Mar 24, 2009

How to install Drupal 6.x (6.9) in AwardSpace


I recently had to install this PHP framework into Awardspace for testing purposes. Although Drupal is designed to ease the installation process to the users, you have to make some modifications

You can download Drupal in this site if you haven't already =P ( Drupal 6.9 )
Once you have downloaded Drupal and created an account in Awardspace we need to upload the files to our Awardspace account. The easiest way to do this is using and FTP client (I would recomend FireFTP).

If you try to install the site accessing the 'install.php' page using your browser, it will probably throw an "500 Internal Server Error" but don't worry, we will review that issue right away.
You need to connect to your file manager from the Hosting Control Panel (or using your FTP client) and rename the file .htaccess file to another name (I renamed it to .htaccess.old) or delete it, but the first option is the recommended.

Now, if you run again the install.php script, the page will let us access the install page. The first page is the Choose language screen where you can choose whether to install Drupal in English or another language. But before you can install your new Drupal site, you need to go to PHP settings on the Web Manager of the Awardspace Control Panel, and then change the version from PHP 4.x.x (mine was 4.4.1) to PHP 5.x.x (5.2.5). If you don't have permissions nor don't want to go to that version, then this error might appear:

register_globals is enabled. Drupal requires this configuration directive to be disabled. Your site may not be secure when register_globals is enabled. The PHP manual has instructions for how to change configuration settings. (Currently using PHP register globals Enabled ('1'))

After you have changed this setting you are ready to go. Now you should be able to run the install script (install.php) normally and follow the steps like you normally would.

Happy "Drupalling".. Hope this is useful for somebody.


--
Kasen Lam

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for this! Your suggestion to change the PHP version was the only thing that helped me get rid of that error about register_globals. Even people who contacted awardspace with the problem said they needed to upgrade to a paid account, which obviously isn't the issue

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  2. Thanks for your post! I've been running aground with this issue now and find the answer, this helps me a lot!!

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