Hi. I'm trying to install MT on my local XP machine. I'm hoping someone here can help me troubleshoot one of the last steps of the installation.

To install it, I'm mostly using instructions found here:
http://www.fortysomething.ca/mt/etc/archives/005302.php#more

I've installed XAMMP, an Apache distribution that includes and automatically installs MySQL, PHP and Perl. I've also installed the Perl Add-on, from the same source:
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

As far as I can tell, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl are all installed correctly. I'm able to get to the Apache and MySQL control panels, and when I go to my phpMyAdmin I can see that the database named 'test' has been created, though it has no tables.

This 'test' database is the one specified in mt-config.cgi.

All the rest of MT's cgi files have been set to point to the correct Perl path, and the correct localhost. At no point do I get a 'file not found' error or an 'object not found' error from Apache, so the paths would seem to be correct.

When I browse to http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt-check.cgi, everything seems to check out OK for using MT with MySQL.

Next, I go to http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi. That URL is redirected to here:
http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mt/mt-upgrade.cgi?__mode=install

This page says "Welcome to Movable Type! Before you can begin blogging, we need to complete your installation by initializing your database."

It also contains a 'Finish Install' button. When I click it, the URL changes to http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mt/mt-upgrade.cgi (without mode-install appended, as above), and says "Initializing database... Starting installation... "

At this point, nothing else happens. The process never completes, and I'm never allowed to actually sign in to the system. No errors are shown.

I'm currently trying to do this with MT 3.2 (which is what the instructions are specifically for.) But I earlier tried with version 3.34, and got the same results: everything checks out OK, but the final initialization of the database just hangs, without any errors, etc.

The relevant settings in mt-config.cgi are:

ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database test
DBUser root
DBHost localhost
(no pw specified, as per instructions I'm following)

CGIPath http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mt/

StaticWebPath http://127.0.0.1/mt/mt-static

Any ideas about what I'm missing here?

Thanks!

I have had the same thing happen today. The only difference is that mine is runing on RedHat Linux, not Windows XP.

OK. So I just uninstalled everything and then reinstalled again, just to make sure.

It still gets hung up when MT tries to initialize the database, same as in my first post.

But I've discovered that when I go directly to http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mt/mt-upgrade.cgi, I am taken to a sign in page that asks for a Username and Password. When I try the Username 'Melody' and the Password 'Nelson', the page just reloads and indicates an 'Invalid login'.

At no point during the installation of XAMMP or MT have given a Username or Password, so I have no idea what other password it could be looking for.

Also, I've never had a previous version of MT installed on this computer, so should I be concerned that when I go to http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi, it gets redirected to the upgrade page at http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mt/mt-upgrade.cgi?__mode=install ? Or is the 'upgrade' page just part of the normal process.

Thanks.

I fixed my problem by moving the /mt/mt-static directory to the root of the webserver and then modifiying the mt-config.cgi parameter to point it to the new location of the mt-static directory.
The parameter is StaticWebPath

I am using a relative CGIPath setting without a specific domain, so it looks like this:
StaticWebPath /mt-static

rkrogstad, I just tried that, after seeing your post, using both relative and absolute paths.

It's still getting hung when it tries to initialize the db. But I'm not getting any specific errors.

Hmmm.... strange.

The installation instructions specify that the mt-static directory should not be under the cgi-bin directory.
You might check that to make sure it is under your web home directory, but not under your web home's cgi-bin directory.

Thanks, rkrogstad. I've tried moving mt-static to various locations, including the one you mentioned, and then making the appropriate changes in mt-config. But I keep hanging at the same place, when initializing the the db.

I've even tried placing the mt-static folder under the cgi-bin, in the same folder with the other MT folders and the main MT files, as this is where it's located in my hosted install of MT, which works fine. No luck.

I've also tried intentionally causing errors by changing the settings in mt-config.cgi, pointing to non-existent databases and DBUsers. When I do, I get the expected errors. But I get no errors when the settings are correct, or at least what I believe are correct. This suggests that the basic configuration is OK.

Frustrating.....

Would be nice if Six Apart had an official guide for local, non-hosted installations. If there's one out there, I haven't found it yet.

Getting MT installed locally on my XP machine was tough for me, too. I believe I had the exact same problem you describe, though it's been a while since I installed here. However, the thing that got it working was that I created a new database in phpMyAdmin--and specified a password. I believe the password is the thing that made it work; for whatever reason, either MT or mySQL didn't like there being no password to the database.

Thanks, dwolfgang.

I've tried doing that... creating a new DB with a PW... also creating a new user... but MT still hangs when I try to initialize the database.

What's strange is that no errors are getting reported. Everything is checking out OK until this very last step.

Wish I could figure out what it was. :sigh:

I've been using mostly version 3.32, and tried once with 3.34. But maybe I'll try it with the latest version 3.35, which apparently has an install wizard... who knows... maybe it'll catch whatever it is that's not working. (Though the wizard probably assumes only a web-hosted install, so I won't be holding my breath...)

Well I didn't actually see the 3.35 wizard. Maybe that's only for a web-hosted install.

This version, like 3.34, presents a page for a user name, email, and pw before it begins the db init.

I tried with my preferred user/pw combination, and also with Melody Nelson.

But it still hangs on the init.

So here's the latest episode in my still unsuccessful attempt to run MT locally -- which I REALLY want to do!

To try to eliminate the possibility that something peculiar about my system was preventing MT from initializing the database, I restored a Norton Ghost backup from when the system was fresh and before tons of other apps and stuff were installed. (I don't have convenient access to another XP box.)

After installing everything needed, the results were identical: mt-check.cgi runs fine, everything checks out, but when I run mt.cgi, MT never completes the db init -- it just sits there and the tables are never created in the specified db.

So since it failed on a fairly clean OS install, I restored my current XP config.

To try to more precisely locate the problem -- is it MT, or something with the Apache, PHP, MySQL setup? -- I downloaded and tried to locally install WordPress. I found instructions for doing this here:
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/06/i...ally-under.html

It's basically the same as how I've been doing MT. The main difference is that the WordPress folder system is installed inside c:/xampp/htdocs, while MT is under c:/xampp/cgi-bin, with the mt-static folder directly under c:/xampp. (XAMPP is the distribution for the local server and MYSQL; in URLs, 'xampp' becomes 'localhost'.)

When I ran WordPress, it initialized the database, creating 10 tables without any problem, and let me sign in without any problem. The install is completely usable.

This means there's nothing about my particular setup that's preventing a locally installed web app from successfully communicating through the Apache server with the MySQL db. But for some reason, MT can't do it.

Feeling very optimistic, I moved MT from the cgi-bin folder to the htdocs folder. After making the necessary changes to mt-config.cgi, I tried to get it working. But again, after running mt-check.cgi and everything checking out, MT was unable to initialize the specified db. (That's where it has alwyas failed -- initializing the database. I've confirmed that the specified db is being found, because specifying a non-existant db will casue an error. Otherwise, I'm getting no errors anywhere in this process. MT seems unaware that it is not completing the init.)

I know there are people out there running MT locally on XP. But how? What's the secret? I don't much care which version I use -- I've tried with versions 3.32, 3.34, and 3.35, all with the same results. Is there another local server I should try instead of the XAMPP distro? (XAMPP is really very easy to install, uninstall, and use.)

I'd like to use MT as a local CMS and content organizer. WordPress would probably work OK, but I'm using MT on a few different sites, and would prefer to do the same locally, as I'm already familiar with its ins and outs.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get this going?

Thanks!

Well I got it running. Yay. Well, for the most part. Not sure what finally made the difference. Here's what happened.

On a whim, I downloaded the installation MT folder from a working MT 3.34 on one of my hosted sites. I placed that folder in the cgi-bin folder of my localhost. That included the mt-static folder, which various instructions for local installation have indicated should not be inside the main MT folder, but that's actually where it is in the MT installs I've done, i.e., at the same level as default_templates, php, lib, and so on.

I changed the Perl path in all the cgi files to the Perl folder created when I installed XAMPP. I also updated the paths and database settings in mt-config.cgi. Then I tried to complete the MT installation. As I recall (this was late night and pretty ad hoc at this point), MT was unable to find needed files and I got either a 404 or an 'object not found' error from Apache.

So, I moved mt-static to directly under the localhost (the c:\xampp folder.) I changed the StaticWebPath in mt-config.cgi to this new location.

At that point, for the first time in the saga, MT initialized fine and I was able to sign into the system.

Still, there were some problems.

Every time (or nearly so) that I went to a new MT UI page, a small command (DOS) window would open and then immediately close, as though a zipped archive file was being accessed. But I don't think there was any activity in the window, no scrolling text, nothing. Despite this, everything seemed to work. Still the flashing window was unacceptable.

So, I created a parallel installation using SA's distribution of MT 3.35 (as all my previous attempts have been from officual SA distros.)

I used the identical settings as I used for the one I just got working, except I used a different database. And to keep the two installs distinct, I changed the name of the main folder to mt335, and the mt-static folder to mt-static335. I also appended '334' to the previous installation's main and static folders. (No point in confusing myself any more than I was.)

When I tried to run mt.cfg, I got either a file not found or an object not found (I don't recall.) I checked the paths and everything seemed OK.

So, again on a whim, I took the 335 off mt-static folder and re-ran mt.cfg. This time, the db initialized and I got into the system. No flashing dos sessions. Everything (well, almost) was as it should be. So I signed out, renamed the mt335 folder back to just mt, updated mt-config to reflect the new path, re-ran mt.cgi, and signed back into the system. And that was that.

I'm really not sure what I was doing differently for it to all of a sudden start working.

I'm pretty sure that I'd had mt-static and the main folder structure in these locations during at least some of the over a dozen earlier installation attempts, when MT would hang when trying to initialize the database. I was moving these folders all over the place, and never got an actual error unless I intentionally introduced a pathing mistake. It's almost certain that I would've placed them in this very basic arrangement.

In any case, I got it working and am using it.

There are a couple of issues... possibly having to do with MT not being able to find and/or run plugins... the New Entry page has no toolbars for the entry fields... and other (I suspect) related layout problems... but I'll either figure that out or ask about it later.

Oh well.

NicoGrrl,

I'm having the same problem installing MT locally but on Mac OS X running MAMP. I've managed to get as far as loading the mt.cgi page where the first time initialization is configured but when I complete the required fields and click on "finish" it redirects to mt-upgrade.cgi, says "initializing the database" and then just hangs.

My directory structure is setup as recommended by the documentation (and as I have had working on other live servers) with the "mt" directory being placed in "cgi-bin" and "mt-static" being placed in the root of the web server "MAMP/mt-static".

I've doubled checked to make sure all the files are there and since it required no uploading I presume that the file types are preserved as they should be. i.e they are in the appropriate binary or ascii formats. (If not, how do you check or change these on a mac?)

The other think I've noticed is that the styling (.css) is ignored on the mt.cgi page although the form is still displayed. This leads me to believe that either the formats of the "mt-static" directory are wrong or it is not able to read them for some reason. I've double checked they are in the right location and that they are complete files.

I've been through the installation documentation several times and double checked the file locations and permissions (I've set all .cgi files to a 755 permission level). Has anybody else had this problem installing locally on the Mac and MAMP?

I'm installing the latest version of MT downloaded directly from the MT website (3.35 at the time of posting).

NicoGrrl, did you make any progress on the installation or find out what changed when you managed to get it semi-working?

Thanks

Ok, so I've got it working finally. Thanks for the flood of helpful suggestions people... (cough cough).

My mistake was actually quite a foolish one to make and seems quite obvious now but then again they always do after you know what the problem is.

I had placed the "mt-static" directory in the root of the MAMP server instead of the root of the web pages directory "htdocs". So by moving "mt-static" into "htdocs" and then running "mt.cgi" again the styling on the page showed up and the "finished" but redirected me correctly, built the database, and didn't hang. It was quite a relief to finally get that working.

Just thought I'd mention the solution in case anyone else is having the same problem.

Hi slip. Glad you got it working!

Yes, the trick seems to have been moving mt-static into the htdocs folder. You're right, it seems obvious in retrospect. I'm also pretty sure I had it in there during one of my failed attempts -- because it IS so obvious, and cos I had it just about everywhere else. But after going round and round on it so many times, it's easy to lose track of what's what. And it's just different enough from a hosted installation, eg the function of the htdocs folder, and how paths are formatted, that it takes some adjustment.

I'm a bit surprised it's not appreciably faster than a hosted one. Is that your experience too? Perhaps there are tweaks that can be made. But I'm enjoying it!

It's nice having a local installation! It suggests all kinds of possibilities....

Hi:

I'm having a very similar problem to those mentioned here, I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

- BSD 6 box, mysql 5, MT 3.35
- mt-check says all fine
- WordPress installs fine and connects to database, makes tables etc.
- cgi-bin inside htdocs, mt dir inside that
- mt-static directory installed at root of web server (and styles are loading fine on config cgi pages)
- I can load and complete the "create admin account" screen (mt-upgrade.cgi?__mode=install)

However, when I press the "Finish" button, I am taken to a page that says "Initializing Database - Starting Initialization...", but remains a big blank gray area (at page load, I see a flash of a graphic, then it disappears). Needless to say, the mysql database has no tables, etc.

On the advice of this thread I tried moving the mt-static directory around (inside the cgi-bin, inside mt, in new dir, etc.) and updating mt-config. Each time, the style loaded ok for the config page, but the initializing page still hangs.

I've done a few MT installations, so this hangup with the latest version is perplexing to me. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Ben

just a short note for anyone who is having similar problems to some of the user that have posted earlier and you have installed Apache, PHP and MySQL manually on a windows xp machine. If you want to run movable types locally you have to place the mt-static folder in the document root you specified for your html documents in the Apache httpd.conf file. so if you specified "X:/www/htdocs" as your document root in apache's httpd.conf file, the mt-static folder should be placed here and set mt-config.cgi file's staticwebpath parameter to point to the folder, which in this example would be "X:/www/htdocs/mt-static"

hopefully this'll help avoid alot of people spending a few days at the final initialisation page wondering what is going on and get on to using movabletype

Markov

Hi
like nicogrrl, I tried installing mt3.3 on my local pc via xampp - also got the instructions from
http://www.fortysomething.ca/mt/etc/archives/005302.php#more

I did the following:

I am trying to install mt on my local pc running on windows XP and i did the following:
1. installed XAMPP Windows 1.6.2
2. added a password to the dbuser root
3. updated the xampp/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php to reflect the new password
4. downloaded and installed the perl add on
5. changed all the *.cgi except mt-config.cgi, windows path updated to #!C:/xampp/perl/bin/perl.exe -w
6. updated mt-config.cgi
6.a. CGIPath http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mt/ --> updated it to http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/
6.b. StaticWebPath http://127.0.0.1/mt/mt-static --> updated it to http://localhost/htdocs/mt-static
6.c. then I updated the ### MySQL Configuration ### to

ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database mt33
DBUser root
DBPassword secret
DBHost localhost

--> i deleted the line ### MySQL Configuration ### as well as the other db, so DBHost localhost is actually the
last line of the mt-config.cgi file

7. started the apache and mysql from xampp
8. keyed in http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt-check.cgi --> everything seems to be in order says Movable Type System Check Successful
9. when i keyed in http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi I got this error Got an error: Bad ObjectDriver config

pls advice how to get this going
thanks