[cobalt-users] PHP + SSL + MySQL = CONFUSION

["Robert Davis" <rdavis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ahoy

The whole subject seems to be very confused. PHP, MySQL, and SSL would make
a fine package working together. But how the heck do you get this done?

1) Cobalt sent me the wrong manual and no instructions, but I still managed
to install SSL.

2) I wanted to set up PHP and MySQL to work with it. So I went to the
Knowledge Base and clicked on PHP. This yielded "QuestionNum: 563", which
purported to answer "How do I install PHP on the Qube/RaQ?". This doc would
have me download sources, recompile Apache, kill the server, over-write the
old Apache with the new build, and restart. This seemed a little drastic to
me.

3) Back to the Knowledge Base, where I clicked on MySQL. For some reason,
this hooked me up with "QuestionNum: 640", which was to answer: "I want to
compile my cgi scripts with PHP, do I need to recompile apache?" (sic). This
doc instructed me to rpm -ivv both
ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/apache-1.3.3-PHP-1C2.mips.rpm and
ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/mysql-client-3.21.32a-rh50.1.mips.r
pm  (gotta love these handy file names!). Well, the first file required the
second file to install, and the second file did not exist.

4) So I gave up on Cobalt, went to Sage, and found "How do I install PHP
functionality on my RaQ server" (I have yet to find a sentence containing
the buzzword "functionality" which could not benefit from its removal.) This
gave very simple instructions how to rpm -hUv (note the different rpm
options) two modules: "mod_php3-doc-3.0.7-1C2.mips.rpm" and
"mod_php3-3.0.7-1C2.mips.rpm". Both of these files actually existed (Cobalt
take note!) and installed painlessly.

5) At this point, PHP ran fine, except that httpsd wouldn't run it. The
MySQL server was up, but I did not have the password for it, so I could not
do simple tasks like, say creating a database to test it out. The install
completion statement referred me to read the installed HTML docs, but, so
far as I can tell, no MySQL docs were installed. So, back to the
experimental directory, looking for docs, where I rooted around until I
found "README.php3+mysql". Here, Cobalt instructs you to install five rpms.
They are: "MySQL-3.22.21-2C1.mips.rpm", "MySQL-client-3.22.21-2C1.mips.rpm",
"MySQL-devel-3.22.21-2C1.mips.rpm", "mod-php3-3.0.7-1C2.mips.rpm", and
"mod_php3-doc3.0.7-1C2.mips.rpm" (no special rpm options are given, but you
are instructed to install them in that order). By now, I was getting leery,
so I read further.

6) Last, I opened up "README.php3" and found this statement: "o WARNING
Installing this package will erase your SSL installation." (Exactly which
package is not specified). Here, Cobalt instructs you to install
"mod-php3-3.0.7-1C2.mips.rpm", and "mod_php3-doc3.0.7-1C2.mips.rpm", the
same two PHP modules which it advises you to install in the previous README,
without any such warning. In fact, this was the first place I had run into
that strange warning.

7) At this point, I rushed to check out my SSL server. Yes, httpsd was,
thankfully, running fine, even though PHP and MySQL were both installed.
Whew! Time to re-evaluate:
    Two days down the drain.
    MySQL can't be configured.
    Afraid to make another move.
    Can't get it to work with SSL anyway.
    No one seems to have a clue.


Effort I don't mind. Confusion pisses me off. Someone, somewhere at Cobalt,
needs to put all their poop in one poke. Simply saying "It's experimental"
does not justify mis-direction.

Can someone please post a definitive way to get PHP, MySQL, and SSL all
working together and happy WHICH WORKS ?

We would be in your debt forever.

Thanks for your patience

Aloha
and Haolamakahihiho