PostgreSQL 8.1.2 on PHP 5.1.2

ATS16805

Hello. This is my first attempt at working with Postgres. I downloaded and installed PostgreSQL 8.1.2 (on XP Pro SP2) w/ the recommended .msi for Windows XP, and followed the instructions after reading the recommended documents about the Installer here and the PostgreSQL on Windows FAQ here.

One of the pre-packaged client programs is pgAdmin III. I opened it and browsed around a bit, verifying what appears to be a successful installation, however, not knowing what i wanted to do w/ it just yet, i decided that a good way to test its interaction w/ PHP would be to install "phpPgAdmin", so i installed it, just as i would "MyPhpAdmin", on Apache under .../htdocs/phpPgAdmin/.

when i type in the URL, i get the following:

 URL: 
http://localhost/phpPgAdmin/

Error:
Your PHP installation does not support PostgreSQL. You need to recompile PHP using the --with-pgsql configure option.

I'm running Apache as a Service and PHP as an Apache Module so, if i understand this correctly, the following would be correct for my scenario: i went to php.ini and uncommented the appropriate PHP Postgres module extension=php_pgsql.dll
and verified that the other settings were correct, according to the documentation.
the only thing i changed in phpPgAdmin's config.inc.php file was the recommendation for 8.1 (my version):
$conf['servers'][0]['defaultdb'] = 'postgres';

any ideas what's going wrong here? suggestions?
thanks!!

thorpe

Did you restart the server?

ATS16805

definitely-- restarted the server, rebooted, i don't recall if i tried switching from PHP5 to PHP4 though (now that i have that option)-- but nothing i could figure under "normal" conditions would make it work-- of course unless there's something i've left out, or done incorrectly as listed above.

should i have tried, or should i try a different version?
(however, i got the impression that this release is the really "kickass" release)

NOTE:
one reason for this sudden streak of experimentation w/ PG is because i recently had a power supply issue in my old Box. loaded a fresh XP on a 40gig lying around here and used that as a new master for this hand-me-down, "new Box", and slaved my old Box's HDD to that one-- so i had a clean OS, and a slaved drive w/ a bunch of stuff on it-- when i installed the PostgreSQL, it went onto the Fresh OS-- and, for what it's worth, on the "new Box" master HDD along w/ , also freshly installed on the new hdd, a working Apache2, PHP4 (which was commented out in favor of my "old HDD's" properly functioning PHP5, commented to the new Apache) and, at the time of this "error" above, a malfunctioning MySQL 5 (no, mysql went on after postgres, i think).
throughout the course of setting up this "new" box, i noticed that it was booting w/ my older HDDs from the "old" box, so due to time-sensitive client-Project issues, i ultimately ended up "mastering" the "old" box's HDD in the "new" box-- kinda crazy, but cool that it "works" because it's like i have my old system back-- only on a newer faster box!... point being, now the drive where Postgres install resides is a Slave to this one-- so, when / if i go back to this, i'll probably just try again, installing PostgreSQL fresh on this the frankenstien "newBox-oldMaster" drive.
(hope that made sense!)
if i do a fresh install on this drive, do you have any recommendations? any rules of thumb i should go by, or keep in mind?

thanks!!

thorpe

if i do a fresh install on this drive, do you have any recommendations? any rules of thumb i should go by, or keep in mind?

Yeah... avoid installing windows.

RebeccaB

Did you find a fix for this problem? The same's happening to me, on Windows Server 2003.

ATS16805

thorpe wrote:
Yeah... avoid installing windows.

i REALLLY am wanting to try Linux soon. suggested distro?

while doing research on where to begin, (it might have been in a google group for users of that distribution) i recall a lot of users of a popular distribution (might have been Gentoo-- but i could be totally wrong) discussing it-- i seem to recall they had a pet-name for themselves-- something like "the Fox's" or some sort of catchy "fab" kind of name. sorry i can't remember which it was, but i recall that during that same researching where i came across a testimonial against that version as if it was a sort of "Linux-user wanna-be's" distribution. i suppose it's jut like anything else that people get passionate about-- you have your divided camps on what's the "Real" thing, and who's a "wanna be", and this and that-- and when it comes down to it-- it's all about using the Linux operating System-- and no matter how you slice it, it's certainly not Mac or PC, right?! i don't know nearly enough about it-- i don't know that i've ever even sat down at a Linux workstation yet.

What about Red Hat Fedora? that to me seems like the "genuine" Linux-- i'd love to hear anyone tell their own tale of Linux if you care to elaborate (as long as no one cares about derailing the heck out of this thread!)

so far, i haven't revisited the PostgreSQL thing, so i have no advice on that yet. hopefully i'll get back around to that soon, but i've got worse problems than that right now-- trying to setup a ColdFusion, IIS, and PHP system has been giving me headaches, but i finally have all three (w/ ASP too) working, albeit the PHP5 is running as php-cgi.exe and not the ISAPI version (not that i really know much about what that means, but i have noticed some weirdness w/ this version of PHP!)

for what it's worth, this php-cgi.exe version i had to resort to using is running on the same OS which gave me problems w/ the PostgreSQL as mentioned above. ha! more and more i'm thinking maybe i oughta dedicate a box to Linux & PHP-- i just need another monitor, and i'll give 'er a go soon.

RebeccaB

Getting back on track - I fixed my problem with PHP not talking to Postgres on my Windows server.

I'm using XAMPP, and it turns out that the php.ini file that XAMPP uses on Windows is located in xampp\apache\bin, rather than the one in xampp\php. Once I uncommented the line to load the pgsql extension in the correct php.ini file, everything worked fine. If you think you'll ever switch php versions, make sure that you make the same config changes in xampp\php\php5.ini and xampp\php\php4\php4.ini, as the relevant file is copied to xampp\apache\bin\php.ini when you do the switch.

As to Linux distros, I've used SuSE and Ubuntu and they're both fine. I think SuSE had a slightly nicer installer if you're not entirely sure what you're doing, and I also preferred the look-and-feel of the package manager in SuSE. On the other hand, it did some slightly odd things with the config for the packages it installed, so if you wanted to make changes it was sometimes a bit tricky working out where to make them.

If you seriously want to run Linux and are a complete newbie, read up on how you need to partition your hard drive before you start installing!

Hope that helps,
Rebecca

ATS16805

Hey Rebecca, thanks so much for following up on this. If you care to tell more about XAMPP, i'd like to hear it. it doesn't sound familiar to me-- so, it's not a server 'cause you've got apache, right?-- so... what's that all about?

yeah-- i really do want to get into Linux-- i feel it would be a great Resume booster, for one thing, and it just seems to make sense. i certainly have no loyalty to Windows. i use mostly free software. i'm definitely not a Gamer, etc. and, it seems like a lot of my headaches which seem to be caused by windows (if commentary such as Thorpe's truly is relevant to the PostgreS problem i was having, etc)-- then-- it makes a helluva lot of sense to go Linux, it would seem.

now, what's this about partitioning? you mean-- if i want to do a dual-boot and put Linux on a Windows drive, or do you mean if i wanna take a "new" drive, format it-- and start from scratch-- Linux requires some special HDD preps?

thanks!
edit: ps... meant to say-- it's nice to hear the voice of a woman around here now and then, i must say! rock on

RebeccaB

XAMPP is a distribution of Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. All the bits are pre-configured to play nicely with each other. The configuration is for development, so if you want to use it on a production server you'll want to alter the config a bit. Have a look at http://www.xampp.org for more details.

Disk partitions: try googling for something along the lines of linux partition disk. You should find plenty of stuff out there. For a start, you need a partition for linux to live on, and a swap partition. It's generally recommended that you have a separate /boot partition (for booting Linux) and root partition (where the main filesystem lives). A lot of people would then use a separate partition for /home (where everyone's data lives). How big you make these partitions is going to depend on your system and what you're going to use it for.

ATS16805

that's interesting news about the partitions. i used to keep my Win 98 drives something like that-- kept the OS on one partition, my "docs" on another, and then my "apps" on another. did it for a while w/ XP too-- then i realized i was just making more work for myself-- the way the whole XP Documents and Settings folder works and all that, etc.

so-- sounds like it will be an interesting experience. do you have a recommended approach to partitioning the drive? i mean-- i assume you'd format the drive via some small, floppy-disk app then, and do your partitions that way?
what do people tend to use for that process-- assuming i wouldn't want to use a DOS or Win98 startup disc. i do have partition magic on 2 floppies, but i think it loads a sort-of slimmed down version of the win98 startup. i forget...

RebeccaB

I've got a dual boot system. The computer came with XP, I used Partition Magic to reduce the size of the Win XP partition, and to make a partition for Linux and a shared partition for data I want to be able to access from both OS.

Then the linux-specific partitioning of the linux partition I did from within the install program for my linux distro.

ATS16805

awesome. i asked because i understand that a lot of people, such as myself, for whom it's not quite practical to have more than one "workstation", will take that approach-- especially if the need Windows for some specific app. If i were to go that route, i have a couple of HDD's i could probably dedicate one to Linux-- i've heard there's a bit of magic involved to get Win and Linix to work as you've described-- so that's why i'm saying i probably wouldn't want to risk the headache of a failed attempt at that method-- my luck, i'd lose my partition tables, or MBR or something. 🙂

thanks!

ATS16805

hey, quick question since this thread got so off-the-subject anyway... and basically onto the subject of Linux...

i happened to be tooling w/ my Partition Magic v8 floppy and noticed that, in my options for Filesystem under Format HDD, i can select Linux Ext2, or Linux Ext3.

supposing i want to try out Linux sometime, and i want to go ahead an just format one of the hard drives i have lying around in preparation for Linux, which of those would i want to use?

thanks!