[Xitami] PHP - install issue and solution

[Thomas J. Hruska]

At 03:14 PM 1/11/2002 -0800, Warren 'Llama' Ernst writeth:
>All,
>
>I just installed PHP 4.1.0 on my Xitami box, and I was getting the same
>errors as the previous posters of this thread had mentioned: some error
>message in the browser window about not being able to find the executable.
>
>Well, I found a solution that may be of help. When I tried to run a sample
>script at the command line, I got an error dialog box which said it was
>unable to locate obdc32.dll. I checked around for this file on another
>machine, found it, copied it over to c:\windows\system (this is a win98 box)
>and tried the sample script again. Now it complained about missing another
>DLL (its name escapes me right now.) I also copied it over and tried the
>sample script one more time.
>
>Bingo!

Not 'Bingo'...doing that can cause *serious* problems and possibly even
destroy a working OS (even Linux can't stand up to changes like that if not
done properly and will crash if such changes are made foolishly).

The correct way to get the odbc32.dll (and other related drivers) onto your
system is to go to <http://www.microsoft.com/odbc/> and download the latest
ODBC drivers from there.  Be sure to update your Jet drivers (which you
probably don't have installed since ODBC isn't installed) as well in case
you ever do anything with databases.

Only in rare (and I mean *REALLY* rare) circumstances is copying DLLs a
good idea.  Most DLLs and applications need to be registered with the OS
via the registry.  Copying files over doesn't add the needed entries to the
registry and if you attempt to use any of the ODBC functions in PHP, PHP
will probably crash or will return garbage (and if it crashes, the system
will probably become unstable).

I highly recommend installing ODBC correctly to help keep your system stable.

Hope this helps!


           Thomas J. Hruska -- shinelight@crosswinds.net
Shining Light Productions -- "Meeting the needs of fellow programmers"
                  http://www.shininglightpro.com/