04 December 2010, 5:23

I am using a shared hosting server and have tried to create a MySQL database for my mahara install. I have checked the character set and it is set UTF8_unicode_ci(utf8).

When I try to run the web installer it tells me i am not using a utf-8 database.

My current host does not support postgres and I'm reluctant to spend more on hosting that does.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Paul.

17 December 2010, 18:38

Hi Paul,

I had the same problem, I had to edit the following line of my config.php file

$cfg->dbtype   = 'postgres8';

to

$cfg->dbtype   = 'mysql5';

I then hit a brick wall, because my host didn't support InnoDB, which is a must for a Mahara installation, so I was forced to swap hosting company. 

Hope that helps,

Paul C

19 December 2010, 2:00

Hi Paul

I gave up on trying to get the system to work on MySQL as so many people said  that even if I got it to work locally there may not be a stable system when hosted on shared hosting.

I ended up buying some (reasonably) cheap hosting from siteground.com who provide native support for Postgres8 and MySQL. Their support while using was excellent and the technician even read the install docs (I hadn't asked her to) and said "áre you sure you want to buy because Mahara docs don't recommend using shared hosting?". That sort of honesty impresed me.

I had a first attempt that failed but I deleted everything and second attempt went smoothly. Now runnng fine.

Paul