Installing Moodle using XAMPP on Windows Server 2008 Enterprise edition

Question

Hi,

I am trying to install Moodle 1.9 using XAMPP on a virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise edition.

I can initially access the install.php installer script fine but after I progress past the third page the webpage times out.

If I go to http://localhost/, no webpage is downloaded and the browser just times out.

I have tried to run the install script with IE7 and Chrome to see if it was a browser problem, but the same thing occurs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Ashley

Answer 1

Windows servers are notorious for causing problems with Moodle installations. Here's a few things to try:

• Check the dirroot is set correctly your config.php file. Windows requires complete, absolute file names.
• Has the failed install created some/all database tables, and populated them? If only some, look for the last successful table, then check for any corrupted or modified code related to that table that could be causing the install to hang. E.g. is the last successful table is forum, check your mods/forum files. It might be worth downloading a fresh weekly build of Moodle.
• Your mysql memory_limit might be set too low (Moodle Docs recommend at least 40mb for Moodle 1.8 and higher).
• Is this an upgrade, or a clean install? If it's an upgrade, don't try jumping too many versions, and (if possible) uninstall any third-party modules or activities that might cause trouble whilst updating the tables.

There's lots more info in the Moodle Docs, particularly:

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

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