Install WordPress from WordPress.org on Synology

[steven]

Do not change phpMyAdmin permissions. Exposing that program to the WAN is a bad idea that would temp any would be hacker. When trouble-shooting errors set php to display errors. Once you have everything working, you can turn it off again. To enable this feature simply check the "Enable display_errors to display PHP error message" box in the General Settings of the php profile settings. If a folder or file does not have correct RW permissions, PHP will display the error immediately on your screen.

As mentioned earlier if you use File Station to create folders inside the web folder, permissions are set automatically.

[wobble]

I've now changed my firewall router. Although the previous one seemed to work as I mentioned some 'experts' seemed to think it was unreliable. So I now have port forwarding which seem to work consistently.

After several attempts, which seemed to have timout problems I've dropped and recreated the database and made a new install initiated by www.mydomainname.com/wordpressdirectory/.

This all progressed fine - the collection of DB information, creation of WP-Config file, the input of information for the '5 minute install'. After hitting the button to start this process there was a lot of disk activity, but quite soon - after a minute or so and before the disk activity ended ended there was a message 'this site can't be reached nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn's server IP (external) address could not be found'.

Have you known such a problem? It seems different from the 504 messages I had previously which I guessed might relate to database problems.

Now typing www.mydomain.com reaches the 'hello world' sample website with the help of your index.php in the /web directory, but with www.mydomain.com/wp-admin gives me a 404 page not found. No sign of the dashboard!

[steven]

Was nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn a local or WAN address? Additionally unless you are using a virtual host, "www.mydomain.com/wp-admin" will throw an error because wp-admin is not in the web folder.

The database, in itself, does not have anything to do with web access. However, entries in database tables can control access if the program is written to do so.

WordPress has two URLs that must be set correctly. The first is the WordPress Address (URL) which contains the path to WordPress. The second is the Site Address (URL) which points to the root of your website. If you are not using a virtual host, the domain name URL will automatically load the index file in the root or web folder. So, if WordPress is located in a sub-folder, the URLs will need to be different. The 504 timeout indicates there is a problem with the URL path so it searches the current folder and when the target is not found, a timeout occurs.

Other than that it appears there is either an incorrect IP address or permissions are still not correct. This assumes you have php setup and it is working. Anything in the web folder that you want to access from the internet must have the http user assigned with read/write permissions.

[wobble]

This has been a long and tiresome journey, but I think I finally reached the root of the problem and I've started familiarising myself with the dashboard and Wordpress functions again.

As you mentioned it seems difficult to get good help for Synology servers and I appreciate your input.

The actual problem I believe was with the Synology DNS setting. It was set to auto, but pointing nowhere. Things got more normal after I set it manually to point at 8.8.8.8 and then set back to auto again. At the same time I set the IP6 option off, but I think the DNS was more likely to be the cause.

This is all in Network - Network Interface - Edit LAN settings.

[steven]

So you have it working? I have two NAS servers and I don't remember setting the DNS manually, but that was a few years ago
and I could be mistaken. I believe, in my case, the NAS obtained the DNS address automatically. Getting the address automatically could depend on the ISP. However, I did manually set the DNS servers on the Synology RT2600AC router.

To be honest, I find it strange you could connect to the HTML example pages, but could not connect to WordPress because of the DNS settings. That is a new one on me and I don't understand how that could happen. Normally a DNS server points to an IP address and connects regardless of the page you're loading. If the page has errors, you get warnings but it still finds the website.

[raffi_01]

Hi,
thanks a lot for this tutorial, but I'm stuck right on the step 1 of the WordPress installation. I've been looking around and no one seams to get the same problem than me.

The virtual host seams to work
when I type my domain it lunches the WordPress installation : <my-domain/wp-admin/setup-config.php

bus then I get :

" There has been a critical error on your website. "
" Learn more about debugging in WordPress."

What can I do ? I've tryed with WordPress 5.4, 5.3 and I get a blank page with 5.2
Any idea ?
hope someone can help.
Thanks a lot

[steven]

Step one is connecting to the MariaDB database. The critical error may mean php is not configured properly, provided you installed MariaDB. The MySQL module must be enabled so WordPress can connect. You can verify the module is loaded by running phpinfo.php. You can create the file yourself or download and extract the contents to your WordPress folder.
To manually run phpinfo, enter your URL to WordPress followed by /phpinfo.php. example: http://yourdomain/wordpress/phpinfo.php

phpinfo.php contents:

Code: Select all

<?php
  phpinfo();
?>

phpinfo.zip

(142 Bytes) Downloaded 1167 times

A php info screen will appear. Scroll down the screen and check that the mysqli module appears. If it does not you will need to configure php in Web Station. This post has instructions to install and configure php.
Additionally ensure the WordPress folder has read/write permissions enabled for the http user.

[raffi_01]

OK, thanks for your advices, the Phpinfo file showed me the error... it was missing a bunch of files in the wordpress folder.

The thing is, I uploaded an unzip WordPress file through ftp and ended up with files not uploaded but not telling so.

So I have uploaded the zip to the NAS and unziped from their.

The installation ran perfectly.
Thanks a lot