Apache Friends Support Forum

Hi,
i have successfully installed xampp on windows xp, but when i click the apache_start.bat file, a dos window opens then closes immediately. An error prints to the screen before the window closes but it happens too quickly for me to see what it says!
Therefore, when i type http://localhost/ into my browser, i get an error saying that the file doesnt exist.
What is going on?

you should use the commandline editor and start the apache there, in that case the scrren keeps open and you can see the error that occured

thanks for the reply. You will need to help me out though. I am a mac user and am installing this stuff on a pc for a friend and decided on xampp because it claimed to be so simple.
If you could explain what you said in the last email but in much simpler terms i will be most grateful:
what is the commmandline editor and how do i access it?
how do i start apache using this?

thanks

There could be an easier solution.
Open the so called windows explorer (by pressing the "windows key + E", the window key is the one with the winlogo on it, laying left of the spacebar). Then go to the folder on the harddisk where you installed xampp in.
Go to the folder "apache" and then to "logs". There is a file called "error.log". Just post the text written there into this forum.
In this file "error.log" all the errors which happen to apache are written down, so people inside this forum could interpret this errors and help you to find a solution getting apache running

I went to this location and there is nothing written in any of the log files... is there anything else i can try?

Mmmmmh.
Then you've got to try the way Destavator mentioned.

Therefore press the "Windowskey+R" Inside the opened field just type "cmd" (stands for commandline) and run it by pressing "enter-key".
A new window will open with black background and some white text on it. I don't know if MAC has something similar?! In this window you can see the filesystem in a MS-DOS style (it's the same like in the windowsexplorer but without graphics).
There should be written something like:

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C:\Documents and Settings\Username>

Know you've go to the folder xampp was installed to. This can be done by the following commands (all commands have to be executed by pressing enter-key:

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cd ..

for going one folder down

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cd \

for going to the root

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cd foldername

to browse into a folder

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d:

to goto drive D for example


When xampp was installed to drive D just get there by

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d:

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cd xampp

the result should look like:

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D:\xampp\>

Inside the xampp folder is the command to start it so type:

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apache_start.bat

(you can leave the .bat if you want)

then post the text which will be displayed.

(I don't know how much you know the commands described above, from the MAC. So I tried to explain it best i could )

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. This is what reads on the screen when i run the batch file:

Diese Eingabeforderung nicht waehrend des Running beenden
Bitte erst bei einem gewollten Shutdown schliessen
Please close this command only for Shutdown
Apache 2 is starting...
<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

I hope this can assist you in helping me with the problem. I look forward to hearing from you.

I had the same Problem a few minutes ago.
Just open the Task-Manager, by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del
search for processes called like this:

*smtp*.exe
and
*tcp*.exe

Kill them ! Then start apache_start.bat

I dont know at this time the exact file-names, I´ve killed them
But now Apache2 starts...

Thanks for the suggestion, but there are no processes in my task manager that have names like the ones you provided. Are there any other names I can look for? Anything else I can do?

Hi,

killing Processes and not knowing what they are for is not a good idea...
SMTP* will only be blocking Port 25.

What you need to do is find out what is using/blocking your Port 443.
Have you got a Firewall running?
Check if IIS is started? (Services)

So long
KriS

i currently don't have a firewall running. I am not a pc person. What is iis? How do i check if it is started? Is there a way i can check what is running on what ports?

simplest u can try this at a command line.

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netstat -a

.