Blank screen when attempting to install Zen Cart in Ubuntu 14

I am attempting to install the latest Zen Cart (zen-cart-v1.5.4-12302014) on a PC in my office running Ubuntu 14 Mate DE, 32 bit. I have been using Worpress on this machine for some time, so I feel confident that my Apache2 Server, PHP, MySql etc are ok. I downloaded the latest Zen Cart, moved it to /var/www/html/zencart, and followed the directions at http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?147-how-do-i-install-zen-cart regarding permissions, etc. I just got done installing the same downloaded .zip archive of Zen Cart on a WIndows 7 machine, so I don't believe it is a problem with that.

When I go to /localhost/zencart I get the initial screen telling me I need to run the initial installation script, but when I click on link to /zc_install/index.php I get a blank screen.

I know you will probably need more info to help me diagnose this, but in the meantime here is the information on my system from PhpMyAdmin:

Database server

Server: Localhost via UNIX socket
Server type: MySQL
Server version: 5.5.41-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 - (Ubuntu)
Protocol version: 10
User: root@localhost
Server charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)
Web server

Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu)
Database client version: libmysql - 5.5.41
PHP extension: mysqli Documentation

Thanks in advance for your help

This may help: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?124-i-am-getting-a-blank-page-%28or-blank-part-of-a-page%29

TY for that, Frank, will check it out and get back to you in a bit.

Also once you see what is causing the error(s), posted the same here so others with the same setup can learn from the heartache you are having, might want to check out: http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?215694-Known-Bugs-%28and-fixes%29-with-v1-5-4. :)

I'd like to say I found the source of this problem, but no luck. After trying all the troubleshooting links everyone was kind enough to post, and a few others I found as well, with no success, I decided to try installing Zen Cart in Royal OS, a Linux distro based on Ubuntu 12.04. Without even doing all the folder permission setting and other things listed in the tutorials I was able to get past the initial setup screen and into the setup procedure. I can only assume it is a difference in the LInux kernals, PHP versions, etc. between the two distros that is causing the problem, but with no error messages to point me to the cause it seems like a waste of time to expend any more effort trying to track it down. One of the troubleshooting tutorials I found said that there should be a mydebug log somewhere in Zen Cart that would give me a hint as to the problem, but I can't find it anywhere in the Linux file system, so I guess we need to mark this one "Unsolved" and move on. I may get back to it sometime when I have absolutely, positively nothing better to do, but in the meantime I'm going to just let this one go. Thanks for all your help.

PS for clarity, I checked both Zen Cart and the Linux file system for the mydebug log.

AlanMason:

PS for clarity, I checked both Zen Cart and the Linux file system for the mydebug log.

Assuming the error was created after ZC had it's system loaded and the includes/configure.php and admin/includes/configure.php files, respectfully had the correct path, the mydebug file(s) would have been expected at catalog/logs. But as identified... An issue to address at some other point as a functional setup has been created in absence of resolving what caused the issue.

AlanMason:

I am attempting to install the latest Zen Cart (zen-cart-v1.5.4-12302014) on a PC in my office running Ubuntu 14 Mate DE, 32 bit. I have been using Worpress on this machine for some time, so I feel confident that my Apache2 Server, PHP, MySql etc are ok. I downloaded the latest Zen Cart, moved it to /var/www/html/zencart, and followed the directions at http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?147-how-do-i-install-zen-cart regarding permissions, etc. I just got done installing the same downloaded .zip archive of Zen Cart on a WIndows 7 machine, so I don't believe it is a problem with that.

When I go to /localhost/zencart I get the initial screen telling me I need to run the initial installation script, but when I click on link to /zc_install/index.php I get a blank screen.

I know you will probably need more info to help me diagnose this, but in the meantime here is the information on my system from PhpMyAdmin:

Database server

Server: Localhost via UNIX socket
Server type: MySQL
Server version: 5.5.41-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 - (Ubuntu)
Protocol version: 10
User: root@localhost
Server charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)
Web server

Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu)
Database client version: libmysql - 5.5.41
PHP extension: mysqli Documentation

Thanks in advance for your help

Considering your Wordpress installation works ok on your local machine, did you place your zencart files into the same folder, eg /var/www/html or /var/www ?

Would also suggest to place a fresh copy of the zc_install folder into /zencart folder and try again.

Apache does not produce blank pages, Apache gives you error messages, so I think it has something to do with your zc files.

frank18:

Considering your Wordpress installation works ok on your local machine, did you place your zencart files into the same folder, eg /var/www/html or /var/www ?

Would also suggest to place a fresh copy of the zc_install folder into /zencart folder and try again.

Apache does not produce blank pages, Apache gives you error messages, so I think it has something to do with your zc files.

In one of the installations files are in /var/www/html and in the other its just /var/www. This was due to differences in the way the Apache2 server created the file structure when I first installed it.In both cases the Zen Cart files are in the same location as my Wordpress and plain jane HTML website files are that work just fine.

I had the same issue under Ubuntu using two different downloads of Zen Cart, in case there had been an issue with the downloaded source.

I have had cases where a WordPRess installation would give me a blank screen as well. Nearly blank, anyway. When I went to View Page Source in Chrome it would show a single period on the page. It was usually due to a problem with a plugin. With Zen Cart View Page Source showed nothing, not even a period.

I may get back to playing with this at some point in the future, simply for curiosities sake if nothing else, but for now I just want to start getting a handle on Zen Cart so I can set up a store for a client. Thanks again for your help.