[Solved] Virtualmin Wordpress install script doesn't work ".. could not find global php.ini file"

Submitted by richb-hanover on Sun, 05/19/2019 - 08:26 Pro Licensee

Using Virtualmin 6.03/Webmin 1.910 on a Ubuntu 14.04.3 VPS, the Wordpress install script doesn't work "out of the box". Here's what I see:

  1. Create Virtual Server - I use sensible defaults, and the server gets created (see end of message for transcript)
  2. Install Scripts
    • Select WordPress 5.1.1
    • accept defaults, click Install Now
  3. The only output after clicking "Install Now" is this information:
PHP module gd is required ..
.. could not find global php.ini file

My questions: What do these messages mean? What can I do about it? Many thanks!

More information

The Dashboard shows these software versions

Software Versions
Operating system Ubuntu Linux 14.04.3
Perl version 5.018002
Path to Perl /usr/bin/perl
Postfix version 2.7.0
Mail injection command /usr/lib/sendmail -t
Apache version 2.4.7
PHP versions 5.5.9, 7.0.33, 7.2.17
Logrotate version 3.8.7
MySQL version 5.6.33-0ubuntu0.14.04.1

GD seems to be installed:

richb@sea:~$ php -i | grep -i --color gd
/etc/php/7.2/cli/conf.d/20-gd.ini,
gd
GD Support => enabled
GD headers Version => 2.2.5
GD library Version => 2.2.5
gd.jpeg_ignore_warning => 1 => 1

Here is output from the initial server creation script:

Creating administration group junk ..
.. done
Creating administration user junk ..
.. done

Creating aliases for administration user ..
.. done

Adding administration user to groups ..
.. done

Creating home directory ..
.. done

Creating mailbox for administration user ..
.. done

Adding new virtual website ..
.. done

Adding webserver user www-data to server's group ..
.. done

Performing other Apache configuration ..
.. done

Creating SSL certificate and private key ..
.. done

Adding new SSL virtual website ..
.. done

Setting up log file rotation ..
.. done

Creating MySQL login ..
.. done

Creating MySQL database junk ..
.. done

Applying web server configuration ..
.. done

Re-starting Webmin ..
.. done

Saving server details ..
.. done

Requesting a certificate for junk.richb-hanover.com, www.junk.richb-hanover.com from Let's Encrypt ..
.. request was successful!

Applying web server configuration ..
.. done
Status: 
Closed (won't fix)

Comments

Submitted by andreychek on Sun, 05/19/2019 - 09:01

Howdy -- which PHP Execution Mode is it that you're using there?

And do you continue to see the same issue if you try a different one?

You can change PHP Execution Modes for that domain in Server Configuration -> Website Options.

Submitted by richb-hanover on Sun, 05/19/2019 - 20:56 Pro Licensee

Thanks for the speedy response. Here are answers to your questions:

  1. PHP Execution mode was: Apache mod_php
  2. When I attempted to switch it to: CGI Wrapper, I got a number of errors:
    • It wouldn't switch unless I also checked "Run cgi scripts as domain owner?"
    • When I checked that option, it wouldn't switch because I didn't have Apache mod_suexec installed.
  3. I stopped, to see what your advice would be for doing all this.
  4. GD may not be installed: the PHP information shown on that page is:
PHP versions installed 7.0.33
Modules for PHP 7.0
calendar Core ctype curl date dom
exif fileinfo filter ftp gettext hash
iconv imagick json libxml mysqli mysqlnd
openssl pcntl pcre PDO pdo_mysql Phar
posix readline Reflection session shmop SimpleXML
sockets SPL standard sysvmsg sysvsem sysvshm
tokenizer wddx xml xmlreader xmlwriter xsl
zlib

Any thoughts? Many thanks.

Submitted by andreychek on Sun, 05/19/2019 - 21:55

Hmm, based on the Forum thread you started, where you didn't remember how Virtualmin was installed -- if it wasn't installed using the install.sh script, your system wouldn't be configured for all those things to work.

Some of the things you described above, such as the suexec package, are installed/configured by the Virtualmin install.sh script.

It's sounding like the automated install.sh wasn't used in your particular case.

That isn't to say things can't be made to work, but you may have to do some manual setup.

It doesn't sound like you're seeing a bug though, it sounds like what you're seeing is a manual installation of Virtualmin that hasn't been fully configured yet.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to assist with that -- but you're quite welcome to start a Forum thread and to use that area to get assistance with that.

However, I'll toss out that since Ubuntu 14.04 reached it's End of Life in April, and Virtualmin will be stopping support for that soon as well -- another option might be to start with a new install on a new server, using the install.sh script to get everything up and running for you there. You'd likely have a much easier time starting with a new install using the automated installer, than you would trying to get things to work on a distro through manual setup on a distro that's no longer supported.

Submitted by richb-hanover on Mon, 05/20/2019 - 06:09 Pro Licensee

Thank you for your thoughtful and complete answer. I understand the situation now, and need to figure out what to do.

However, I'll toss out that since Ubuntu 14.04 reached it's End of Life in April, and Virtualmin will be stopping support for that soon as well

In light of the EOL status for my 14.04 server, I will probably screw up my courage and reinstall my sites on a new machine. Thanks again.

Submitted by richb-hanover on Mon, 05/20/2019 - 06:10 Pro Licensee

Title: Virtualmin Wordpress install script doesn't work ".. could not find global php.ini file" » [Solved] Virtualmin Wordpress install script doesn't work ".. could not find global php.ini file"
Status: Active » Closed (duplicate)

Submitted by richb-hanover on Mon, 05/20/2019 - 06:10 Pro Licensee

Status: Closed (duplicate) » Closed (won't fix)