17 May 2010, 14:14

Hello Mahara Friends:

I am having trouble installing Mahara 1.2 on an X-Serve running Mac OS 10.6 Server. Specifically I cannot get past the following error:

“Mahara: Site unavailable
Your server configuration of the gd extension does not include Freetype support. Mahara requires this to in order to build CAPTCHA images. Please make sure that gd is configured with it.”

I am running Apache 2.2, PHP 5.3 with the entropy extensions, I have been to dozens of web sites and tried to install gd  with Freetype extension 2.3.12. I have gd support enabled and and libJPEG Version 6b running.

I am successfully running Mahara 1.2 on another Mac mini running Mac Server 10.5, but cannot seem to get it going on the 10.6 servers.

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get Freetype installed on this server.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

David

20 May 2010, 1:43

I had all sorts of trouble trying to get Freetype installed on a Linux machine once, and for the Mahara installation I had planned there, I decided I could do without CAPTCHA (registration switched off).

Sorry, I can't help you get Freetype installed, but I can tell you how to disable the Freetype checking during installation...

Comment out the following lines in /lib/mahara.php

//Check for freetype in the gd extension
    //$gd_info = gd_info();
    //if (!$gd_info['FreeType Support']) {
    //    throw new ConfigSanityException(get_string('gdfreetypenotloaded', 'error'));
    //}

Of course, this may not suit your needs, but it will get your Mahara installed.

21 May 2010, 13:05

Thanks Steve for your reply...greatly appreciated. Disabled the Freetype checking in the /lib/mahara.php as you suggested and everything started up just fine.

I will keep working on solving the Freetype issue and post here if I figure it out, but in the meantime, at least we're up and running. Thanks again!

11 June 2010, 0:12

Hi there! I disabled the Freetype as you suggested but now new users can't register.  I've tried for many hours to install Freetype on the Mac Server. Please let me know if there's a way to turn off the Captcha option (or else, to install Freetype). Thanks!

13 June 2010, 16:17

Ray - the captcha can be disabled in the admin area (site options) from 1.2.  Before that it could be done in config.php.

29 July 2010, 9:14

Richard,

can you let me know how i can disable captcha from admin. i am unable to login my application.

do let me know the page where i can comments

29 July 2010, 19:06

In 1.2 you should try putting

 $cfg->captchaonregisterform = false;

in your config.php.

However I think it's probably better to enable gd with freetype support.  I believe some features of 1.3 will require this even though the captcha is being removed.

19 February 2011, 8:40

Hi. I have just started using Mahara and am very excited about its potential in my teaching. I would appreciate if someone could give me a hint about Freetype extension.

     Mahara 1.3

     Mac OS X 10.6

--------------------

When I checked, Freetype extension was not listed as a requirement for Mahara as follows.

http://wiki.mahara.org/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Requirements#PHP

Do I need it for Mahara 1.3? If I do, how do I know that it is working for Mahara? My info.php tells me that I have enabled Freetype, yet Mahara says no.

If I do not need it, can I just comment out as it says below?

Comment out the following lines in /lib/mahara.php

-----------------------

//Check for freetype in the gd extension
    //$gd_info = gd_info();
    //if (!$gd_info['FreeType Support']) {
    //    throw new ConfigSanityException(get_string('gdfreetypenotloaded', 'error'));
    //}

http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=1839

-------------------------

I would really appreciate anybody's help.

20 February 2011, 4:46

Hello,

As Richard said in a previous message, it is better to have freetype working because some of mahara routines may use it.

Personnaly I use MAMP (http://www.mamp.info/en/downloads/index.html) on my MacOsX 10.6 MacBook Pro for local use and demonstration. MAMP include freetype support.

You can also install Apache and PHP from scratch on your MacOSX using the installers provided by Mac Lynage on (http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/).

-dajan

20 February 2011, 7:48

Dajan,

Thank you for your comment. It seems that I do have Freetype installed. When I access my phpinfo.php, it says FreeType Support is enabled. Yet there is a warning in cron.log that my server configuration of the gd extension does not include Freetype support.

---------------------
Your server configuration of the gd extension does not include Freetype support.
----------------------

I also commented out the following lines in /lib/mahara.php just to see if that would quiet the warning, but it did not.

-----------------------
//Check for freetype in the gd extension
    //$gd_info = gd_info();
    //if (!$gd_info['FreeType Support']) {
    //    throw new ConfigSanityException(get_string('gdfreetypenotloaded', 'error'));
    //}
-------------------------

> You can also install Apache and PHP from scratch on your MacOSX using > the installers provided by Mac Lynage on (http://www.entropy.ch/
> software/macosx/).

Yes, I have been using Marc Liyanage’s PHP for some time. That is great, but I have just decided to give it a shot to the following. And it works great  for Moodle.

XAMPP for Mac OS X 1.7.3 & Moodle

I do not have a big problem with Mahara except for the ever-increasing cron.log because it adds the warning about FreeType extension not loaded while it is loaded. Everything else seems to be working as far as I could tell.

I would appreciate any other suggestions.