Many strange problems with new version of XAMPP

[trejder]

Hi all,

I've been using XAMPP Lite for ages. Last two years I've been on 1.7.3 Lite. Always without any problems. As JonB wrotes here, it was always as easy as "copy XAMPP to a new location and then run setup_xampp.bat".

Today, I decided that it is good moment to finally switch to "newest", that is 1.7.7 Lite. As always I run setup_xampp.bat and... first surprise. I don't have to answer any questions (select nothing), just wait few seconds and "have fun".

OK, I said to myself, I've been using version nearly two years old, probably many things has changed. OK. I run "xampp-control.exe" and... another surprise. I can't have both Apache and MySQL run as service, because "Svc" checkbox next to each two positions is grayed (not enabled). Anyone has any idea, what's wrong?

Another thing that was strange for me, was that after clicking "Start" or "Stop" next to each two, I had immidiate effect (at least that was, what control said, changing status label), while on 1.7.3 there was a noteicable lag of 2-3 seconds after click, before getting actual effect.

OK, I run localhost, fix some security issues, by setting MySQL root password and enabling phpMyAdmin cookie authentication. Then I run phpMyAdmin, try to login and getting either "Unable to connect MySQL server" or phpMyAdmin claiming that it is unable to write session and that I should check setting for php.ini, if I have correct path to temp folder. I did that and found out that whole php.ini as good as many other files are "wasted" with paths like "\xampp" instead of "c:\xampp". This way, it for sure will not work on Windows!

Seems that setup_xampp.bat has failed setting correct paths. Am I right? Continous attempts of re-running it brought no solution. And since wasting few hours for manually correcting all these paths is not wht I would dream about, so leaving Lite version and getting Full was the last option I had.

So, I downloaded and unpacked "xampp-win32-1.7.7-VC9.zip". Run setup_xampp.bat with the same effect ("have fun"). This time "xampp-control.exe" allowed me to install Apache and MySQL as service and again, there were noticable lags between starting some service and seeing results of that.

So, again, I run localhost, went to "Security" to setup MySQL root's password, I used the same password (100% sure - copied from the same open Notepad) and... "ERROR: The string for the user name and password must have at least three characters and not more then 15 characters. Special characters like <öäü (usw.) and empty characters are not allowed!". Whoa, what's wrong here?

Since I still had "root" open without password, I simple logged into phpMyAdmin and tried to change it password from there. I also did manual corrections to config.inc.php, added new users, imported dbs and tables etc.

This time (Full version) php.ini contains correct paths, i.e. with trailling "c:\". Seems that everything is working fine, so I assume that other files also are correctly set. One strange thing, that I found, is that Apache is not auto-hiding folder names starting with ".", so I clearly see (and can enter) all my .svn folders, when browsing my localhost. Isn't option to hide "dotted" folders and files set to TRUE by default? This for sure was not set to true in 1.7.3. I'm more than sure of that, because I don't even know how to turn this option off or on and I certinally would have to know, to turn it off, if it would be enabled by default in older version of XAMPP.

To summarize:

1. Why I can't run Apache/MySQL as service in Lite version, while I can in Full version?

2. Why Lite's version setup_xampp.bat corupts / not sets correctly paths in all configuration files?

3. Why I can't set MySQL's root password using XAMPP Full localhost panel, Security section?

4. Why Apache on-board XAMPP Full has displaing "dotted" files and folders enabled by default? And how can I revert that?

Sorry for a pretty long post and thank you in advance for any help here. Have a nice day!
Trejder

[JonB]

I think the answer is to run the Full Version on your stick. LOL

4. Why Apache on-board XAMPP Full has displaing "dotted" files and folders enabled by default? And how can I revert that?

(see last question)

"ERROR: The string for the user name and password must have at least three characters and not more then 15 characters. Special characters like <öäü (usw.) and empty characters are not allowed!". Whoa, what's wrong here?

Probably 'silent utf8'.

What is the Host OS, or did I miss that?

Good Luck

[trejder]

Hi,

Don't know much about silent utf8. All I did was to unpack, run setup_xampp.bat and follow the usual way, known from 1.7.2. The system is Windows 7 Home Edition on 64-bit machine.

Cheers,
Trejder

[JonB]

Silent UTF8 is a term I created on the fly to describe the situation that occurs when you work in a multi-lingual environment (meaning more than one character set enabled) and possibly a non-english keyboard/input device. A google search tells me at least one other person thought of it the same way. You can tell what's enabled in Regions & Languages OR if, like me you, have the Language Bar enabled. Depending on the programs involved, the programs may make assumptions about what the default character set should be, and do a silent translation. I know cause it has happened to me, LOL. It is usually when you go from a local application to something like an HTML database driven site - most DB's on the web now default to some variant of UTF8. It happens on Linux too.

Try a different editor (like a programmers editor, such as notepad++, that has direct support for character set changes (localization) in the preferences) and see if that cut and paste issue goes away.

I have not had a chance yet to look into the .dotted files issue. Are you referring to when the files are seen in Explorer, or when you get a DirectoryIndex in a browser?

Good Luck

[trejder]

Hi,

I'm using a English-language Windows 7 with only one character set (Polish) enabled. I don't have Language Bar enabled, because I don't change either system language or keyboard settings, using all the time the same. If character encoding in editor, that I used for copying password, is the source of the problem here, then it does not explains, why do I had this problem only in full version of XAMPP 1.7.7? I had no problems setting MySQL root's password in 1.7.7 Lite. And I would be really surprised, if this would turn out to be nature of the problem. I've heard about some saving-file problems (BOM characters in the begining), when using UTF8, but never heard that any of these editors can paste some hidden character into copied text.

But, as you advice, I'll give it a try soon with other editor.

Yes, I'm talking about the fact that DirectoryIndex in browsers shows up "dotted" folders (like ".svn") right after a fresh installation of XAMPP, so by default, while it was turned off by default in earleir versions of XAMPP.

After sending first post (question) an additional strange problem. One of the reasons, why I decided to switch to 1.7.7 was the phpMyAdmin 3.5.1 with a lot of useful changes and enhancements, like doing many operations in popup windows or using AJAX. After I run XAMPP 1.7.7 (both Lite and Full) on my office computer, all was fine. I then packed the whole directory to ZIP file, unpacked it at home computer and... phpMyAdmin was again old, bulky, ugly 3.4.5 as in XAMPP 1.7.2.

This is the weirdest part and I have absolutely no idea, how it is possible. But I'm beginning to believe, that there are some nasty IT ghosts around here. Either I'm really but lucky, my computer is really in bad shape or there are some things wasted in newest version of XAMPP.

I'm going to make some tries on 1.7.5 and unofficial 1.8.0, to see, if I'll have similar problems.

[JonB]

After sending first post (question) an additional strange problem. One of the reasons, why I decided to switch to 1.7.7 was the phpMyAdmin 3.5.1 with a lot of useful changes and enhancements, like doing many operations in popup windows or using AJAX. After I run XAMPP 1.7.7 (both Lite and Full) on my office computer, all was fine. I then packed the whole directory to ZIP file, unpacked it at home computer and... phpMyAdmin was again old, bulky, ugly 3.4.5 as in XAMPP 1.7.2.

Something went wrong there. a simple file examination of the unpacked archive should show the cause.

Good Luck