Apache Friends Support Forum

I've successfully installed the FUDforum software with XAMP 1.7.0 on Windows, however, when I try the same on XAMPP 1.7.0 for Linux, the browser window just fills with question marks.

There are no PHP errors and "php -l install.php" returns "No syntax errors detected".

Any suggestions on where to start looking for the problem?

Best regards.

Frank

Any suggestions on where to start looking for the problem?

Ask the FUDforum support?

Well, the same script is working on XAMP for Windows, so I reckon the problem is with the Linux port of XAMP.

PS: I'm not the only one with this problem. Here's a similar discussion (without resolution) on the FUDforum site - http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?&t=msg&th=4633

Best regards.

Frank

so I reckon the problem is with the Linux port of XAMP.

Only a FUDforum developer can told you, in which case the script is just outputting "?????".

(Or someone other who is looking through the code.)

The question marks are not in the script.

I've just installed php separately on the same system, and it worked perfectly. So, XAMP on Windows is good and PHP 5.2.6 stand-alone is good. I even have it working on a server with PHP 5.1.6. The exception is XAMP for Linux!

OK, here is a small test case to simulate the problem:

Code: Select all

<?php
/* �[34m^G~Nظ^@~P~N�^@^A)�)����[34m^Y^@^@
 * First 20 bytes of linux 2.4.18, so various windows utils think
 * this is a binary file and don't apply CR/LF logic
 */
echo "Hello world\n";
?>

Working with normal PHP:

Code: Select all

# /usr/bin/php x.php
Hello world

Broken with XAMPP for Linux's PHP:

Code: Select all

# /opt/lampp/bin/php x.php
??????�???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Well, I don't know why there is a difference behavior with XAMPP, but the problem is this curious 1st line in the remark.
--> Thus, just remove this line, an the script should also work with XAMPP.

It's not that easy, the script contains more binary data (the files that must be extracted) below the following section:

Code: Select all

<?php exit; ?>
<?php __HALT_COMPILER(); ?

This is all valid PHP code. It's strange that XAMP for Linus chokes on it, while all other PHP installations (including XAMP for Windows) works just fine. I would appreciate if a bug can be opened for it.

Hi Frank!

Can you please send me the PHP file in an email to oswald@apachefriends.org.

Greetings
Oswald

Hi Frank!

Thanks for the file. It's because of a NULL character (shown as ^@) in the PHP code.

I assume(!) it's a problem with PHP mbstring extension for multi-byte string support. Sadly in XAMPP for Linux this extension is compiled in and can't be disabled. But - as far as I know - on Windows you may disable this extension. @Wiedmann: Do you know if it's a shared extension in XAMPP for Windows?

Greetings
Oswald

Good spot! What's strange is that the NULL doesn't even have to be in the PHP code. This example gives the same error:

Code: Select all

<?php echo "Hi"; ?>
/* ^@ */

Hi Frank!

Yes, it IS strange.

And I just found that Sun's Cool Stack has the same problem: http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5305046 But according to them it's not an mutibytestring issue.

Greetings
Oswald

@Wiedmann: Do you know if it's a shared extension in XAMPP for Windows?

"mbstring" is a shared extension, and it's enabled in "XAMPP for Windows".

I hope you guys be able to fix this problem in a subsequent release. XAMPP is a great distributions and I would love to use it on Linux as well.

The solution to this problem is to edit your php.ini file and set detect_unicode to Off.

Fore more details, see http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=36711