So after much hair pulling with PHP and Fast CGI installs that don't configure themselves as advertised, I finally get to the point of attempting to run the Silverstripe/install.php.

In the first page, it asks for a user that is able to create databases. The silverstripeuser that it puts in by default does not appear to be able to do this. At all. Despite having set it up earlier in the install. So I put in the root user and password. When I re-check the requirements it seems to like the root user.

So then I tick the "That's OK, please re-install...." box and click "Install Silverstripe". It churns away for a few seconds then comes back with an error about not being able to create the databases. But it's using the silverstripeuser user! Not the root user that I specified in the form...

There's at least two things wrong here. It's not retaining the username that I specify, and the user that is specified does not have the correct permissions. I have followed the instructions on the page that talks about the steps required to set this up. But there are serious holes regarding the MySQL permissions set up. Presumably these users need some permissions created at install time...

Thanks for any help you can point at. Silverstripe seems like a useful CMS for some stuff I want to do, but at present it's so impossible to get working that I'm losing hope.

Before anyone asks, yes, I tried the MS WPI. It also failed miserably to get any of this stuff working. Terrible experience.

Thanks.

Maybe the installer is using the _config database user / pass (silverstripeuser) rather then the one you passed in the install.php. If you have a mysite/_config file check the database creds aren't already defined and if they are delete them and start again. Sounds like silverstripeuser doesn't have create database permissions so if you give that user those permissions it should be able to create the databases without any errors.

Mmm.... There are no database credentials in the _config.php file. There are, however, such default credentials in the _ss_environment.php file in the silverstripe root directory.

i did some further tests with the silverstripeuser. I granted full CREATE permissions in MySQL, but when logged in as that user, it still refused to create the database. This was directly in MySQL. So there is something weird going on. I created the relevant database as root, and so I have a working (ish) installation of Silverstrip.

I think some of my frustration is that there is no indication that a user might need extra permissions. The instructions imply that all this is taken care of by Silverstrip or the installation process...

Thanks for the ideas.