Can't start mysql

[rshockley]

Suddenly I cannot start PHPmyadmin, trying to do it through the link on the XAMPP page. The error message I get is:

Cannot start session without errors, please check errors given in your PHP and/or webserver log file and configure your PHP installation properly.

This doesn't help me much, since I don't know where these log files are or even what their names are. I see messages all over the web, many of them offering totally different solutions. I don't know what to trust, and would very much like to have suggestions from someone in the know who can explain what I need to do (hopefully in words I have some chance of understanding -- I am not a computer geek). I have already uninstalled and re-installed XAMPP. That had no effect. PHPmyAdmin link still only gives the same eror.

My main issue right now is to get my testing server running. When this started, I had the exact same problem trying to sign onto my database at Network solutions. Same error message. I CAN get to my database on their servers by going through their management page. When I saved the URL from the working datbase there, it worked again. But the testing server is still down and NEtwork Solutions won't help. I mention this only because I thought it might give a clue to someone with more insight than myself. Formerly I had saved the link to the the database on the desktop. When this started I would be asked for my password, and the error message showed up after I'd entered it. NOW I don't even have a chance to enter the password. Same error message regardless of whether I try to use the old link or get to it from the PHPmyAdmin link of the XAMPP page.

I've struggled and struggled with this, cannot make progress. The PHP.ini file is in C:\XAMPP\PHP, accoring to phpinfo().

XAMPP version is latest, downloaded tonight 1.7.7. Windows 7; XAMPP is in c:\XAMPPs

Help!

[Sharley]

Would you be so kind as to add your XAMPP version and Operating System to your profile as per these instructions and related info:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=48626
It is important and will save you time in future by not having to constantly supply this info and it will help us provide the best version support we can.
Thanks.

[Sharley]

Thanks for that.


In the xampp installation folder you will find the version 3 control panel:
xampp-control-3-beta.exe
First Exit the older version and then use this instead of the older 2.5 version as it has better log window details and creates it's own log file in the xampp folder, also you will see many added features.

The latest XCPv3 versions can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=48932
Download and extract all the files from the archive file into the xampp folder and overwrite when asked then use this latest version instead.

This XCPv3 has better reporting info in the log window when started and may give us a clue about your MySQL issue.

Can you start Apache without problems?

C:\xampp\php\logs\php_error-log file can be dragged into an open text editor to read.

C:\xampp\mysql\data\mysql_error.log file may also be read the same way.

The Apache error log is in C:\xampp\apache\logs folder.

[rshockley]

Thank you so much for your help. Amazingly, the problem disappeared overhight. I have no idea why. Unless you suggest otherwise, I'm hesitant to change the XAMPP installation to use a beta version, as if there are issues in it in the future I doubt I have the experise to deal with them. If you have any ideas about why a problem like this might arise suddenly, resist even a re-install as a fix method, and then fix itself overnight, they might give me a little more peace of mind.

Again, thanks so much. It's good to know that thre ARE people out there who can and WILL help.

Best, Skip

[Altrea]

Hi rshockey,

Unless you suggest otherwise, I'm hesitant to change the XAMPP installation to use a beta version, as if there are issues in it in the future I doubt I have the experise to deal with them.

Don't worry about that. The new control panel v3 is fully supported by its developer hackattack142. Bugs can be reported in this thread and will be fixed in the next control panel version. The new control panel works nearly separated from the XAMPP installation (exept the three .bat files which improve the Tomcat start/stop and monitoring). Sure, you don't need to use it. But it give you much more information about the module status and has some really nice function i will not miss again The active mods recommend to use it too.

best wishes,
Altrea

[hireegy]

Hi,
actually I stumbled across the same problem.
In detail:
-first, yesterday or so, I set a password for Mysql root user
-today, as I wanted to change that password, whatever I tried, it kept showing me "invalid string, no less than 3 or more than 15 characters and no special characters". I don't know on which field (there are 3 for changing an existing password), but nothing could do. My password had numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, but that's all.
-I tried everything I found on the web to reset it, I looked into the phpmyadmin configuration file (where some password is seen in plaintext), and that pass was '' the empty string. So I replaced it with something 4-char-long, and typed it in the PHPmyadmin login. Still nothing: wrong password. Before that I tried with blank password, before replacing it. Again no.
- so i uninstalled-reinstalled xampp. The password would then set AND change correctly. But still, when I try to get to the phpmyadmin login, it shows me the error described in this thread: php or server error, whatever I try.
I looked into the php error log, there is:

[07-Jan-2012 00:56:49] PHP Warning: file_get_contents(lang.tmp) [<a href='function.file-get-contents'>function.file-get-contents</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in E:\xampp\htdocs\xampp\index.php on line 2

I looked this php file, and I found:

<?php
if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && ('on' == $_SERVER['HTTPS'])) {
$uri = 'https://';
} else {
$uri = 'http://';
}
$uri .= $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
header('Location: '.$uri.'/xampp/');
exit;
?>
Something is wrong with the XAMPP installation

Don't understand anything in that. And I always stumble on problems that would say to me "no, no, no again, still no, you still haven't found how to solve it"...the more I dig, the less I understand...

and by the way, before reinstallation, everytime I tried to do "cmd as admin-->mysqld --skip-grant-tables" It would keep saying me "failed to open directory usr/[etc...]", and then unavoidably crashing; however after reinstall it works. But if I remember correctly the "usr" directory is specific to linux systems, why would the script from the windows install behave this way?
So many things I don't understand here!
And actually, if I could just get to the phpmyadmin page it would be great.

Xampp 1.7.7, win7 64 bits, Xampp on another drive than system drive.

Any help? Thanks a lot...


EDIT: after all that, as usual, using the 3.0 control panel solved the bug. Why was it here in the first place? If only I could know...but the stability of all that is quite freakish, I hope I won't have big problems once i will start having a lot of files and structures on the servers...

[Sharley]

If you find you have problems again then try uninstalling but this time use a different method to install by following closely these helpful uninstall/install instruction:
viewtopic.php?p=179699#p179699

Then after installation and before you do anything else go to http://localhost and set your language then click on Security and follow the link to set the user root password for phpMyAdmin and MySQL as they both use the same password for user root - remember the password as it is difficult to reset the root password.

And as you found out the XCPv3 is a very useful control panel.
For the latest version the download link is in my signature.
Simply extract all the files from the archive to the xampp installation folder and overwrite when asked.
Then right click the exe to create a shortcut to the desktop, for example, for easier access.


New users can possibly find self help by reading these first:
readme_en.txt file in the xampp folder.
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/faq-xampp-windows.html

Some useful reading that may help you help us to find suitable solutions:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=48331
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=32670

Good luck.

[hireegy]

Hi,
thanks for detailed reply. You are right: I suspect some on-the-fly language change to have caused my bug, as the interface was mixing up french and english text on the display...something must have gone wrong with it!
Now I am running everything in English, and no problems at all.

This has nothing to do about the problem, but I even managed to discover by myself that, to access you own xampp server over the internet from your own same computer, if you have a nat router, it is the gateway that is accessing you when you try accessing your server by its IP...so the gateway IP is to be unlocked...interesting! actually I am quite new to all of this, so these help and FAQ files you provided are great help for me, as unfortunately I don't have any geek/hacker real friend yet that could help me learning lol. But no problem: everything I know I learned it by myself and with the people I talk to on forums like this one, till then!

Thanks again!