Installer starts over after asking super user details

Hi!

I’m trying to install Matomo 3.14.1 on a server running Nginx 1.18.0, PHP 7.4 and MariaDB 10.5.6.

I have all the required PHP modules installed, database configured, and the Matomo installer checks go through just fine.

But after I enter the super user details, the installer just jumps back to the Welcome page and starts over. No errors are recorded in Nginx or PHP error logs. I’ve tried using several different browsers too.

Any ideas of what could be causing this and how to fix it?

The same happens with Matomo version 4.0.0-rc6.

Tried downgrading to PHP version 7.3 – no change, still the installer jumps back to Welcome after I’ve entered the super user details.

I was able to overcome the problem by calling the installer function firstWebsiteSetup and then inserting the missing super user data to the database manually.

Still, it would be interesting to know, what’s causing this issue.

Hi,

The installer is only shown when the config/config.ini.php does not exist. So I assume that somehow at the end of the setup this file could not be created. Is there some issue with file permissions maybe?

The permissions are fine. And the jump back to the beginning happens before the installer has asked the web site related questions, immediately after entering the super user login and password.

Hi,

Same issue on a Freebsd server.

1 - Diagnostic

Just after SQL tables creation, I edited the file config/config.ini.php and added the following :

[log]
log_writers[] = "file"
log_level = "DEBUG"

Then, I follow the installation process until the input of super user logins/password form, and the error bringing us back to the initial step.

Then I’ve checked the logs :

ERROR Piwik\FrontController[2021-03-21 12:23:39 UTC] [41909] Uncaught exception: Error: Call to undefined function Piwik\filter_var() in /usr/local/www/XXXXX/stats/core/Piwik.php:683

2 - Solution

Install missing package :

pkg install php80-filter
service php-fpm restart

Problem solved.

Reported here :

1 Like