Mediawiki ate itself -- AND my data!

December 17, 2007 2:41 PM

My previously installed MediaWiki is now asking to be installed again: "Please set up the wiki first." Like, sounds great, but what about the wiki that was already there?!?

I was dicking around in my Apache config file about the time this happened but I don't see anything particularly vital I could have/should have been able to screw up.

As far as I can tell:
(a) URL-wise, same location.
(b) Database is there. Installed it a while ago (likewise chooched it some time ago so no logs to fall back on) so am at a loss for user/pws I may have at the time assigned.
(c) Looks like my LocalSettings.php is all cool but is currently out of my league.

My attempts to find a similar scenario via Google bombed save for rumors of such a cicumstance but know you guys are typically awsome in this field...

posted by Ogre Lawless to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Hmmm. Are permissions correct on the config file? If the webserver can't read it, that might be the problem.
posted by Good Brain at 2:54 PM on December 17, 2007

Discovered the problem:

In futzing with my URLs in an attempt to make them prettier I'd lopped off a crucial piece of the URL aliasing:

RewriteRule /ogrepedia(/?.*) /var/www/wiki/ogrepedia/$1

There was similarly an installation one directory above (one in /var/www/wiki, one in .../wiki/ogrepedia).

Dupe install was hiding the fact that I'd broken my URLs. Straightening that out resolved a several-week's old panic that has simmered as the end of the semester played out.

Thanks, schitzophrenic message board!

You're welcome!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:55 PM on December 17, 2007

Happy to help, anytime.
posted by grouse at 3:11 PM on December 17, 2007