is ending.
[Tue Sep 29 12:20:48 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Released the start mutex
[Tue Sep 29 12:20:49 2009] [notice] Child 1852: All worker threads have exited.
[Tue Sep 29 12:20:49 2009] [notice] Child 1852: Child process is exiting
[Tue Sep 29 12:20:49 2009] [notice] Parent: Child process exited successfully.
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:443
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:443
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:443
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:443
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:40 2009] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:40 2009] [notice] Digest: done
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:47 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.12 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.12 OpenSSL/0.9.8k mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:47 2009] [notice] Server built: Jul 22 2009 11:35:54
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:47 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 4228
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:49 2009] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:49 2009] [notice] Digest: done
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Child process is running
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Acquired the start mutex.
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Starting 150 worker threads.
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Starting thread to listen on port 443.
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Starting thread to listen on port 443.
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Starting thread to listen on port 8080.
[Fri Oct 02 17:28:51 2009] [notice] Child 4228: Starting thread to listen on port 8080.
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:8080
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:8080
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs

[Izzy]

Something else is using the port that Apache needs.

Revert your httpd.conf file back to the defaults...

...then run Port Check in the XAMPP Control Panel or run the xampp-portcheck.exe file to see what it is that is using the port.