xampp 1.7.7 won't install on VPC with XP (solved)

[sylvia]

Issue:
While it works perfectly on the real PC, on the VPC I cannot get XAMPP 1.7.7 installed.
When I double-click setup_xampp.bat, the Command Prompt window opens and states, that the system cannot run the requested program and that I shall press any key to continue.
It works fine with 1.7.4, why not with 1.7.7?

My System:
Real PC: Windows XP SP2, Firewall "ZoneAlarm" (deactivated), AntiVir, XAMPP 1.7.7, Firefox 11.0, IE 6.0
Virtual PC: VPC2007 with Windows XP SP2, no Firewall, no anti virus, XAMPP 1.7.4, Firefox 4.01, IE 7.0
Both PCs are connected via LAN with fixed IP addresses.
Both XAMPP setups are in the root of their respective drives, both setups were done by extracting the ZIP files. No part of the XAMPP is set up as a service.

[hackattack142]

If you unzipped it to C:\xampp, you do not need to run the setup_xampp.bat.

To test something, what happens if you go to /xampp/apache/bin and try to run httpd.exe?

[sylvia]

Hi hackattack,

thanks for your response.

I unzipped to E:\xampp.
Maybe I won't have to run the setup_xampp.bat if unzipped to c:\xampp, but the question remains: It works fine with 1.7.4 and earlier, why not with 1.7.7?

When I run httpd.exe I get this error message:

E:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe
This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Kind regards
sylvia

[hackattack142]

do you get a similar message if you open a command prompt (Start > Run > cmd), change to the PHP directory (cd E:\xampp\php) and try to run "php.exe -v"

If this fails, you may need toe VC9 runtimes from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... px?id=5582

[sylvia]

Hi hackattack,

thanks for your efforts and sorry for me not coming back to you sooner.

do you get a similar message if you open a command prompt (Start > Run > cmd), change to the PHP directory (cd E:\xampp\php) and try to run "php.exe -v"

No, I got the same message that I got on my attempt to run setup_xampp.bat: "The system cannot execute the specified program." And it doesn't matter whether I execute php.exe with or without the -v switch. And the shitty thing with the message is that it won't tell me why.

If this fails, you may need toe VC9 runtimes from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... px?id=5582

Why would I need that on the virtual, but not on the real system (where xampp 1.7.7 runs)?

I feel we must concentrate on the simple fact that
xampps with versions 1.7.4 and older run on both my real and virtual system with no extra settings (meaning beyond what is currently installed) required to meet either,
the xampp 1.7.7 must have an "extra" or "addon" compared to 1.7.4 that prevents 1.7.7 from running on the virtual system.

There must be a way to find out, just what this "extra" or "addon" is and what runtime environment it requires, regardless of real or virtual system.
From what I figured out so far: The setup_xampp.bat (which is exactly the same for all mentioned xampp versions) calls the php.exe which runs the install.php. And this install.php is too complex for me to understand, let alone find that particular difference that prevents version 1.7.7 from running as desired. And who knows what other in this matter significant changes are added elsewhere. I don't exclude the possibility of a bug entirely.


Kind regards
sylvia


Edit, some time later:
Hi hackattack,

it's me again.
I followed your link, installed the runtime environment and, indeed, that did the trick.

But how did you come to know about this issue?
This page http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html for example does not state any system requirements. Searching "system requirements for xampp 1.7.7" in Google didn't result in anything useful.

Now I think I know, why xampp 1.7.7 worked right away on my real PC: It is because there the runtime environment was already installed. But I didn't do it delibaretly, it must have happened when I installed VPC2007. Apparently, older xampp versions don't require such a runtime installation.

If you or anyone else have no further remarks, I would like for someone to mark this thread as solved, because I don't know how and where.

Thank you very much for all your help.

Kind regards
sylvia

[hackattack142]

I will try to give you a short explanation.

XAMPP versions including and prior to 1.7.4 had Apache and PHP compiled with a Visual C++ 2005 compiler (AKA VC6). The required system libraries for this compiler are on most systems by default. Starting with XAMPP versions after 1.7.4, the developers started using Apache and PHP binaries that were compiled with Visual C++ 2008 (AKA. VC9). The required libraries to run programs compiled with the VC9 compiler are generally not on systems by default.

With that said, it is quite possible that another program you installed on your host machine installed the VC9 libraries silently. I have many different Visual C++ runtimes installed on my system because programs have installed them while they were installing. I cannot speak for this it not being listed on the main site but you could make a request to the developers.

As a side note, if you wish to mark something solved, either wait for a moderator to do it or I think you can edit your first post in this thread and add it to the subject line

[sylvia]

Thank you very much, hackattack,

and I will mark the thread as you suggested by adding to the subject line of the initial post.

Kind regards
sylvia