[Koha-win32] One person's experience with W32 install

Fri Oct 25 21:48:20 CEST 2002

Greetings:

I am forwaring in this email a number of exchanges I've had with one person who was brave enough to try the W32 Koha install. He has it up and running, but is getting errors on some pages and cannot access others. Could a couple of you more experienced Koha users take a look at the last email or two and tell us if what he is seeing is characteristic of V1.2.3RC14? I know that is a beta release and has some bugs in it.

Would I be better to use V1.2.2 for testing on windows?

Thanks for your help! I'll be away for the weekend, so won't be repsponding to emails until Monday.

Rob 

----- Original Message -----
From: "nicanor pacaide jr" <nicans at yahoo.com
To: <robweir at alum.drexel.edu
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 4:09 AM
Subject: koha win32 up and running on local network

Hi Rob,

The second try was very smooth and koha is up and running on win98SE. Other networks on the intranet can now  access the sample database. I still have a few question. Is the current installation of koha for win32  complete? Because it only opens KOHA SEARCH CATALOG. I cannot fine the aquisition, circulation and other  modules on koha library system; but the koha search page works well.

Thanks for any help.

nic

--- robweir at alum.drexel.edu wrote:
From: <robweir at alum.drexel.edu
To: "nicanor pacaide jr" <nicans at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: koha win32 up and running on local
network
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 07:41:16 -0500

Hi Nic,

Glad to hear you got it running. All the modules are there. Koha has two user interfaces - 'opac' for clients  searching for books and 'intranet' for the library staff doing all the other functions. You have connected to  the opac interface.

The install that you ran creates two Apache virtual directories - one named simply 'opac' and the other named  'intranet'. The configuration for these virtual directories is at the very end of the Apache config file called  httpd. conf that you can find in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf. Normally, virtual directories  would have names like www.mycompany.com and would make use of name resolution provided by your network domain controller, but to keep things simple on my stand-alone test machine, I named them simply 'opac' and  'intranet'. The install then makes an entry in the lmhosts file in C:\Windows on Windows 98 or in the hosts  file in C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc on WinNT or W2000 machines to refer both 'opac' and 'intranet' back to  127.0.0.1, the IP address of your local machine. On my test workstation, I can type simply opac on the address  line of my browser to access the opac interface or I can type intranet to access the librarian/intranet  interface. I think the virtual directories are set up so if you type 'localhost' or the local IP address, it  defaults to the opac interface. My goal was to have something people could test on a single machine without  getting involved with DNS name resolution, etc.

Have you tried 'intranet' as the url in your browser? Of course, to use Koha on the network, you'll need to do  some reading on how to set up Apache virtual directories and change the virtual directory setup in httpd. conf to work correctly on your network. But first, see if you can get everything working on the machine you installed on.

Hope this helps.

Rob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nicanor pacaide jr" <nicans at yahoo.com>
To: <robweir at alum.drexel.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 8:55 PM
Subject: opac intranet does'nt work

Hi Rob,

> The installthen makes an entry in
> the lmhosts file in C:\Windows on Windows 98 or in
> the hosts file in
> C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc on WinNT or W2000
> machines to refer both
> 'opac' and 'intranet' back to 127.0.0.1, the IP
> address of your local machine. 

i already try to change the hosts in my windows
directory like 
192.168.2.68    opac
192.168.2.68    intranet

when i enter opac or intranet on the address bar it
will go to this site

http://at.netster.com/Index.asp?Site=aW50cmFuZXQ%3D

even
127.0.0.1      opac
127.0.0.1      intranet

same result as above

i already try to change the virtual hosts default from
opac to intranet it works but still i have to type the
ip address of my machine.

if i type opac or intranet on the address bar it
doesnt work, i have to type the ip address b4 it
display.

thanks for any help.

nic

Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 23:27:01 -0500
X-Priority: 3
To: nicans at yahoo.com
Subject: re: opac intranet does'nt work

Nic:

The problem you're describing is related to the Apache web server, not to Koha. Honestly, I don't know the best  way to help you. The problem is name resolution. Your browser is going out to the DNS server on the internet  and asking it to resolve the url and it doesn't know anything about opac or intranet. Some how it needs to look locally first. 

Are you behind a proxy server? You could try setting your browser options to "bypass proxy server for local addresses". Are you on a LAN with a domain controller? You could ask your MIS person to add DNS records to the DNS server for Koha. Or there are serveral other ways to set up Apache virtual directories using names, IP  addresses, or ports. I have the install I gave you working stand alone on a W98 machine, a W2000 machine, and a  WinNT machine, so I think all the Koha files are ok where they are. You need to play with the Apache  configuration or Windows name resolution to get it working.

There are a bunch of Apache documents installed on your machine probably in C:\Program Files\Apache\Apache2\Manual. However a lot of them have a language suffix attached. If you want to use english,  rename all the .html.en files to .html files and then start with index.html. Look at the sections in the manual  for "Virtual Hosts" and "Mapping URL's to the Filesystem". Also look at dns-caveats.html in the same manual  folder.

There is a manual for Koha at http://koha.org/manual/t20.html that has some information on configuring Apache.

If that doesn't help, try some research on the internet. I tried searching Google groups for "apache windows  dns" and it came up with a good bit on what you are describing. The Apache website might have more information  or there may be other websites if you search.

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. Maybe you can figure out this part of the project, or I can post these  emails to the koha-w32 list tomorrow and see if someone else can help us. 

Rob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nicanor pacaide jr" <nicans at yahoo.com>
To: <robweir at alum.drexel.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 11:46 PM
Subject: it's working

> Hi Rob,
> 
> i hope i'm not waking you up. i have good news for
> you. i can now access opac and intranet by typing opac
> and intranet on the address bar. i just check type
> "bypass proxy for local address" on the setting and
> it's up and running. but i notice that the icons on
> the koha intranet main page are not displayed. what's
> wrong with this?
> 
> thanks for any help.
> 
> nic

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nicanor pacaide jr" <nicans at yahoo.com>
To: <robweir at alum.drexel.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 5:32 AM
Subject: page error

> Rob,
> 
> good morning!
> 
> i successfully configure koha on the network by just
> typing the opac and intranet on the address bar. it
> can also be access by other computers on the network
> by just typing opac and intranet in the address bar.
> but still i have problems encountered, like. the java
> scripts do not display on the intranet mainpage. the
> acquisition, parameters, accounts and reports and
> other menu option as well as the koha image.
> 
> even if i access it on the localhost it doesn't
> display. and some of the link page have error, like in
> the parameters and in the catalogue. the error mesg.
> goes like this..."Problems with this webpage might
> prevent it from being displayed properly or
> functioning properly. " and when i click on details it
> displays:
> line: 30
> Char: 5
> Error: 'Document.forms.0.elements' is not an object
> URL: http://intranet/cgi-bin/koha/catalogue-home.pl
> 
> thanks for any help.
> 
> nic

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nicanor pacaide jr" <nicans at yahoo.com>
To: <robweir at alum.drexel.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 10:42 PM
Subject: display not the same as test page

> Hi Rob,
> 
> I was able to fix the problem on the images not
> displayed on the webpage. The problems that bother me
> right now is webpage error on the catalogue link:
> 
> line: 30
> char: 5
> Error: 'Document.form.0.elements' is not an object
> URL: http://intranet/cgi-bin/koha/catalogue-home.pl
> 
> aside from circulation, aquisition, opac and library
> website link the other links displays only the menu
> (catalogue, members, acquisitions, reports...) not the
> same display as the test drive of koha website.
> 
> thanks for any help.
> 
> nic