Troubleshooting Wikka
See also
This pages lists some common problems (and their solutions) installing or running Wikka. For reporting bugs, please use WikkaBugs.- WikkaInstallation - for the normal install procedure
- UpgradeNotes - for upgrading from older versions
- ModRewrite - for how to set up URL rewriting for Wikka (see HtaccessConfigInfo for more details)
- WikkaWorkarounds - a collection of solutions for unusual problems
- How to install Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl (and lots of associated apps/uts) XAMPP (external link - opens in new window)
- WikkaBugs - for reporting actual bugs
If you have a problem that you suspect is not actually a bug, you may add a section to this page.
To report a problem, please add a header and tell us about the following things:
- your used versions of: Wikka, PHP, MySQL
- error-messages
- if you can provide a link which shows the error, please do so
Installation problems
Installer hangs
Problem:- After I've filled out the form in the installer, it tells me: "Testing Configuration" - and then nothing happens.
This always indicates some problem with PHP trying to connect to or use the MySQL database; unfortunately, the actual error message which would give a clue is hidden. To get the error message, open ./setup/install.php in an editor and remove the @ from before the mysql statements (mysql_connect(...) etc.). Then run the installer again to see what error message you get. Possible causes are:
- The PHP version you're using is not compiled with MySQL support
- The MySQL module is not installed in PHP
- The MySQL server is not running
- You've accidently copied space characters into your MySQL server name or other setting in the installer
Server Error on fresh Wikka install
Problem: Going to the URL for a freshly-installed Wikka to trigger the installation process, the server issues a 500 (Server error) error and Wikka setup does not start.Solution: try ServerErrorWorkaround.
Array_merge
Problem: When trying to install Wikka 1.1.5.3 (or earlier) on a system with PHP 5, you will get the following error while trying to install wikka:Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array in ["your Path"]\wikka.php on line 910"
Solution: Install version 1.1.6.0 or higher instead.
Problem: Upgrade to 1.1.6.2 to 1.1.6.4 fails with: Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array in ["path to your wiki"] /writeconfig.php on line 6
Writing configuration
Writing configuration file wikka.config.php... OK
Solution: Check your config file, if it is blank except for the version info, copy and paste the rest of the config file from a clean install. You will likely need to copy the SQL info from your old config file, as well as any other info that differs from the copy/pasted info. (ie, admin's name, acl's etc...)
Known Problems running Wikka
Wikka and free Hosting
Problems:- I've installed Wikka on a free hosting service, and all I get is a blank page. Other (non-Wikka) pages do work, and show a banner of the hoster.
- I have a Wikka site at a free host, but all pages are truncated: the comments block doesn't appear.
Solution: See BlankPageWorkaround for a solution to both of these problems.
Most of Wikka works fine, but some things don't
Problems:- Search doesn't work
- Comments don't work
- Users cannot log out
Solution: These symptions will happen all together (you may not have seen all of them yet); watch the URL for each of these functions - do you see two question marks in there? This indicates a configuration problem with URL rewriting. See ModRewrite for the solution.
Extreme slowness for unregistered users
Problem: For unregistered visitors the Wikka site is very slow while registered (logged-in) visitors don't have any problem.Solution: At the moment not, will follow on ExtremeSlownessWorkaround.
Only letter salad in the browser
Problem: After installation, when accessing the Wikka main URL (or any page for that matter) only results in garbage characters ("letter salad") in the browser window (looks like viewing a binary file).Solution: LetterSaladOutputWorkaround.
Charset not supported warnings
Problem: On any page with code blocks, PHP displays a series for GeSHi highlighting code, like these (path shortened): Warning: htmlentities(): charset `ANSI_X3.4-1968' not supported, assuming iso-8859-1 in [wikihome]/3rdparty/plugins/geshi/geshi.php on line 1608
Solution: CharsetNotSupportedWorkaround.
Truncated pages
Problem: Every page is truncated: the bottom of the page does not appear: the "small print" and maybe some elements above that like comments are not displayed in the browser.If you look at the HTML source code in the browser, the page stops abruptly and the ending tags </body> and </html> are not there.
Solution: TruncatedPageWorkaround.
Failed to initialize session module
Problem: After succesfully configuring the wiki Wikka (database connects just fine, and all else seems to run fine) you can click on a link to 'your newly created site'.But you get: Fatal error: Failed to initialize session module in /[your_path]/wikka/wikka.php on line 1150
Solution: InitializeSessionWorkaround.
Only blank pages
Problem: In a newly-installed system (or one previously installed but migrated to a new host) accessing any page (including the home page and other pages that are known to exist) results in nothing but a blank page in the browser.Solution: BlankPageWorkaround.
Home Page gives 404?
Problem: Installation was successful, but when viewing the HomePage I get a 404 - page cannot be found message. The address bar shows the URL with /HomePage correctly listed so the config file is being read that far but not sure why it's not getting any further.Using PHP 4.4, mySQL 4.06 but on secured access site so no link.
UPDATE: Apologies, I failed to mention that I'm running an IIS Server (so the ModRewrite page isn't helpful to my scenario). I've had a look through this Wiki and can't find any specific instructions based on that server, yet the Requirements for Wikka don't state that I MUST use Apache, any pointers here would be helpful.
Solution: This is very probably a problem with URL rewriting. See ModRewrite
Garbled output (reported via #wikka)
Problem: On first view of the default homepage all we get is garbled characters - it's totally garbage e.g. ??b?0x11h.C?n0x12?}? P?!0x12??B!N L|and so onSolution: The problem was double gzip encoding. We use apache's mod_deflate to do all the compression but I just discovered we had zlib.output_compression turned "On" in php.ini. Perhaps adding "ini_set("zlib.output_compression","Off");" to the top of wikka.php (just before the call to ob_start() ) might resolve the issue. (Or, disable zlib.output_compression in php.ini. (Ed.))
Related issue ticket: #733
CategoryTroubleshooting
You should be running:
["your path"]\wikka.php to install wikka, not
["your path"]\setup\install.php
Could be a good idea to put a check install.php, something like
if (!isset($wakkaConfig)) {echo "To install wikka, you have to execute wikka.php, not this file";exit(1);}
After editing a page when you press "Store" it just goes to a blank page, with url /PageName/edit still displayed in the browser bar. The page changes do save correctly but the browser never actually redirects to /PageName (without the /edit).
The server is using php 4.3.11 mysql 4.1.11 and Wikka 1.1.6.0.
Everything works correctly on my test server and this is puzzling me. For an example of the problem please see http://mytreo.net/treofaq. If I can provide more info then please let me know.
Thank you for your help
Chris
I see that you added UserRegistration. Any other changes you made to the default wikka?
The wikka install has been through the mill a bit so I decided to do a fresh install removing all old files first and the problem is now gone.
Thanks again
Chris
As well, my email address contains a number in it which fails the regular expression test.
I'm using MySQL 4.0.18, PHP 4.3.9, Wikka 1.1.6.0 on Fedora Core 3.
Thanks
-Daryl
If you can, please look into the files of the installer and remove every @ before the database-calls, since it surpresses mysql-errormessages.
-Daryl
I simply renamed .htaccess as I didn't need the mod_rewrite functionality & all was good :)
I get this error when I try to start a new installation of wikka.
------------------------
Warning: main(setup/header.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /www/lordmax/lordmax.com/wikka.php on line 1143
Warning: main(): Failed opening 'setup/header.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:') in /www/lordmax/lordmax.com/wikka.php on line 1143
Invalid action
Warning: main(setup/footer.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /www/lordmax/lordmax.com/wikka.php on line 1145
Warning: main(): Failed opening 'setup/footer.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:') in /www/lordmax/lordmax.com/wikka.php on line 1145
--------------
http://mywiki.hostserver.org/html/wikka
I get a static page with an error message: unknown method "page/wikka.php". None of the links work; I click on them, but it all just sits there. The static page is as follows:
MyWikkaSite : html
ConvivialWiki :: Categories :: PageIndex :: RecentChanges :: RecentlyCommented :: Login/Register
<em class="error">Unknown method "page/wikka.php"</em>
Page History :: Search:
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional∞ :: Valid CSS∞ :: Powered by Wikka Wakka Wiki 1.1.6.3∞
Page was generated in 0.2716 seconds
I checked the wikka.config file which shows 'rewrite_mode' => '1', so rewrite is enabled.
Any help would be appreciated.
If successful, then most likely it's a problem with the way the DocumentRoot is mapped (possibly in conjunction with VirtualHost?) or some other Apache config weirdness you'll have to work around (assuming, of course, Apache is the server in question).
If not successful, then there's probably a permissions problem or some other installation issue.
Now I have a new problem. When I created the site, I used my real name as owner, but now I would like to change it to something neutral like "SystemAdministrator". I tried changing 'admin_users' in the config file, but the owner was still my real name. I then wanted to try changing the corresponding user entry in the MySQL database with phpMyAdmin, but couldn't seem to modify it (I'm new to all this). Is there a procedure for changing the name of the owner/administrator?
You can change ownership of individual pages from the "Edit ACLs" link at the bottom of the page (so after creating SystemAdministrator, you should see that in the page owner dropdown).
I was able to get php activated (by uncommenting the php lines in httpd.conf), and a database created in mysql and a user with all access privileges granted (using the commands from this wiki's entry on creating a db).
I was able to open and fill out the Wikka Installation web form (with Firefox 2.0.0.11 for Mac) on my localhost, but it reported:
Testing Configuration
Testing MySQL connection settings... FAILED
I tried quitting Firefox, turning off the mySql server (using preference pane which came with the installer), and restarting the apache server, then restarting my computer, and turning mySql server back on (websharing is also on, btw).
After all this, I still got the same connection failure.
I checked the name of the db to make sure there were no extra spaces after the name in the installer page, and even tried creating a fresh database and setting privileges and using that db in the installer page, but to no avail.
I'm out of ideas.
This is my first time trying to install a wiki, fyi.
Welcome! The first step is to make sure you can connect to your MySQL db from the command line:
> mysql -u username -p dbname
You should get a password prompt...if you get a mysql> prompt, then you know the password and username are correct, and the username has access to the db.
If you get an "access denied for user..." message, then you'll need to execute a grant statement to permit access to dbname from username:
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username'@'localhost';
FLUSH privileges;
Really, this is more of a MySQL issue than a Wikka issue. There is usuallly someone on IRC (freenode channel #wikka), or drop us an e-mail at community@wikkawiki.org.
i run an old version of wikka ("wakka_version" => "1.1.6.1" says the wikkaconfig.php).
Recently, my webhost provider switched to PHP5, and since then forced links are no more displayed if they contain accented letters.
For example, a forced link like this:
%% [ [ AiEoU (some accented letters here)] ] %%
will not appear at all in the page, leaving a blank.
Any hints?
thanks,
SolariS
PS: i couldn't manage to post a comment with accented letters at all here!
Even by putting double double-quotes, or using code tags... weird, isn't it?
Wikka: version 1.2, patch level 1
MySQL: 5.1.45-community MySQL Community Server (GPL)
PHP: Version 5.3.2
Hello.
I had a problem with the install - none of the configuration variables from the setup page are being used.
The initial error showed up with the mysql_connect failing. Added debug info (variable dump) to line 59, setup/install.php and found that $config["mysql_password"] was blank. Overrode that with my password for the wikka MySQL user account, at which time setup completed.
Found upon trying to access wiki (127.0.0.1/wikka/) that I was being looped back to "http://127.0.0.1/wikka/wikka.php?installAction=install/?wakka=HomePage" with a redirect to same page. Checked configuration file to find entirely default values.
Not sure what's causing it, workaround was manually setting up wikka.config.php after install wrote default values.
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