I've uploaded everything as prescribed for a new install on windows server.

The install wizzard from Setup.pl has ended on the following Red Box warning, advising that I start modifying the Settings.pl.

WARNING!
Your forum may not work properly if you continue. Setup recommends editing the path to directories in Settings.pl and then refreshing this page until this message disappears. There was a problem verifying that the following directories exist:

Avatars Currently set to: /blahdocs/Avatars
uploads Currently set to: /blahdocs/uploads
template Currently set to: /blahdocs/template
The following may help you figure out what your paths are:
Document Root:
Script name: D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum\Setup.pl
Please note that not all server report the above information correctly.

For the quickest support on the E-Blah Support Forum, PLEASE copy and past everything in this red box.

Setup needs the following information before it can continue ...
Basic Forum Information
Forum Name:  
Forum Cookie Prefix:  
Full URL (DIR) Path to Blah.pl:  
This is the best guess and may not be correct! Look over this path and correct it if need be.


The text in the Settings.pl is very emphatic about making changes, so I need to be sure just what can be modified. The text in the Settings.pl is not precise about exactly which codes can be changed. Here is the text, as if you didn't already know it:

IN MOST CASES THIS FILE SHOULDN'T BE EDITED.
# ONLY EDIT IT IF >SETUP< TELLS YOU TO!

# What is the directory that Settings.pl is located in?
$root = ".";

# This should be the only line you need to edit for Avatars, uploads, and templates directories
$bdocsdir2 = "$ENV{'DOCUMENT_ROOT'}/blahdocs";


Can you give me some idea which of these two command lines should be edited, and based on the above, can you give me some hints as to what those edits might look like?

I'm not hot on Windows servers but try changing:

$bdocsdir2 = "$ENV{'DOCUMENT_ROOT'}/blahdocs";
to:

$bdocsdir2 = "D:\Webs\cha414\public_html\blahdocs";

Take a bow Martin!

The Red Box disappeared after inserting the path you suggested.

At the next step in the wizzard's progress, I got the following error:

Cannot write to /Boards, please check your Settings.pl file and try again.

If I interpret the text of the Settings.pl file correctly, the root is not correctly defined, and this error should occur -- and be changed -- for Mods, Messages, etc.

I downloaded the file perlinfo.pl, put it in the cgi-bin, in hopes of getting the correct path to root. However, the file would not run, and the command came back:

Software error:
The getpwuid function is unimplemented at D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\perlinfo.pl line 36.

For help, please send mail to this site's webmaster, giving this error message and the time and date of the error

Awating your magic touch.

OK, try changing:

$root = ".";

To:

$root = D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum

Thanks for your help, Martin.

I changed the settings.pl as you suggested, but when I tried to run the Setup.pl, I got the following message, i.e. the wizzard did not appear:

'D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum\Setup.pl' script produced no output

Sorry, change:

$root = D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum

To:

$root = "D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum";

I tried that correction with no success. I also tried another version by adding a final / after forum, but again, no success. The same 'D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum\Setup.pl' script produced no output message appears.

I finally got the Setup.pl to work, and when i ran the Setup.pl this time, it advanced to the Convert Files page, at the end of which it stated Upgrade Finished... This forum has been ugrade successfully! Delete Setup Files and go to your Forum.
But, when I entered the path to Blah.pl, using the URL (http://www.chariotpublishing.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl) I got back the dreaded:

'D:\Webs\cha414\cgi-bin\forum\Blah.pl' script produced no output

Here is the listing of the directory that appears when you enter the following URL (http://www.chariotpublishing.com/cgi-bin/forum/

[To Parent Directory]
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:28 PM         4856 Blah.pl
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:23 PM        <dir> Boards
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:26 PM        <dir> Code
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:27 PM        <dir> Languages
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:27 PM        <dir> Members
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:27 PM        <dir> Messages
      Thursday, June 05, 2008  9:28 PM        <dir> Mods
        Friday, June 06, 2008  8:04 PM        <dir> Prefs
        Friday, June 06, 2008  5:16 PM         1774 Settings.pl
        Friday, June 06, 2008  5:11 PM        57859 Setup.pl

I have yet to delete the Setup.pl file, but I can't imagine that would prevent me from accessing the Blah.pl file.

I must be close.

Any advice?

Ignore the previous post. I am able to access the Blah.pl and proceed to log in etc.

What was happening is something I had not seen before. There is some kind of a refresh cycle, something like a time lag in the nature of 10 minutes between when I upload a file and before it works correctly. If I call the file before that strange time lapse, it won't work correctly. Bizzaro.

Except that the perlinfo.pl file has never worked yet.

Thanks for all of your help.

I get your forum showing but no theme: http://www.chariotpublishing.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?

Go to /blahdocs and delete .htaccess if it is there

I was afraid you were going to say that.

There is no .htaccess file showing in the blandocs folder. i understand it is a hidden file. CUTE FTP (5.0) will not show hidden files. So I downloaded FileZilla and changed the setting tor show hidden files. Still nothing. No .htaccess file under the Blandocs folder.

The first page of the forum comes up, but I am unable to log in as Administrator. Also, there are no pics. With the combination of no pics and not accepting the initial password/ID, I'm guessing an incorrect path in the Blandocs?

If it's not an incorrect path, and I do have to some how erase the .htaccess file, which I can't see, can I just create a bogus file, leave it blank, name it .htacess, and upload it to the server, and therebye erase the present .htacess file?

Thanks for sticking with me.

An update to the prior post.

I have fixed the inability to see .htaccess files.

I can confirm there is no .htaccess file in the blahdocs folder. I can now see all the other .htaccess files in the subfolders for cgi-bin/forum. There is no .htaccess file in the blahdocs folder. Only the .js files and other subfolders.

I also ran the site through a CSS validation service, and it came back with 1 error. It could not find http://www.chariotpublishing.com/blahdocs/template/X2/template.css

I checked the template folder and find the X2 folder inside. I also find the template.css file inside the X2 folder.

So, am I back to a problem with the file path in Blah.pl?

You do not have your permissions set correctly in IIS.  Make certain, BEFORE you run Setup.pl that everything is set correctly (it's basically read/write for everyone on the folders and files, minus Code, Languages, Blah.pl and Setup.pl).

Next, move your /blahdocs OUTSIDE of the /public_html folder so that you can reach it by going to /blahdocs on your server (currently it is set the other way).

Then run Setup.pl and it should work.