The first thing I would do is check the config file on the web server (news/conf/_config.php) to see if it was updated with the info from your form. If not, then check to see that all the files are in the right place, permissions, etc. If it was updated, then try going directly to the admin URL or to the main page of your blog and see if you get any content there.

Kweb wrote:

The first thing I would do is check the config file on the web server (news/conf/_config.php) to see if it was updated with the info from your form.

It wasn't.

Kweb wrote:

If not, then check to see that all the files are in the right place, permissions, etc.

I wouldn't know what 'the right place' would be, unless someone can point me to a document with a file/tree specification for b2evolution? All the files in news/config are writable by all, as is the directory.

Kweb wrote:

If it was updated, then try going directly to the admin URL or to the main page of your blog and see if you get any content there.

When I go to the main page, all I see is the "You cannot use the application before you finish configuration and installation." page. Is there anything from the install files besides the contents of blogs/ that I should have moved/run as well?

edit the config.php manually ...then re-try the install

also, the file/folder structure is correct within the zip you downloaded, assuming you unpacked it while preserving the paths, you have it available to you right there :)

I edited news/conf/_config.php and went back to the install page, and got other nothing at all (config_complete = 1) or got the original form but with the values I applied in it. If I submited the values I got the same results as earlier (same looking page but no content).

Just for S&G's I deleted everything, unzipped again, mv'd ./tmp/b2evolution/blog to ./news, went to localhost/news/install and tried again. Same exact results. >:-<

odd, I honestly dont know.

I've spent about as much time as I'm interested in poking arouns in b2's guts. Lacking any useful error messages as to why/where it's dying I'm stuck. Off to try some different tools.

Thanks for trying!

seanq wrote:

created a b2evolution database in MySQL (on a different server)

The fact that you have installed the database on a different machine worries me.
I suppose you have a good reason for that, but I never tried that.
Is it possible for you to installe the database on the same machine as your php-files ? (just for the sake of trying)

you edited the _config.php file manualy I presume ?
You entered the right info for database, username, password, location ?
and than you setted it to 1 ?
and than you uploaded your manualy updated file ?

Topanga wrote:

seanq wrote:

created a b2evolution database in MySQL (on a different server)

The fact that you have installed the database on a different machine worries me.
I suppose you have a good reason for that, but I never tried that.

I do, and it's very common in non-ISP setups where a company maintains it's own webservers.

Topanga wrote:

Is it possible for you to installe the database on the same machine as your php-files ? (just for the sake of trying)

I could, but this is an impractical solution if I can get another blogging package installed with less effort. Besides, what if I installed a DB on this machine and that worked? This system will not be running a database when it goes into production, so that would not be a useful fix. If PHP can't talk to a database over the network, a trivial feet and a standard part of database drivers in most of the languages I program in, than it is far less useful for web development than I would have thought. JMHO

Topanga wrote:

you edited the _config.php file manualy I presume ?
You entered the right info for database, username, password, location ?
and than you setted it to 1 ?
and than you uploaded your manualy updated file ?

Yes, yes and yes. I didn't need to 'upload' it since I work completely in Linux and can work on the remote machine just as easily as my local machine. I saved a number of different edits to that file, trying different syntax, the root database user, etc etc. If 'edited' was set to 0, I got the initial setup form, populated with whatever I had edited the form to contain. If it was set to 1, I got the page with a blank body, no errors on page or in the log.

I'm only minimally conversant in PHP, and have no desire to spend a lot of time debugging this - using a blog was just a shortcut method for allowing certain staff to contribute directly to a 'what's new' type of page. However, if someone has ideas and wants to post code snippits to paste into the php files, I'd be happy to give them a try.

Thanks again to everyone who has responded.

Well,
I've got b2evolution installed in a local network with the database I've got from my ISP elsewhere in an outside server, and IT WORKS.
I remember that when installing b2evo, the database server did not allow another hosts have access to it and localhost did not work. I did as my ISP said: I went to cpanel and I added new host: % as a wild card, and after that I managed to install it and now it is perfect.
So I regret to say that b2evo is not to blame :'(
Good luck!
Fernando

So far I've read two threads here detailing this same problem ... one I'm unfortunately experiencing as well: When attempting to run the install script I'm taken immediately to a b2evo page with a blank main body. There are no errors ... indeed, it seems that nothing was done period.

I've followed the suggestions in the posts and have met with the same results, nada. I've chmod _config_db to 777, done a manual edit of the file and reattempt the script etc. I've got a Debian distro with MySQL running on the same server (though I hope to move it off after I've worked out the bugs here ... Long and short, I'm going to keep looking for the solution to this problem but I'd appreciate any help people may have to offer. Thanks!

Success! As I suspected, it was a small error on my part. Owing mainly to the diversity of Linux distros, it was difficult to find this solution:

LIKELY your problem is that you do not have PHP configured to use MySQL. This can be checked using the phpinfo() tag and looking at the 'Configure Command' row in the resulting table. If I'm correct, you'll see '--without-mysql' somewhere in there. If so, read on.

As you've probably gathered, you'll need to configure php for MySQL, this may vary from distro to distro, however for Debian:

sudo apt-get install php4-mysql

If apt-get can't find this package you'll need to modify your repositories, but that is another story.

If that doesn't work for you, see my post at

http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=4924&sid=b19e1b72181a69c6cbf1afb84805e18a
:D