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How to solve: Drupal 6 installation stuck at database configuration

Submitted by Sven Decabooter on 29 November, 2008 - 11:29

People reported me this particular problem, and recently I experienced it myself: during the Drupal 6 installation process in the 'Database configuration' step, you might get stuck. Upon entering the right database credentials, the page reloads and shows the Database configuration form again, without any error.

After some searching around, I found what was causing this behaviour:
During the installation I renamed the file /sites/default/default.settings.php to /sites/default/settings.php.

However, Drupal expects you to make a copy if this file, not rename it!
So just make a copy of the default.settings.php file, and name it settings.php.
When these 2 files are available, your installation should run without any problems.

Tags: 
drupal
howto
planetdrupal
tips

36 comments

by Bart on 10 December, 2008 - 16:15

I ran into exactly the same problem and your solution did work. Thanks a lot!

by Gautam on 16 December, 2008 - 13:24

thanks for this...i was tired to googling for this...but i found answer here....thanks

by Tongboy on 19 December, 2008 - 19:21

Thank you! this is noted in the drupal install as the correct process but isn't described as necessary - you saved my day!

by Kristof on 9 January, 2009 - 23:36

Thanks! Have been searching for this one.

by Trevor R on 14 January, 2009 - 05:32

Thanks. I had some trouble setting Drupal 6.x on my localhost. Again, thank you.

by Anonymous on 25 February, 2009 - 21:44

Thanks for the reminder! This happened to me last time I installed Drupal too...

by aliasghar on 17 March, 2009 - 19:33

First thanks for the solution. almost everybody installs drupal in "default" directory. as you know you can run multiple domains by just a drupal instalation, using directories named to that domains in the directory "sites".
if you want to run "somesite.com" and you rename "default" directory instead of copying it, you will face the same problem as renaming "default.settings.php" instead of copying it.

in brief:
do NOT rename "default" directory and "default.settings.php" file.

by theamoeba on 22 March, 2009 - 18:14

Thank you very much, this fixed my issue. it seems to affect drupal 7 as well.

by Frenzy on 27 March, 2009 - 14:55

Thanks! Have been searching for this one.

by animacion de fiestas on 28 March, 2009 - 23:40

You provided the solution i was looking for!

Thanks.

by Anonymous on 16 April, 2009 - 09:34

thx

by Anonymous on 16 May, 2009 - 19:31

This is gold. tHANKS

by Joe on 25 May, 2009 - 08:10

Thank you! Been looking at my server configuration as I thought that there was an error there, but it is a simple mistake which in my opinion should give users a warning such as "default.settings.php required to continue install" as well as keeping the information entered in the form.

Thanks again.

by Andres on 9 June, 2009 - 00:18

It got me through the installation since i'm new to this CMS I appreciate people that share experiences for everyone, teach a man to fish right :)

happy coding!!

by Anonymous on 27 June, 2009 - 19:29

Thank you thank you

by hasumi on 10 July, 2009 - 17:00

nice..thank you :)

by Beppe on 5 December, 2009 - 23:58

thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Alipix on 3 January, 2010 - 11:22

really thnx

by Sga on 11 January, 2010 - 17:24

...Solved all my problems!

by Anonymous on 20 January, 2010 - 09:02

saved my life man. I was about to pull my f'ing hair out!

by Guy Stephens on 5 February, 2010 - 21:12

Something so simple - would think the Drupal team would see the usability problem here... Anyway thanks to you and Google I think my issue is resolved.

Guy

by Anonymous on 11 April, 2010 - 16:51

Thanks!

by Haris N H on 30 September, 2010 - 08:35

I was stucked..Your site helped me..thanks

by Tulika on 1 October, 2010 - 08:16

Thanks a lot! great help.

by rajaniVaddepalli on 19 November, 2010 - 14:40

Thank you so much...this has solved my problem with in seconds...thank you!!

by ajinkya_bir on 7 December, 2010 - 22:50

thanks a lot

by tchmonkey on 16 December, 2010 - 05:21

Was wondering what the hell was going on and knew it had to be something small like this messing it up. Thanks a lot!

by Flor1N on 25 January, 2011 - 18:09

THANKS!

by anan on 4 April, 2011 - 06:21

Thanks for this!

by Locogary on 25 May, 2011 - 22:39

wena wacho

by Francesco on 7 June, 2011 - 13:40

Thank You Very Much!

On one drupal installation I was trying to set two independent sites;
so after a standard drupal installation for the first site, I renamed the directory:

/sites/default
as
/sites/www.mysite.it

and added a directory for the other site:

/sites/www.mysite.it.other

which contains 'default.settings.php' and 'settings.php' files as well as a 'files' directory - with correct write permissions.

Then, I've created an independent database and user for the second site (other) and added an alias pointing http://www.mysite.it/other to http://www.mysite.it.

So, I went to http://www.mysite.it/other and start the installation wizard but can't pass the Database configuration; as stated at the beginning of this thread... then I found Sven Decabooter OPEN SOURCE WEB DEVELOPMENT and:

simply renamed

/sites/www.mysite.it
as
/sites/default

and got it!!!

Thanx again!

by Danath on 7 July, 2011 - 20:00

Thanks man!

by humusak on 29 October, 2011 - 19:14

you rescue my life

by Nils Tamrakar on 21 December, 2011 - 09:32

Had the same problem.

Works fine after copying...

Thanks

by Michael Stamler on 24 December, 2011 - 16:31

In my situation this solution was not enough. When the database configuration reappeared empty I had to refresh the browser (F5) in order to get the Drupal installation to continue.

by Alexan on 29 December, 2011 - 09:44

THANKYOU VERYMUCH!

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