Having the worst time installing ZC (old PHP version) Error 500-Internal Server Error

I've downloaded everything, created a new store directory on my site, and FTPd everything as directed. I go to my site/store directory/zc_install. I get a welcome screen, and I click Continue. I get the GNU license screen; I agree and continue. The next thing I see is this:

Error 500 - Internal Server Error

An error was encountered while processing your request. Typically this is a temporary condition. Please contact the web site owner for further assistance.

Got any idea what happened?

Thanks.

Who are you hosted with

InMotion. Does that make a difference?

What version of PHP? Output from phpinfo()? Any Zen Cart debug logs?

The following articles on InMotion Hosting will be useful to help you track down the error: How to view error logs via cPanel and How to Display and Log PHP Errors.

If you need / want help interpreting the error information, you can post the messages here (wrap with code tags - the # in the editor - EX: ```
[CODE]content of error messages[/CODE]

PHP version 5.4.45
phpinfo()? Don't know what that is; help!
No logs; at least I do know how to check that
Display and log PHP errors requires that I find php.ini, which I can't seem to do. Any idea where it should be?

Thanks

pegburke4:

... No logs; at least I do know how to check that ...
So no Zen Cart debug logs and no cPanel error logs?

pegburke4:

... Display and log PHP errors requires that I find php.ini, which I can't seem to do. Any idea where it should be? ...
On shared "business" hosting with InMotion Hosting it is usually in the public_html folder by default (unless it was accidentally deleted).

The output from phpinfo should tell us (among many other things) if any error logging is enabled in PHP (sometimes this is already enabled). InMotion Hosting often sets it to "error_log" by default, which will output a file with this name in the folder where PHP is running (so in your case the "/zc_install" folder).

Found the problem. The PHP version panel told me was running turned out, on further inspection, to not be the version it had claimed. That's fixed, and my install is going okay.

pegburke4:

Found the problem. The PHP version panel told me was running turned out, on further inspection, to not be the version it had claimed. That's fixed, and my install is going okay.
Yup, happens sometimes. Why you will see many of us ask for the output from phpinfo() :-)

If you had cPanel configured to use the "default" version of PHP... I've seen it sometimes report the wrong version as the default before (was after a hosting providers server upgrade - setting to a specific version solved)... I've also seen a really rare case where an override was added to a .htaccess file (cPanel reported one PHP version for the account, the .htaccess changed the PHP version to a different version for the containing folder and children).

Welcome to the Zen Cart community! Thank You for reporting the your solution.

lhungil:

Yup, happens sometimes. Why you will see many of us ask for the output from phpinfo() :-)

If you had cPanel configured to use the "default" version of PHP... I've seen it sometimes report the wrong version as the default before (was after a hosting providers server upgrade - setting to a specific version solved)... I've also seen a really rare case where an override was added to a .htaccess file (cPanel reported one PHP version for the account, the .htaccess changed the PHP version to a different version for the containing folder and children).

Welcome to the Zen Cart community! Thank You for reporting the your solution.

sames issue, even after setting php to 5.6

pegburke4:

InMotion. Does that make a difference?

This appears to be a problem with InMotion.

A few months ago I did an upgrade for a client, v1.3.9 > v1.5.4 on InMotion. I continuously had the dreaded 500 error. Tried this and that and that again, to no avail. At the end I had to resort to using Softaculous, something I hate doing at the best of times. Then I overwrote all files bar the 2 configure.php files with the locally prepared ZC 1.5.4 install, changed the PHP version on the server to 5.5 and bingo, that store was up and running.

Believe me: it turned my grey hair black and grey and again...

Hope this helps.