Mercury/Startup issue

[almo]

Hello,

I've got XAMPP working great on a Windows XP SP2 machine. I have php/mySQL and Mercury all working together.

My problem is that I've tried to set XAMPP Control Panel to run as a service, and I've told it to start Mercury.

When I reboot, Mercury is not running, and neither is the XAMPP control panel. If I start the XAMPP CP service by hand, it starts and stops without appearing to do anything. Mercury still does not run. I have to start the XAMPP CP by hand and click the Mercury start button to get Mercury running.

Obviously this isn't the best way to run a server machine in that we can't restart it without me being around to get Mercury running again.

Almo

[Sharley]

"Mercury/32 and its individual servers can't be run as Windows services" is the general consensus...

...but best for this would be the Mercury Forums - and this thread may be what you need:
http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/10255.aspx
BTW, David Harris is the developer.

I hope this is of help for you.
Good luck.


If you prefer you can install http://www.hmailserver.com/ which may be able to use the Windows service.

[almo]

Well, I thought setting the XAMPP control panel to be a service and telling it to start Mercury would do what I'm asking. That's why I'm asking here instead of at Mercury. But I'll definitely go look there as well. Thanks.

[Sharley]

Well, I thought setting the XAMPP control panel to be a service and telling it to start Mercury would do what I'm asking...

When the XCP sets the service it does not, for some unknown buggy reason, include the mercury part - C:\xampp\service.exe mercury

You can add it manually after exiting the XCP by going to the Services interface from the start>Administrative Tools>Services and look for XAMPP Service
Right click and select Properties.
Look for the box Start parameters and add mercury
Click OK
Then Start the service - but XCP will stop after doing it saying it has nothing to do - again ???
Check that the service is set to Automatic and it should load mmc.exe at boot, which you can check also.
Check using Task Manager that mmc.exe is running - that is the best I can suggest other than using the hMailServer of course and any clues from the pMail forums.

[almo]

Ok this is weird. The XAMPP Service doesn't store the parameters I give it. I enter "mercury" in the Start Parameters box. I hit ok, then reopen the properties, and it's blank again.

Actually, other services don't remember those parameters, either.

Well, thanks for your help. I guess I'll try the NTWrapper solution from the Mercury website.

[Sharley]

Here is a link to read about that:
http://kbase.pmail.gen.nz/

[almo]

I have more information:

I've found the service entry in the registry. "mercury" is in fact listed in the AppParameters key. But it doesn't seem to have any effect. I've verified I have the right copy of it by changing Application to c:\xampp\service.exex and trying to start the service from the control panel; it does complain that it can't find the file. So it seems the service is ignoring the command line parameters, or maybe windows is ignoring the AppParameters field.