The Movable Type installation wizard checks for dependencies and sets up your system configuration and thus prevents most potential installation problems. This section describes some problems that still can occur with installation.

If you encounter problems that are not covered in this guide, check the Movable Type Knowledge Base Installation section for help. If you don't find a solution in the Installation section, you can also search the Knowledge Base.

Error 500 - Internal Server Error

This error appears in your Web browser when the Movable Type installation wizard (or any Perl script) fails to execute. Check the following:

• Use your FTP program to display the extracted Movable Type files on your local computer and the files on your Web server. Make sure that all of the files were copied.

• Check that your FTP program is set up to copy files in ASCII mode. If not, set it to use ASCII mode and re-copy the Movable Type files.

• Make sure that all of the .cgi files in the mt directory (within your server's cgi-bin directory) have read and execute permission.

• Check that the version of Perl on your server is 5.004_4 or higher. If not, download and install a newer version.

• Open the mt.cgi file and check that the path to Perl is correct for your server on the first line of the script. If not, you need to either correct this line in each of the Movable Type .cgi files or (if you have privileges to do so) make a symbolic link that maps the actual Perl directory to the one named in the Movable Type .cgi files. In a shell, enter:

ln -s actual-path-to-perl path-in-MT-cgi-files

where "actual-path-to-perl" is the path to the directory where Perl is installed on your server and "path-in-MT-cgi-files" is the directory where the Movable Type files are looking for Perl.

• If your hosting provider is GoDaddy, you will have to edit the path in each of the files. GoDaddy's hosting software resets the cgi-bin directory.

• If you are using a Windows server, check that you correctly configured IIS to recognize .cgi files as Perl scripts. See the instructions in Configuring IIS to Use ActivePerl.

The mt-static Directory Is Not Found or Inaccessible

The mt-static directory contains files that must be stored outside the cgi-bin directory. For more details, see Select and Configure an Installation Directory.

If you put the mt-static directory in your server's Web root, you can enter /mt-static as the path.

If mt-static is in a different location, enter the path to the location of the mt-static directory in the following format: http://domain-name/path/mt-static where "domain-name" is the domain name of your Web server and path is the full path to the directory in which you stored mt-static.

Test Connection to Database Fails

If the installation wizard tests the database and fails to connect, check the following and then re-try:

• Make sure you entered the basic settings correctly on the Database Configuration page.

• If your database is configured to use a nonstandard port or socket, click Show Advanced Configuration Options on the Database Configuration page and enter the appropriate settings.

• Check that the user you created to allow Movable Type access to the database has full privileges to create and modify tables in the database. For instructions, see Creating the Movable Type Database. System Administrators are often reluctant to allow this level of access, and might not give it if you do not ask for it specifically.

Permission Denied When Writing mt-config.cgi File

The Web server must have write access to the mt directory.

On must UNIX/Linux systems there is a group to which the Web server user belongs. Typically it is named apache or www. Learn how the Web server user is set up for your system and make sure that it has write access to the mt directory.

Images and Styles Are Missing

If you are able to run Movable Type, but images and styles appear to be missing, there was probably a problem in upgrading from a previous version. Movable Type is using an outdated mt-static directory.

1. Determine where you installed the mt-static directory for the current release or re-install it from the distribution files. See Select and Configure an Installation Directory.

2. Edit the Movable Type configuration file directly to correct the path. Open the file mt-config.cgi file with a text editor and change the following line so that it references the correct path:

StaticWebPath http://domain-name/path/mt-static

where "domain-name" is the domain name of your Web server and path is the full path to the directory in which you stored mt-static.

1. Save your changes and re-start Movable Type.