Stuck at Step 2 of installation

Very strange indeed.
Windows or Linux server ? php version ? Mysql version ?

If you have phpmyadmin, check the database.
See if any tables have been created.
If no, the install failed somehow
If yes, go to this page, the phpmyadmin section, and change your password. The user will be ‘admin’
https://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress

The same thing happened to me (and I was going to make a post in the Troubleshooting section, oops). Step 2 kept loading and loading, but even though the tables were created it didn’t move to step 3. Changing the password solved the problem. Thank you!

FYI: Windows XP, Apache 1.3.27, PHP4.2.3, MySQL 4

Also happened here. The page just quit loading somewhere between the flush() at the start of the db updates and the part where it tells you your randomly selected password in install.php. That is, in the web browser, it says “Now wea€?re going to create the database tables and fill them with some default data.” but then craps out right there. It appears, though, that everything was correctly generated, including the sample entries and the admin user (with some password that never gets reported to the end user).

Anyway, for those who prefer doing things the painful way, the MySQL query for resetting your password (as mentioned above, but using phpMyAdmin) is as follows (just replace password with your chosen password:

update wp_users set user_pass = md5(‘password’) where user_login = ‘admin’;

Hope this helps others! – Barry

Yes, I saw this. This poster goes into great detail – but mine is the problem NOT addressed. I should have mentioned this in the prior message – NO database tables are being created either! I checked this using PHPMyAdmin (which my ISP provides).

As far as the posting goes, he says (paraphrasing) “if you created tables, great. All you have to do is change your password, but if your script did not create tables, then the install failed”

I’m in the “install failed” category… Hence this posting…

any ideas??

So you have the relevant database created, but the install script is NOT populating the database with the appropriate tables?

yes. That’s correct. The database exists, but the install script is not moving forward and populating tables.

Oooh, I had to change the dbHost too! When I had it set to ‘localhost’, the script balked, and gave me a hint that all was not well with the localhost setting. So I set it to the server that the MySQL is on, and the script worked up to Step 2.

Well, I’m no php/mysql guru. Whenever I want a wp install on one of my sites, I have cpanel/fantastico install whatever version it’s still on, then upgrade from either the latest stable or a nightly depending. I’ve never had a problem getting the tables once the db is there.

Maybe one of the REAL gurus will be along to make sense of this for you. Or you could try the IRC channel – maybe have to do a search to find the connect info, I don’t do IRC so don’t have the info….

Sorry not to be more help, good luck with it.

Thank you very much for reading my disorganized thoughts this far. I hope an expert will spot the problem and it will be a simple one.

Again thanks!

I had exactly the same problem, installing v.1.5.2 onto Redhat 8.0, Apache 2.0.40, PHP 4.2.2 via Safari 1.3 on Mac OS X 10.3.9.

I setup the DB, DB user & pass, made the appropriate entries in wp-config.php and attempted to install, but could not proceed past Step 2 where the page indicated it was creating tables & populating with sample data and that was it! No tables were created in MySQL DB at all.

After some testing with the install.php file in wp-admin/, I discovered that the page was hanging on the flush(); PHP instruction (https://ca3.php.net/manual/en/function.flush.php) on line 138. After commenting out this instruction, the install proceeded with no problem, creating the tables, populated them with sample data, creating the admin account & password, and emailing the admin account info to the email address supplied in Step 1.

Everything appears to be working just fine now. Looks like the culprit was definitely the flush(); instruction on line 138 of wp-admin/install.php.

I’m not sure why that instruction is in there. The PHP manual indicates that this instruction flushes the output buffer – but why that needs to be done during this step of the install process is beyond me. Obviously, it’s not really required, as I managed to install just fine when it was removed …

Hope this helps other people who have come across similar behaviour when attempting to install.