error in installation for elgg 1.6.1

[mtguyot]

I successfully implemented elgg 1.5 at onemilspeak.asitethatworks.com. This is becoming a test area before i take changes live to the real site: onemillionspeakers.com

I used the regular download from the download page. I first downloaded the zip file, uploaded the zip file to my server, unpacked using cpanel and received the following message: Not Found

The requested URL /action/systemsettings/install was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.0.63 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.63 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/5.2.8 Server at onemillionspeakers.com Port 80

I then decided to download tar file (since I am on a linux host) and went through the same process and got the message above. The file structure created by unzipping the file does not include and "action" directory--though it does include an "actions" directory. At any rate I will need to find the 1.5 files and install those.

I am hosting on a cpanel (Linux) server, I have root access through whm. I was able to go through the install process through the step of setting up the database, initial parameters and had to upload the settings file manually.

To make another confirmation, I restarted the entire process with tar file I had uploaded. this time I set the htaccess file to 777 as well as the engine directory.

I labeled it priority "blocker" because installations of 1.6.1 are probably very troubled at this point.

At this point I will have to use the 1.5 version on the "real site"

[brettp]

Please view the Installation Troubleshooting documents at ​http://docs.elgg.org. This is a problem with mod_write, and not a bug in Elgg. If you need more assistance installing Elgg, please use the community site or the Google groups, as Trac is a place to report bugs. Thanks.

[tenorviol]

This is a bug in Elgg. The installation script says you must create a .htaccess file, and prints the contents of the file (see below). The file printed is incomplete and using this file will cause this bug to happen. The correct file is in htaccess_dist, and this bug can be worked around by using that htaccess file instead of the install script one. But this is a legitimate bug in the Elgg install procedure.

ERRONEOUS .htaccess:

# Elgg htaccess directives
# Copyright Curverider Ltd 2008-2009
# License ​http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html GNU Public License version 2
# Link http://elgg.org/

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>

# ugly ugly hack to detect missing mod_rewrite
# RedirectMatch must be to an absolute destination, so forces 500 error...
ErrorDocument 500 "Elgg error: Apache does not have mod_rewrite loaded. Please check your Apache setup."
RedirectMatch 302 .* index.php

</IfModule>

<Files "htaccess_dist">

order allow,deny
deny from all

</Files>

# Don't listing directory
Options -Indexes

# Follow symbolic links
Options +FollowSymLinks

# Default handler
DirectoryIndex index.php

# Turn on expiry
<IfModule mod_expires.c>

ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault "access plus 10 years"

</IfModule>

[tenorviol]

Ha! This is a ridiculous bug. It's more of a problem with the user interface than a bug per se. Here is a detailed explanation of how to recreate this:

1. Download Elgg 1.6.1, unzip (make sure Elgg CANNOT modify its files)
2. Hit the site, triggering the install process.
3. Edit the engine/settings.php file with database settings manually (text editor).
4. Reload.

At this point, you'll see "Elgg requires a file called .htaccess..." and the file htaccess_dist will be displayed in a textarea below. The textarea is 30 rows by 120 cols. That makes it just wide enough so I cannot see the scroll bar for the text area on my 13" Macbook. Because I can't see the scroll bar, I assumed this was just a div box, not a textarea. It seemed that I should copy the 30 lines, because it is unclear that there is more to the file.

Suggest changing this textarea to a pre block or some such.

[brettp]

(In [svn:3895]) Fixes #1328: Removed rows and cols from the installation textareas and added CSS to format width/height at 100% to make it easier to read and select.