Well, as reported previously (see last post crying about this), getting apache, php, python etc up and running on an intranet server has turned into a whole world of problems.

Currently, the problems getting the webserver to talk to python have proven to be insurmountable and I have decided to give up on that. Now the system has been “upgraded” to apache 2.2 and I will try again with Mod_Python when the 3.3 version is out (which claims it can work with apache 2.2!).

Next on the hit list was Cold Fusion. Following the unmitigated sucess getting Ubuntu 6.06 running on one of the linux boxes, I suspect there was the “air” of determined optimisim :). Sadly, things rarely turn out so well. Since the previous problems getting this nightmare bit of software running, repeated google searches had produced some possbile helpfull links:

• http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/ index.cfm?id=tn_18675
• http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/ index.cfm?id=tn_19575
• http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/ forum/ messageview.cfm?catid=2&threadid=1157424&enterthread=y
• http://livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/7/ htmldocs/00000049.htm

Sadly, as with the python debacle, there is a lack of actual help on the net. The URL adobe techhelp point to still isnt working. Generally speaking the Macromedia Livedocs run rings round the Adobe “help” pages (which surely should be taken to court for false advertising!).

Anyway, this is the offending line which the CF Installer adds to httpd.conf

LoadModule jrun_module “Z:/CFusionMX7/runtime/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun20.so”

Now, I have checked and the mod_jrun20.so is where the path implies it should be. The installer thinks everything is working and nothing I can do shows any errors. However when httpd.exe is run this is the error message:

Cannot load Z:/CFusionMX7/runtime/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun20.so into server: The specified procedure could not be found.

The madness continues. It appears that nothing I have changed (after masses of manual tweaks) is improving anything at all. It is genuinely insane. This is a demo version. The idea is, that I try this Cold Fusion out, if I like it I buy it. Or better still, if I like it, I buy it and I program in it – causing other server owners to buy it as well. Sadly, given the amount of effort it is taking to install I very much doubt this will ever be the case. I could understand if this was some backstreet coder’s work but this is a major product shipped by a major software company. It should be able to work. Seriously. If I bought a car and when I got it home I had to rewire the electrics for four days to get it to function I would not be keeping it!

Still, the goal is to get it working – not complain about how bad it is (and it is bad). Commenting out the LoadModule line in httpd.conf, gets the webserver (Apache) started – but when you browse to a *.cfm page it tries to make you download this weird thing. Blatantly things arent working.

This quote comes from one of the links listed above: (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/ knowledgebase/ index.cfm?id=tn_19575)

Macromedia ColdFusion MX comes with a webserver configuration tool for connecting to external web servers. There may be occasions, however, when the tool doesn’t work properly. Should this happen, the connector can still be configured manually. This TechNote demonstrates the steps required for manually configuring connections to Apache 2, IIS and iPlanet websites.

As you can see, even Adobe – Macromedia appreciate that this software of theirs is not working properly. The next stage of my master plan was to follow the advice given on this page.

Now step 1 went fine. Step 2 was a bit pointless (there folder it wants is already there, no point creating it!)

Steps three and four seemed very critical, as the apparently important file it was talking about was not there. (wsconfig.properties and jrunserver.store). I was going to extract the mod_jrun20.so from the JAR file but the one there was the same size as the current but an hour older. As it stands, I left the current one (which was extracted by the system) to see how it went. The changes to httpd.conf were already in place, so I left them.

Well then came the time to try and start apache!

Nothing.

Exact same problem. I extracted the mod_jrun20.so from the JAR as requested, but still nothing. There is the hint, at the bottom of the page that another article may help (and points to the article) but that is nothing other than a copy of this one (or vice versa).

Still “The specified procedure can not be found.”

Does anyone have an answer to this?