Moodle

Today I tried to install the latest version (20100523) I got some more errors...

IIS got status 500 with error code 0 on line 408 in config.php.
Setting debug on a got the attached error (FILE.png).
After changing the line to
require_once('/lib/setup.php');
I was able to continue...but the rest didn't changed...

Hi Mike, Ashay I'm getting onto this (have added both you as watchers).

Hi Peter thanks for the complete feedback. Some points:

1) I've fixed one typo in config-dist.php causing the FILE error you commented above.
2) Also, I've enabled the "SQL*Server FreTDS (native/mssql)" driver to be available on installation, so I'd suggest you to try it again from scratch.
3) In a few weeks (hopefully) we are going to introduce another driver, Windows native, named "SQL*Server Microsoft (native/sqlsrv)" (Mike, Ashay are working hard on it). It will use the SQL Server driver for PHP (http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2005/en/us/php-driver.aspx) so you won't need anymore the FreeTDS one. Once available it will become the "recommended one" for people running under Windows/IIS and all you'll need is to change on line in your config.php file in order to make the switch. So stay tuned.

Changes for 1) and 2) above are already in CVS so you'll be able to get them from there (now) or in next weekly/preview package.

Resolving this as fixed, ciao

Thanks for your efforst...

1. The FreeTDS drive shows now on the driver list
2. there is no problem with the FILE variable in the config file

But then, the setup comes to the database creation - and creates 140 tables, and fails with error as seen on db.png.
When restarting the installation I getting the error in confgo.png.

In other words, now I can choose the MSSQL driver - and need not to add it manualy - but nothing changed after that...

Uhm, Peter

that's really strange. I tried the installation and everything went okey here. I think we should be able to get some more information in order to detect what's happening in your site. Can you, plz, follow these steps.

1) Drop ALL tables from your moodle DB
2) Manually, edit config.php and add these lines:

$CFG->debug = 38911;
$CFG->xmlstrictheaders = false;
$CFG->debugdisplay = true;

3) Re-run then installation, it should begin creating all the tables and so on... let's see where it stops and if now, some more details about the error are displayed in the error page.

Please, copy and paste any details here. Surely that will allow to better know what is causing problems in your server.

TIA and ciao

Hi,

here it comes...

Hope it helps us!
Regards

Hi Peter,

thanks for the complete info. Comments:

1) About the error_log() problem, it seems that you are using PHP 5.3.x. Under that version you need to specify the default timezone your server is running in the config.php file (see config-dist.php file for more info).

2) That error (Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext ...) uses to happen when the server isn't running the correct FreeTDS driver and/or it hasn't been properly configured. Can you take a look to your phpinfo() page to see if the FreeTDS driver is installed? Should be shown under the "mssql" section in that page. I'd recommend you to take a look to this page in order to get FreeTDS working ok:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_MSSQL_for_PHP

Ciao

Hi,

1. I know about that timezone thing, I just was too lazy to fix it for my test environment.

2. I re-downloaded the FreeTDS and on second run - without deleting tables I got this error...

(when deleting the tables I'm back to the previous error...)

Regards.

Ho Petr,

can you create one simple scrip in your root folder: info.php and put there these lines:

<?php
    phpinfo();
?>

and execute it from your browser? Then look to the information in the "mssql" section? I really think the problem is that you haven't the freetds driver installed, and you are using the old one (bundled by default with php).

Ciao

Hi,

Here the info...

You keep saying the FreeTDS does not installed and I'm wondering what dou you mean...
What I have done is put php_dblib.dll in the extension directory, register it inside php.ini and edit the fretds.conf file...

My php_dblib.dll has version 5.3.0 and the config gile looks like this:

Regards.

Uhm... so you have the correct freetds driver running, great (that was the point I wanted to confirm).

Now... you config.php file. Can you plz post here how does it look like (suppressing privacy info, of course).

Ciao

Here it is...

I also tried

I gives me the same error...

Regards.

Wow, everything seems to be in place and properly configured.

I really cannot imagine why this is happening in your server, grrr.

Two more things to check:

1) can you confirm that you have disabled any instance of the old mssql driver? Edit your php.ini file and look for php_mssql.dll. Is it commented?

2) while I'm not an specialist in IIS at all, it sounds to me that there are various ways to get php working on it (fastcgi...) each one requiring different TS (thread safe) / NON-TS builds. How is your ISS configured?

3) If you can, plz, take a look to MDL-14725 . It's the original bug where the drivers were created. Perhaps you can find something there helping you (I've re-read it but haven't found anything).

4) Last resort. Can you try using one PHP 5.2.x version instead (and corresponding freetds drivers?). Just to see if the problem persists or no (I think 5.2.x versions are more "tested" under different environments than the 5.3 ones).

Ciao

Hi,

I'm sorry to make you grrr...

However I have some progress...so with your permission I put aside your response for today (I will answer it later) and I will tell my story of the day...

First I googled the web to the death and found these

For the simplicity I tried the first solution and changed in mssql_sql_generator.php the NTEXT type to TEXT (and also NVARCHAR to VARCHAR, just in case).

And you know what, the installation went on...
...not perfect but was able to add all the content to the tables and then come to the code file theme\javacript.php and got a client-side error

Not yet investigated the error...

For me it seems to be a problem with the FreeTDS driver...what do you say?!

Regards.

(for more: I have a active moodle 1.9 installment workinf with pervious FreeTDS on the same SQL server USING NTEXT WITH NO PROBLEM!!!)

Hi Peter,

first of all "grrr-ing" is my way when I cannot understand something, hehe (excuse me).

Some comments about your progress:

1) That message (and the error "Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation...") is one php_mssql error (old driver) and it was one of the original causes to start looking for alternatives (FreeTDS, ODBTP...) that simply "mimic" the old php_mssql API but use other connections methods (TDS, Native Driver..) instead of the old (DBLIB) that doesn't support Unicode at all (and is really deprecated since years ago). So I'd say that all the solutions in that page not talking about FreeTDS should be ignored because all they do is to "mix" errors and drivers. In this case, those castings aren't the solution at all. As commented the FreeTDS driver is.

2) About the page in Moodle Docs, I really don't know how the hell that ended there as far as it is highly inaccurate. It is true that DBLIB is deprecated, and old ODBC versions too. But if I'm not wrong, not much time ago, MS (finally) released the TDS specifications (they used to be not public), so I guess TDS is a valid connection protocol.

3) About the change from N-TEXT to TEXT (and N-VARCHAR to VARCHAR). Really one 100% "latin" site could be using the non-N variants but things would become wrong is you try to store/read contents in other non-latin languages. The only way to support Unicode are those N fields, that's the cause Moodle uses them. So no point about that change.

4) About your other site (1.9) working ok. Can you try to install 2.0 there (another dir / db schema) but using exactly that IIS+PHP ? I'm sure it should be some error related with PHP 5.3 or similar (as commented in my last message). I mean, FreeTDS works ok. Also, when you have time... if you can take a look to my 1-4 points in my previous message...it would be great!

We must find the cause for your problems, sure it's some combination causing the whole thing to work incorrectly. Grrr! :-P

Ciao

Hi,

I think this is my turn to grrr all around the place...

But! We got it!!!

It is all about the where the freetds.conf placed! On my working installation it sits on the disk root (e:\freetds.conf), but now I put in on the path pointed by the FREETDS environment variable! After 200 different combination of PHP/FreeTDS/moodle I figured out that FreeTDS thinks that it works with protocol 4.2!!! and that because it does not find the config file!!!

I'm not sure if it is a OS problem or FreeTDS does not read the environment variable as expected, but do not care...

Happy grrr!!!

(I think it must be on the moodle-mssql install page http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_MSSQL_for_PHP, because anyone going to freetds user quide will find there the FREETDS environment variable - wich enables a much clearer installation - and my fall there!)

(in fact I saw I can edit it - so I did)

Peter,

I was intrigued by your comment that the FREETDS environment variable does not work, so I've tested it on my dev box and I can confirm that it DOES work when you use PHP version 5.2.x, the "official" moodle.org version of FreeTDS (that you get from the Installing MSSQL_for_PHP page in MoodleDocs) and Moodle 2.0 Preview 2.

To prove that it does work I did the following:

1. I created the FREETDS environment variable on my Windows 2003 dev box.
2. I pointed that FREETDS environment variable to my PHP folder, D:\PHP5.
3. I MOVED my freetds.conf file from C:\ into D:\PHP5.
4. I restarted IIS.

I then accessed my Moodle 2.0 Preview 2 test site and everything worked like normal. Note that there are NO other pointers to the location of freetds.conf on my computer so the only way that PHP can

Then, to take it a bit further, I then REMOVED the freetds.conf file from the server so that there is no freetds.conf file on the server and no way for PHP to load the required FreeTDS settings (and thus it loads the defaults). After restarting IIS I reopened my Moodle 2.0 Preview 2 test site and I got the following errors in Moodle:

Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier.

SELECT * FROM mdl_course WHERE category = '0'
line 686 of lib\dmllib.php: call to debugging()
line 481 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset_sql()
line 421 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_record_sql()
line 377 of lib\datalib.php: call to get_record()
line 3788 of lib\weblib.php: call to get_site()
line 123 of lib\adminlib.php: call to build_navigation()
line 2918 of mod\assignment\lib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
line 431 of lib\adminlib.php: call to assignment_upgrade_submodules()
line 433 of admin\index.php: call to upgrade_activity_modules()
Setting up plugin tables You are hereSetting up plugin tables No warnings - Scroll to the continue button

mod/assignment/type/online plugin needs upgrading
Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier.

SELECT * FROM mdl_events_handlers WHERE handlermodule = 'assignment_type/online'
line 686 of lib\dmllib.php: call to debugging()
line 609 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset_sql()
line 577 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset_select()
line 910 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset()
line 78 of lib\eventslib.php: call to get_records()
line 110 of lib\eventslib.php: call to events_get_cached()
line 155 of lib\adminlib.php: call to events_update_definition()
line 2918 of mod\assignment\lib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
line 431 of lib\adminlib.php: call to assignment_upgrade_submodules()
line 433 of admin\index.php: call to upgrade_activity_modules()
online tables have been set up correctly

Moodle threw these errors because PHP loaded the FreeTDS extension with the FreeTDS default settings (i.e. the defaults that were specified when php_dblib.php was compiled). These default settings were used because PHP did not load the FreeTDS extension with the required settings, e.g. tds version = 8.0.

Then, to prove that the FREETDS environment variable does work, I put the freetds.conf file back into D:\PHP5 and made sure that the FREETDS environment variable was still pointing to D:\PHP5. After restarting IIS I opened my Moodle 2.0 Preview 2 test site again and everything worked properly. I did not get any of the error messages that were thrown when there was no freetds.conf file in D:\PHP5.
I tested the site again and everything seems to be ok.

To me this confirms that the FREETDS environment variable does work with the PHP 5.2 version of FreeTDS that's available on the MSSQL_for_PHP page in MoodleDocs.

I haven't been able to test this against version 5.3.0 of php_dblib.dll and PHP 5.3 as I don't have a PHP 5.3 box to play with at the moment.
Can you try it again on your server (taking all the above into consideration) to help us determine if it is a PHP 5.3 issue? Thanks.

Also, when you created the environment variable on your server did you create a System variable or a User variable? It needs to be a System variable. And you must restart the web server after creating the variable so that PHP is refreshed and thus detects and applies the changes (i.e. it uses the freetds.conf file located in the path specified in the FREETDS environment variable).

So, for now I'm going to remove the comment that you added to the Installing_MSSQL_for_PHP page about the FREETDS environment variable not working. As you have seen it does work in PHP 5.2. If we can prove that it does not work on PHP 5.3 then we can add a note specifically for PHP 5.3.

Peter,

I was intrigued by your comment that the FREETDS environment variable does not work, so I've tested it on my dev box and I can confirm that it DOES work when you use PHP version 5.2.x, the "official" moodle.org version of FreeTDS (that you get from the Installing MSSQL_for_PHP page in MoodleDocs) and Moodle 2.0 Preview 2.

To prove that it does work I did the following:

1. I created the FREETDS environment variable on my Windows 2003 dev box.
2. I pointed that FREETDS environment variable to my PHP folder, D:\PHP5.
3. I MOVED my freetds.conf file from C:\ into D:\PHP5.
4. I restarted IIS.

I then accessed my Moodle 2.0 Preview 2 test site and everything worked like normal. Moodle did not throw any errors. Note that there are NO other pointers to the location of freetds.conf on my computer so this shows that PHP was indeed able to read the freetds.conf pointed to in the environment variable that I created.

Then, to take it a bit further, I then REMOVED the freetds.conf file from the server so that there is no freetds.conf file on the server and no way for PHP to load the required FreeTDS settings (and thus it loads the defaults). After restarting IIS I reopened my Moodle 2.0 Preview 2 test site and I got the following errors in Moodle:

Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier.

SELECT * FROM mdl_course WHERE category = '0'
line 686 of lib\dmllib.php: call to debugging()
line 481 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset_sql()
line 421 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_record_sql()
line 377 of lib\datalib.php: call to get_record()
line 3788 of lib\weblib.php: call to get_site()
line 123 of lib\adminlib.php: call to build_navigation()
line 2918 of mod\assignment\lib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
line 431 of lib\adminlib.php: call to assignment_upgrade_submodules()
line 433 of admin\index.php: call to upgrade_activity_modules()
Setting up plugin tables You are hereSetting up plugin tables No warnings - Scroll to the continue button

mod/assignment/type/online plugin needs upgrading
Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier.

SELECT * FROM mdl_events_handlers WHERE handlermodule = 'assignment_type/online'
line 686 of lib\dmllib.php: call to debugging()
line 609 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset_sql()
line 577 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset_select()
line 910 of lib\dmllib.php: call to get_recordset()
line 78 of lib\eventslib.php: call to get_records()
line 110 of lib\eventslib.php: call to events_get_cached()
line 155 of lib\adminlib.php: call to events_update_definition()
line 2918 of mod\assignment\lib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
line 431 of lib\adminlib.php: call to assignment_upgrade_submodules()
line 433 of admin\index.php: call to upgrade_activity_modules()
online tables have been set up correctly

Moodle threw these errors because PHP loaded the FreeTDS extension with the FreeTDS default settings (i.e. the defaults that were specified when php_dblib.php was compiled). These default settings were used because PHP did not load the FreeTDS extension with the required settings, e.g. tds version = 8.0.

Then, to prove that the FREETDS environment variable does work, I put the freetds.conf file back into D:\PHP5 and made sure that the FREETDS environment variable was still pointing to D:\PHP5. After restarting IIS I opened my Moodle 2.0 Preview 2 test site again and everything worked properly. I did not get any of the error messages that were thrown when there was no freetds.conf file in D:\PHP5.
I tested the site again and everything seems to be ok.

To me this confirms that the FREETDS environment variable does work with the PHP 5.2 version of FreeTDS that's available on the MSSQL_for_PHP page in MoodleDocs.

I haven't been able to test this against version 5.3.0 of php_dblib.dll and PHP 5.3 as I don't have a PHP 5.3 box to play with at the moment.
Can you try it again on your server (taking all the above into consideration) to help us determine if it is a PHP 5.3 issue? Thanks.

Also, when you created the environment variable on your server did you create a System variable or a User variable? It needs to be a System variable. And you must restart the web server after creating the variable so that PHP is refreshed and thus detects and applies the changes (i.e. it uses the freetds.conf file located in the path specified in the FREETDS environment variable).

So, for now I'm going to remove the comment that you added to the Installing_MSSQL_for_PHP page about the FREETDS environment variable not working. As you have seen it does work in PHP 5.2. If we can prove that it does not work on PHP 5.3 then we can add a note specifically for PHP 5.3.

Sorry about the "double posting". The first comment was incomplete, so please disregard it and read the second comment.

Hi,

You just right!
I was so happy to have some solution that didn't pay attention ot the whereabouts of the FREETDS variable!

What is sure that I was able to install moodle 2.0 on IIS7 with MSSQL 2005 in fact in no time (I do not count the day of mt stupidity)...

And I already removed the comment...

Regards.

No problem. I've actually been looking for an excuse to play with that FREETDS environment variable because I have wanted to move the freetds.conf file out of the C:\ folder into a "less predictable" location on my production box for a while now. You just gave me the "kick in the butt" that I needed!

Oki, thanks Luis, Peter.

Mystery solved! Thanks for tidying up the Moodle Docs page. Sure it will help other moodlers in the future!

Ciao

No problem! I've updated the docs with the latest info.

Peter, if necessary, please add any info that might be specific to Wndows 2008 and IIS 7. I can't test this on that platform.

The only thing I found that when installing php 5.2 with ISAPI the installer will not add the proper handler mapping to IIS7 (it works on IIS6) so it must be added manualy...
(php 5.3 has only cgi that works...)

(in fact I wrote a document to our customers how to set up - from scratch - a moodle on Windows using IIS and MSSQL - it may have some use for others...)

Peter, shouldn't you be running PHP as a CGI module under FastCGI on IIS7, instead of ISAPI? You'll get much better performance (especially if you throw in a PHP accelerator too). Anyway, it's off-topic here...