Apache Friends Support Forum

Helllo,,
my version of windows is windows xp home edition.
the folder the xampp is C:\Xampp
the version is 1.7.7 of xampp the latest
the error is phpmyadmin error -- cannot start session without errors check errors given in your php logfile or your webserver file.

I cannot get this software to work and it's driving me crazy. I don't understand what could be wrong...can anyone help with this.
If I don't assign a password to phpmyadmin it seems to work ok,
but the minute I add a password, it stops working.

Many thanks in advance for anyone's assistance.

1. What errors is it returning in those logs it tells you to check

2. How are you trying to change the password

3. Try going to your /xampp/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file and changing this line:

Code: Select all

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';


to this

Code: Select all

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';


Thank you for your quick response. I've already done what you suggested. Cookies, password "" and one other option set to "". I'm trying to work out of a book Murach's PHP and MYSQL. They say to change the config to cookies password to "" and one other thing that I can't think of to "" as well. The author said he didn't know when I queried him about this situation.
So I don't know whats next?

Robert

It would be helpful if you answer my first two questions.

You are so correct about that and I apologize. i will do everything I can to try and get the information that you have requested this evening and post it tomorrow. i really appreciate your taking the time to work with me on this. I have no idea where to go next. I walked away from this a few months ago, saying it just doesn't work on windows and thats that. But here I am again trying to make it work.

Regards,

Robert

As i mentioned before, i can access the phpmyadmin interface if I don't change the settings in the phpmyadmin config file which are user,password and config. The book says to change the config to "cookie" and the other two options are blank. I looked in the php logs file and it is empty. I looked in the apache\logs\error.log and I saw nothing wrong. I changed the blowfish secret to a 16 character string and the other options as mentioned above and when I do that, I get the phpmyadmin error which says to check the logs in the phpmyadmin file and the apache log file and to config phpmyadmin correctly.

I might not be looking in the correct files. If I am not looking in the right place please let me know. Maybe I should have collected the info in the apache\logs\error.log and included that here, but I didn't. I can if you think this would help?
The php version is 5.3.8 the apache is 2.2.21. I have tried other versions of xampp as the author of the book suggested that I do and I still get the same results.

Some times when the log on screen does appear it has the characters ?(??/)?size= displayed in it. I.. of course, don't know why this is happening either.
The windows version is xp home sp2. But i've gotten the same results with Windows Professional operating system.

When i first install xampp it says there are errors in httpd that must be corrected, but then it corrects them I guess and the next message says that apache loaded correctly and when I open my browser apache is running. It just doesn't want to allow a log on. Is there anything I should do next?

Thank you,

Robert

Hi karonterrier,

Which program do you use to change settings in the files?
Please check the encoding of the changed files and if you have (accidentally) setted a ByteOrderMark or not.

best wishes,
Altrea

I use notepad++ to change the three settings that the book suggests, save the file and run the app.

I do not know how to check encoding and I don't know what a byteOrderMark is.

Can you please go into some detail?

Thank you,

Robert M

With Notepad++ thats quite easy:
Open a file and check the second last value of notepad++ status bar, thats the encoding.
It should be "ANSI" or "ANSI as UTF-8". If there stands just "UTF-8" you should convert the file, because true UTF-8 uses a ByteOrderMark (BOM).

You can simply convert a files encoding in notepad++:
- Menue Encoding
- "Convert to UTF-8 without BOM"

best wishes,
Altrea

Hi Altrea,

I checked and it ANSI. Is there any thing else I can do before I give up on this thing?

Thank you,
Robert

Another thing I noticed the panel next to ANSI says UNIX. I'm running windows XP. I don't know if this means anything or not. If it does I don't know how to fix it.

Thanks

If you are experiencing problems manually editing the file, you could try using phpMyAdmin's built-in configuration builder: http://wiki.phpmyadmin.net/pma/Setup

can anyone tell me...since I cannot get xampp to perform correctly under windows xp home edition or windows xp pro, if it would be possible to load a lynx operating system onto my hard drive to run along side windows so that I could get xampp to perform properly? If this is a do-able thing, could someone explain to me how to go about this? Or is there any solution to this problem?

Thanks

Hello karonterrier,

If you used the installer version of XAMPP then in XP often this will give issues that seem to be unexplainable.


Try uninstalling XAMPP and then use a different method, ie. the zip version, instead.

These instructions may help you along the way:
viewtopic.php?p=179699#p179699
Before deleting the xampp folder it is very important to make sure that all service ticks in the control panel are removed, all components are stopped and the control panel is also shut down and not simply sent to the system tray.

Using this zip method has been known to fix many unusual issues that have been associated with the installer used in XAMPP and is why it is possible it will be changed in the next version of XAMPP -> 1.7.8
Item 4 viewtopic.php?f=16&t=48373#p185650

Good luck.

Thank you for your response. I am waiting with baited breath for 1.7.8.

I got a new one for your folks. I got a different book from the library that had a much earlier version of php,mysql and apache on a cd. I tried loading that...which of course didn't work...and now even though I have re-installed my operating system twice the 1.7.7 apache module won't load at all. As they say in I. T circles. Go Figure!

Robert