Bad install - Fatal Errors

[niblem]

Hello everyone and support personnel.
I realize this has probably been beat into the ground millions of times but I am absolutely stuck and frustrated.

I have installed SMF 1.1 RC2 on my web server.  I then tried to install TP using the packages manager.  At first this worked just fine and everything was great until I realize small errors on the page such as no forum button on top bar, only text saying "forum index" and etc.  Also, when I had "go directly to forum index" checked, nothing showed on the frontpage except the news post.  I was using BABYLON theme and thought that this may be the problem or I may have searched/replace the code wrong in the 5 files you must edit.

Anyways, 10 hours later I am getting fatal errors and I can no longer install TP with package manager (once I click apply mod, the internet freezes and will not progress in Firefox OR IE6)  I get page will not display.

I have searched these forums multiple times but cannot find an exact fix for my issues and have tried many things.  If anyone has advice please send it my way.  Thanks so much.

[IchBin]

So, just to make sure I'm straight on what you've done.... You have installed TP? Is it working on the default theme? If its working on the default theme its as simple as adding the required code to the babylon theme. However, if its not working in the default theme your installation is not finished. If you can't run it through the package manager and get it working, you will have to try the manual install route.

[niblem]

I originally had TP installed just fine.  I have since uninstalled it to try and fix the errors I was getting (forum index text instead of button, forums wouldn't display on frontpage).  Now, when I have the default theme on, I goto package manager > upload TP > apply mod = nothing.  The browser locks up and Firefox wants me to open "index.php" and IE6 says page cannot be displayed.  I had no issues with package manager when it worked at first.

I am afraid that I may have corrupted some of the default files (such as the 5 that you have to modify)

I have not tried the manual install yet either.

On a side note, when on default theme, when I try to enter admin password it says

Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again.

But it will not let me log out.  Im at a lose of what to do.

[G6Cad]

At this point i suggest you install a fresh copy of SMF and then go for TP again.
TP will only work on the default theme of SMF until you have added the code needed for the other themes that come with SMF 1.1rc2

And if you dont want to go with a fresh install, you can download the same package of SMF that you installed, upload and overwrite the existing ones so you get fresh files, then download repair_settings.php from SMF forums download section, upload it to your forum root and point your browser to the file.
That will make the DB connect to your SMF forum setup again.
Then you eather go with manuall install pakage of TP, upload all the files from the manual install pakage, read the text file in the package on what code you need to add manually to what files in SMF. then run the install_tp.php from your browser.
It will say that you have existing tables, so it will only repair the tales if nessesary and connect TP to your DB.

[niblem]

That sounds like a great idea G6, but will I lose my current forum setup/settings/posts I already have with that method?

I have made a backup of the forums using the backup utility in the admin panel, how would I go about upload that zip file I already created via the backup utility?

[G6Cad]

If you just replace the files with new ones and then run the repair_settings.php you will not loose any content
The DB will stay as is.
Same with TP, replase the files and then run the install_tp.php and it will just "connect" the files ans actions to the DB, it will say that you have the tables there, but it will not replace it.

[anunlike]

If you just replace the files with new ones and then run the repair_settings.php you will not loose any content
The DB will stay as is.
Same with TP, replase the files and then run the install_tp.php and it will just "connect" the files ans actions to the DB, it will say that you have the tables there, but it will not replace it.

Yep, as long as you only change these files, you will not lose any information in the database. It will not be touched by reuploading the SMF / TP files.

[niblem]

I uploaded the SMF 1.1 RC2 files into my /forum directory via FTP and then placed repair_settings.php into the /forum directory.

When I open this page I get..

Some settings are not being shown because the MySQL connection information is incorrect.

But, when I change this info in repair_settings it will not let me click "save settings" because...

Settings.php cannot be written to by your webserver. Please modify the permissions on this file to allow write access.

I'm not sure what to do here, I never had to chmod settings.php before..

[IchBin]

Did you try? Open your ftp and right click on the Settings.php file and chmod it to 777 until you are done. Then chmod it back to 666.

[niblem]

Ok, I have chmod'd it and everything looks good so far.

Now, lets say I want to use a different theme besides the default, all I have to do is edit the index.template.php file to what tp_modifications.txt recommends?  Or can I just replace the theme's index.template.php with the one in default theme?

(Theme in question is Aero79)