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Documentation

Quick Start Instructions

If you are using a Linux or Unix Web server with all required components installed, follow these steps to install Movable Type:

  1. Use a Web browser to connect to the Movable Type Download page and follow instructions there to download the Unix/Linux/Mac OS X (.tar.gz) release file to your personal computer.

  2. Extract the Movable Type files from the release file into a new folder on your local computer. You will need a program that can uncompress and extracts tar files. If you don’t have such a program, you can learn how to get one on the gzip home page, http://www.gzip.org.

  3. Start your FTP program and connect to your Web server using your server login name and password.

  4. Copy the mt-static directory from your local computer to the Web root directory on the Web server.

  5. Open the cgi-bin directory on your Web server. Make a new directory within it named mt. Copy all of the other Movable Type installation folders and files to the mt directory.

  6. Make sure all the Movable Type cgi files (files ending with .cgi) in the mt directory on the Web server have execute permission. You should be able to select these files and check their properties with your FTP program.

  7. Make sure the support directory found within your mt-static directory is writable by your web server.

  8. Start a Web browser and run the installation wizard by connecting to the following Web address: http://domainname/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi where “domainname” is the domain name for your blog.

Follow the instructions provided by the installation wizard, to complete the installation and set up your Movable Type user name, password, and blog name. If you encounter problems during the installation, see Troubleshooting Installation Problems.

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16 Comments

Bruce

Bruce on November 29, 2007, 7:06 p.m. Reply

Hi, I am a newbie at installation. I am almost done the installation but I get at this URL http://www.crablaw.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-upgrade.cgi the Initializing database… Starting installation…

message, but it never stops/finishes. I am not sure it is actually doing anything. Please advise with my thanks to godfreyprofessional AT gmail.com or here. Thank you.

hbvirkle

hbvirkle on December 3, 2007, 9:48 a.m. Reply

This is what I am redirected to when I type in my url… any ideas?

!/usr/bin/perl -w Copyright 2001-2007 Six Apart. This code cannot be redistributed without permission from www.sixapart.com. For more information, consult your Movable Type license.

#

$Id: mt.cgi 44845 2007-01-10 00:59:17Z bchoate $

use strict; use lib $ENV{MTHOME} ? “$ENV{MTHOME}/lib” : ‘lib’; use MT::Bootstrap App => ‘MT::App::CMS’;

wolkenlos

wolkenlos on December 7, 2007, 10:48 a.m. Reply

Hi!

if I try to install a new blog I get following error:

Fehler während Installation: failed to execute statement CREATE INDEX mtassetparent ON mtasset (assetparent): Access denied for user ‘web666’@’localhost’ to database ‘usrweb6661’ at lib/MT/Upgrade.pm line 1829.

hmm? any ideas? sorry for bad english :) the mysql connection work fine… have a lot of installed sevices on the server

regards wolkenlos

rwl3

rwl3 on December 19, 2007, 12:33 p.m. Reply

I just installed mt v4 and I’m getting an invalid login error. I believe my user name and password are correct. My config file concurs. Any suggestions?

dummy

dummy on January 2, 2008, 5:35 a.m. Reply

Hi i get this error message, what is wrong ? Got an error: Class/Accessor.pm did not return a true value at (eval 10) line 3. …propagated at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/base.pm line 85. BEGIN failed—compilation aborted at /home/dummy/public_html/cgi-bin/mt/extlib/Class/Accessor/Fast.pm line 2. Compilation failed in require at (eval 9) line 3. …propagated at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/base.pm line 85. BEGIN failed—compilation aborted at lib/MT/Component.pm line 10. Compilation failed in require at (eval 8) line 3. …propagated at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/base.pm line 85. BEGIN failed—compilation aborted at lib/MT/Core.pm line 5. Compilation failed in require at lib/MT.pm line 954.

p_h

p_h on January 10, 2008, 8:50 p.m. Reply

I am new to MT and getting confused on what files/folders to upload onto which directory. I did follow the instructions on SuperXM until Step 6 (Login to Movable Type). After I clicked on the button, it gave me an error - CGI Error The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers.

Appreciate if someone can guide me through. Thank you.

Dave

Dave on March 24, 2008, 11:27 p.m. Reply

I’m getting the same error as you p_h:

CGI Error The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers.

Not sure what I’m supposed to do here… Anyone have thoughts ideas? I’m on Windows 2003

Mike Pepper

Mike Pepper on June 24, 2008, 4:04 p.m. Reply

What “support” directory? There is no “support” directory in the MT 4.2rc2 distribution. Should there be one?

Don’t see instructions to create it in the “…do first…” page? What am I missing?

Thanks very much

pkhunte

pkhunte on March 18, 2009, 11:28 p.m. Reply

Yeah, great software and website.

(1) It takes me seven clicks to find this bloody documentation page.

(2) When I do, it tells me nothing. I’ve uploaded my CGI files, chmodded the *.cgi files to 755 so they’re executable for sure, but now when I see http://domain.com/mt/mt-check.cgi it gives me a nice “500 Server Error” from the 90s. Well done.

(3) Is there any suggestion in the “Troubleshooting Tips”? Nope. That page is written for people with dementia.

If the darn thing doesn’t work, thanks to this lovely choice of Perl CGI as a technology why release the damn thing?

PS: My CGI is perfectly functional. The Error Log gives no clue. Can’t your seasoned developers try and catch the most obvious errors with Perl’s outdated technology if they absolutely must use this crap?

pkhunte

pkhunte on March 18, 2009, 11:32 p.m. Reply

And btw, where are the installation instructions for MT Pro 4.2 with social network and all that?

gor

gor on May 19, 2009, 7:24 a.m. Reply

pkhunte

(2) When I do, it tells me nothing. I’ve uploaded my CGI files, chmodded the *.cgi files to 755 so they’re executable for sure, but now when I see http://domain.com/mt/mt-check.cgi it gives me a nice “500 Server Error” from the 90s. Well done.

try tailing your error log files, tail -f * “Server Error from the 90’s”??? This is served by your web server config not anything from their software. Why would you want your public web server to report detailed errors available to the public? That’s what the error logs are for.

(3) Is there any suggestion in the “Troubleshooting Tips”? Nope. That page is written for people with dementia. If the darn thing doesn’t work, thanks to this lovely choice of Perl CGI as a technology why release the damn thing? PS: My CGI is perfectly functional. The Error Log gives no clue. Can’t your seasoned developers try and catch the most obvious errors with Perl’s outdated technology if they absolutely must use this crap?

On my install, it took me 9 minutes…

If you’re expecting plug and play, may I suggest a hosting provider like livingdot.com Excellent hosting and they know how to run a web server.

Michael

Michael on July 9, 2009, 1:02 p.m. Reply

First off I love Movabletype..you guys rock. I can’t wait to get it operating properly. I see that movable type allows me to create multiple blogs on different domains all within the same root folder which is very powerful.

My question is about installing on a linux server. I do not have a cgi bin folder and from what I read is that you can install the mt-static server within the root, and just change the .htaaccess or http.conf file.

The documentation you have for the linux instructions say to do this…with the appropriate path…

Options Indexes ExecCGI “

If my path to my movable type files are http://mywebsite.com/htdocs/mt

should I put the following code in my .htaaccess file?

http://mywebsite.com/htdocs/mt Options Indexes ExecCGI

Is there anything else I need to do to the http.conf file as well?

Thanks

gireke

gireke on July 19, 2009, 6:02 p.m. Reply

Hi,

I came so far to make “Welcome to Movable Type..This wizard will help you configure the basic settings needed to run Movable Type” page appear.

But then it goes saying that mt-static could not be found, that I had to move my static files to the directory first or correct the setting if it is incorrect. “This directory has either been renamed or moved to a location outside of the Movable Type directory. Once the mt-static directory is in a web-accessible location, specify the location below.”

Where should mt-static be located?

I have /www folder under my ftp client’s remote site directory, and I placed mt-static under www first. Above page appeared then.

When I tried moving mt-static under first (top) directory, which I thought where it should be, considering its given path (mydomain/mt-static) and the MT-manual instructing to place it “under root server”, then it proved completely wrong.

cgi permissions are all set to 755.

I tried mt-static/support with file attributes set to 222 and 777, neither has helped work it out. Here I also don’t know which is correct, all/which users with only write permission or read also added?

How can I fix the static thing and start MT-installation? thank you very much for all hints!

jsharrow

jsharrow on September 19, 2009, 5:17 a.m. Reply

I’m anxious to get Moveable Type up and running. However, I’m having terrible trouble. First, I was so excited I didn’t follow the instructions properly, I put all the install files in a folder named [mt] on my root server. I was able to log in, but couldn’t get past the location screen. Then I re-read the instructions and I followed the instructions… put cgi files in their own directory in the cgi-bin directory, checked the permissions… made an mt-static folder, put the rest there. Now I’m in worse shape than I was before. Errors all over the place. When I search for documentation I find conflicting instructions (possibly from different release versions) Any-one have any suggestions out there? I’m about to delete everything and start over.

jsharrow

jsharrow on September 19, 2009, 5:22 a.m. Reply

Okay, I see why I did the initial installation the way I did. That’s what it said to do in the READ ME file. I’m going to go back to that for now and see what error I was getting. I think it was the static path that was messing me up.

iis7usr

iis7usr on November 5, 2009, 4:45 p.m. Reply

I am in the “dashboard” - not a clue as what to do, fumbled around made a “Blog” named “Internatonal News” published it ok but, when I go to view it, I am getting

401 - Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials. You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied.

I don’t get this — I set up the IISUsr accounts as per instructions and all that — is there anybody out there that is familiar with setting this up on a IIS7 Web Server 2008 Dedicated Server? Please help, thanks.

And I suppose if I can ever get to view a blog, are there any “pre-made” web templates to purchase or use? I really don’t want to spend a whole bunch of time designing a web site…

Thanks