Can't install Wordpress.org on php 7

[steven]

I created some instructions for creating php error log files.

[Paul Barrett]

Thank you Steve. I used these instructions to set up an error log.

This is where it gets weird. Next time around, with the error log ready to capture the error, installation sailed through, no error, no WSOD.

So the error would appear to have been that there was no error log in which to capture the fact that there was no error. Except that there are entries in the log:

[18-Oct-2018 23:03:48 Europe/Dublin] PHP Warning: PHP Startup: No such handler: DBA_DEFAULT in Unknown on line 0
[18-Oct-2018 22:04:47 UTC] WordPress database error Unknown column 'wp7test_' in 'field list' for query SELECT wp7test_

The first entry is a warning not a fatal error so perhaps that is why I had the problem. It may only have been a warning, but with no log file to write it to, it stopped the installation process.

As for the second entry, NFI

[steven]

[18-Oct-2018 23:03:48 Europe/Dublin] PHP Warning: PHP Startup: No such handler: DBA_DEFAULT in Unknown on line 0

Was this error in the php 5.6 or php 7.0 log? In any case this appears to be a database error. Once you determine which version of php caused the error, run phpinfo() and make sure the MySQL database is enabled. Alternately, you can use phpMyAdmin to confirm MySQL is enabled.

Two more things to check. Goto Web Station and select php settings. Scroll down to DBA and uncheck the box. Do this for each version of php. If you are using php 5.6, select core and scroll down to always_populate_raw_post-data and try setting the value to -1.

[18-Oct-2018 22:04:47 UTC] WordPress database error Unknown column 'wp7test_' in 'field list' for query SELECT wp7test_

Apparently either you have a wp7test column in your database or are trying to run a query on wp7test. In any case WordPress does not have this column that I know of. Use phpMyAdmin to check the columns in your database. If it does not exist, manually clear the log and start WordPress, check the log after each action to see when and what causes the errors to appear.

[Paul Barrett]

This was all in php7