Pulling out my hair - install problem

[Weapon]

I've donwloaded the stuff in one zip file and I've extracted it to a folder in my C drive ( which I've given a random name) but when I hit the "setup_xampp.bat" all i get is a window popping up that says:

"the directory name is invalid.
the directory name is invalid."

Currently I'm running on XP and pulling out my hair. I thought this kind of install was meant to be easy, or am I missing something stupidly obvious???

Thanks in advance.

[FOCP]

I think you have the same problem as mcdavis in this thread
http://community.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?t=4150

[mcdavis941]

I did something which I didn't describe in my post, which was (in addition to modifying ...xampp\perl\lib\Config.pm) getting all the .h file from the Perl source and putting them into ...xampp\perl\lib\CORE . I got them by going to the ActiveState site and downloading the zip file for Perl 5.8.0 build 806, which is the same one included with XAMPP. From the zip you can extract the header files. I expect you could get the same results by installing Perl completely from scratch but I am not certain.

[FOCP]

Thanx mcdavis,

for announcing this additional information.
I do think Weapon's problem is ( - sorry for having ignored it beforehands - ) that he has

given a random name

The name of the folder has to be specified as file:///c:/xampp/.
Otherwise IT WON'T work.

Best regards

[neilrusshk]

I had exactly the same problem on windows xp. It turned out to be the directory that I all the installation files in.

Initially I placed the files in c:\installs\xampp but when I ran the installer I saw the exact errors that you had.

To cure it, I placed all the xampp files in c:\xampp, ran the installer and it worked without any problems.

Hope this helps!

[mcdavis941]

I will add that part of the problem is that the installer allows you to specify a directory name other than C:\XAMPP. If it's not going to work with the directory name given by the user during installation, maybe it should say "sorry -- won't work with that directory". Or even "sorry -- won't work with that directory -- install there anyway?" As it is now, it leads you to expect everything is OK when really it is not.

I say this with the greatest respect for XAMPP, which is a great product; I simply think you could avoid a lot of trouble by making this easy change.