Issues with installation – Blank screen (install.php)

Anyone else with this problem – there are a few fixes at Colin McNulty’s blog – namely, removal of the last blank line in wpconfig.php.

Didn’t work for me, sadly. Still blank screen of death, staring me in the face, server returns zero code.

Anyone?

I don’t have a clue. I know that a couple of weeks ago, maybe three, when I downloaded WordPress, I created a database.
Four things, or three depending on your host.
In config.php.
1. localhost for some, or when you set up your database some hosts do it on another server. Make a note so you can enter. Or copy/paste.
2. then: Usually your control panel login,name_wordpress
3. Username. here again. cp name_whoopie .
4. password. shouldaboughtahonda
Don’t use any of the above. (Or do.) Name the database whatever you want just point wordpress to it. It’s all in the read me file.
Assign the db user all priviledges. Whoopie gets to do it all.
With some hosts, its a walk in the park. With others, well it ain’t that bad. If they are worth a S—, call them. They’ll help. If not, switch to Frontpages and tell your current host to kiss off.

@outthere, thanks for your help.

I edited config.php as described in the codex and triple-checked it, so I don’t think it’s that. I wonder whether the user I set up for the MySQL database has insufficient privileges. My provider uses phpMyAdmin 2.10.0.2, and I can’t find the blinking link for setting of user privileges in there.

Any other suggestions anyone? I hear this is one of the most common wordpress disasters, so somebody out there must know how to crack this one… ?

forget about the last post – just read this – so no, that can’t be it either.

@samboll: Yes, it’s a different url because I’m a different user. I have the same problem as nickster4321 but that doesn’t mean I am him/her. Hello? No reason to close the topic.

I didn’t close the topic.
I have noticed in the past that php memory being too low can cause this behavior.

Same problem here….

Funny thing is: I have 2 websites running on this server. Installing WordPress on the first website was easy and that one works like a charm. Installing on the second website, using the same procedure, results in blank screen. Both wordpress instances have their own MySQL database with their own MySQL user.

I’ve tried removing the last blank line in the config file to no effect. I have a hard time believing it would be anything to do with too little PHP memory as the first installation should then have had the same issues.

@ samboll: if it does have anything to do with php memory – how do I allocate more? Is this a setting in php.ini?
(Sorry, don’t know an awful lot about php)

If you have a php.ini you can do it there.
You will see a line in the file to allocate memory. The default is usually 4MB- You can safely change this to 16MB or 20MB.

Just discovered I don’t have write access to it, so I’ll ask my provider tomorrow to sort this out. Thank you.

What if it isn’t php memory, as Croga’s post suggests?

Samboll,

You hit the nail on the head! Just discovered that I have write access to my php.ini via my ISP’s admin panel. I increased memory_limit to 20MB – and it’s working now. Thanks a lot dude!

Croga and everyone else with this problem – hope this will work for you, too.

A last PS, for everyone else encountering this problem – try

activating php error display on your server, or ask your ISP to do it for you

if the problem has nothing to do with the memory size, this will at least give you the name and path of the file that causes the blank screen

check file permissions on your server – I just had a blank screen again, and this time it was down to compat.php having dodgy permissions

Checked php.ini. php has 100M available so I’m guessing that’s not the problem.
Checked file permissions; they’re all set correctly.

How do I activate php error display? That way I can give you guys a better idea of what’s going wrong.

I’m not sure – my ISP did it for me (I rang them)

As this thread is marked “resolved”, I’ve started another one with my own experience of this issue. I actually have the relevent PHP error:

PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in [URL removed for security reasons]/wp-admin/includes/media.php on line 154

Now surely somebody must be able to figure out what’s going on here? Clearly I’m not the only person experiencing this issue, so this looks likes a major bug to me.

Well, I’ve been messing around with 2.5, 2.5.1 and the just released 2.6, and no matter what I do, when I try to install any of them, I get the same blank screen and the same PHP error from /wp-admin/includes/media.php.

However, I noticed 2.3.3 and earlier didn’t have this file, so I decided to try installing it. Voila! It works!

So I was obviously installing it correctly, but there is clearly a serious bug in the code of /wp-admin/includes/media.php (from WordPress 2.5 upwards).

As this file relates to the new admin interface, it explains why some people are getting blank admin screens after upgrading to 2.5 and later, while other people (like me) simply can’t install it in the first place.

I am going to need some very serious convincing that this bug has been fixed before I even consider “upgrading” to a newer WordPress version.