Joomla! pre-installation check

[habilis]

I am installing Joomla! 1.5.14 on XAMPP 1.7.1 on my home computer running Ubuntu 9.04

I get to the "Pre-Installation Check" screen in the "Joomla! Web Installer", and I've got several red items on the list.

The items that are red are:

• "configuration.php Writable" (theres a red No, instead of a green Yes)
  
• "Display Errors" (the recommended is OFF but mine is ON )
  
• "Register Globals" (the recommended is OFF but mine is ON )

I have no idea of how to rectify these. The first item above is a requirement for Joomla! to work.

For the second and third items it says:

"These are the recommended settings for PHP in order to ensure full compatibility with Joomla!.
Joomla! will still operate even if your settings do not match."

But trust me, I need all the help I can get. So to avoid as many future issues as possible I'd like to change all these things to the recommended settings.

It was suggested by a member of this forum that I do the follwing:

quote:
You need to check folder and file permissions and ownership on joomla installation. They should be owned by the apache user (typically www or www-data). -end quote

I entered the following command:

chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/lampp/htdocs/joomla15

f.y.i- "joomla15" is the directory where I put Joomla!

I went and checked the "Pre-Installation Check" screen and there are no changes.

i should tell you that I am a beginner in the realm of PHP, _AMPP, Joomla! etc. Also, I haven't been using Linux very long.

[b2bwild]

1.
configuration.php should be writable, because joomla installation script can't save all the configuration if the file is not writable.
Once the Installation is complete make configuration.php read-only again

You should not change the ownership of your document root, but add permissions to 'Others' temporarily.

2.
"Display Errors" (the recommended is OFF but mine is ON )
This is a PHP configuration boolean

This configuration reisdes in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini file.
as you are using XAMPP, You will find it somewhere in XAMPP directory.

It should be ON only when PHP development is going on, If you keep showing the errors to public, hackers will know bug, and weak point in your site.

3.
"Register Globals" (the recommended is OFF but mine is ON )
This is also an PHP configuration boolean, Take it off in php.ini

[habilis]

Hi b2bwild, Thanks for the info. You're the first person I've seen who actually explained in practical speech what these settings are and why you'd want to change them. Have you considered writing a tutorial for beginners? Most guides skip right over these pre-installation items.

Are you saying that one should turn the "display errors" setting on by editing a file, -every time I want to do something with the website, and then edit the file again when I'm done to turn the "display errors" setting back off?

What is a configuration boolean?

Can you explain the 'register globals' setting and when to change it?

What is a document root?

Should I undo the change to the permissions that I already did? If so, how do I do that and why?

What directory is configuration.php in?

[b2bwild]

Are you saying that one should turn the "display errors" setting on by editing a file, -every time I want to do something with the website, and then edit the file again when I'm done to turn the "display errors" setting back off?

Yes, or you can simply create a mirror site on localhost for development.

What is a configuration boolean?

The configuration which only have 2 options ON or OFF

Can you explain the 'register globals' setting and when to change it?

If register_globals is on, then variables_order also configures the order the ENV, GET, POST, COOKIE and SERVER variables are populated in global scope. So for example if variables_order is set to "EGPCS", register_globals is enabled, and both $_GET['action'] and $_POST['action'] are set, then $action will contain the value of $_POST['action'] as P comes after G in our example directive value.

What is a document root?

Document root is where your all website files/media/programs resides.
for example /var/www

Should I undo the change to the permissions that I already did? If so, how do I do that and why?

Change the permissions of others back to read only, else anyone will be able to modify or delete data on your document root.

What directory is configuration.php in?

On XAMPP its at lampp/etc/php.ini
Normally native PHP ini can be found at /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini