Unmemorable Memories

Although the name reminds me of a teletubby character, this web application is not a baby’s toy. It is one powerful Content Management System.

Installation and configuration is a breeze. However, once installed, there are multifarious settings and configuration options that one has to learn.

Once I figured out how to enable the features I needed (file upload, image upload, permissions, categories, etc…) I ran across a number of issues:
1. Apache web server hanging (this only happened on a RedHat 7.2 system; Debian woody systems did not experience this hang
2. Occasional php memory allocation error indicating an out of memory condition
3. Files larger than 2 MB could not be uploaded.

Cursory investigation of the first issue shows that apache is going into a deadlock with some semaphor operations. That is not something I can fix without getting my hands dirty in the linux kernel, so I simply moved my testing from the RedHat 7.2 system to a Debian woody system.

While A search in the TikiWiki site lead me to a document which explains that the problem is not in TikiWiki, but in PHP. The document gives hints on how to modify the PHP configuration (in php.ini) to allow larger file uploads.

While perusing the php.ini file, I found settings for maximum php memory size, which incidentally was the same number that the memory allocation error indicated. Modifying this value eliminated problem #2.

-- Posted in Journal, Geeks Paradise