linuxlover992000

OK – I succeeded restoring wordpress to its original mode operation. <sigh of relief>

The problem was that when I was copying back-and-forth that wp-admin/index.php (via a Windows client), I didn’t notice that the file permissions changed from 644 to 660. That was critical. I retored that file permission back to 644 and all is as in before (slow as snail).

Armed with this new knowledge (I bet the blank page I received originally was due to that file permissions problem) I will try again the plugin.

Also note that the insturctions on the plugin author’s web site are much clearer than the few readme lines that come with the plugin. For your convenience:

http://cjbehm.dyndns.org/wingingit/dashboard-options/

Lynn

Thanks for the two tips. Currently the plugin option looks very attractive.

I downloaded the package and unzipped it into the wp-content/plugins directory. In there there are two index.php files: one for “pre wp2.0 admin” and the other is for “wp2.0 admin index”. The README for this plugin says “Rename appropriate index.php file and place in your wp-admin folder if you do not have a custom setup”.

So I renamed wp2.0 admin index.php to index.php, copied it to the wp-admin directory and reloaded the dashboard page… only to get a blank page with nothing in it. 🙁

Fortunately I saved the original index.php so I was able to return to install state in no time.

Now I am wondring: does that plugin really work for WordPress 2.0.2?

Thanks,
Lynn

However, when I went to that link it says that it was written for WordPress version 1.5. I am using version 2.0.2.

Do you happen to know if that matters?

Wow! that was quick. Thank you very much for your quick and very clear answer.

Now at least I know that I didn’t misunderstand the installation concepts although I really am a newbie.

I guess that whether I should use “WordPress MU” is a matter of convenience, since I don’t anticipate creating blogs for more than a handful of users. The overhead of approximately 4MB per user seems small enough to avoid the complexity of installing and maintaining “WordPress MU”.

Or… is “WordPress MU” easy to install and maintain as WordPress?

Also, is it true that I don’t need a separate database for each blog – even for WordPress SU (single user)?

Thanks,
Lynn

Bingo! That was it. I replaced the “%” in the server field by “localhost” and it solved all problems. (I didn’t have to created another user, I just edited that part for the user ‘wordpress’ I already created.

Thank you so much, HandySolo!

Now I am trying to think whether the detailed instructions can be improved further.

Yes, I am positive that I am following step 3 but it is quite possible that ironically this is might be the problem, since in step 2.5 it says:

“Leave all options under Global privileges at their defaults.”

Now, the *global* privileges are all unchecked for that user. Could this be the problem?

BTW, is there a way to attach to this post a snapshot of the browser so that I can show exactly what I am doing?

Thanks,
Lynn

Hmmm… suspecting a username/password mismtach, I modified wp-config.php to to contain ‘root’ and the root’s password in DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD, respectively.

And… it worked!

Which brings the obvious question: How come WordPress instructs me to use any username and password (I used ‘wordpress’ and ‘wordpresspassword’ respectively), phpMyAdmin displays that username details as valid, but step 5 fails for that username?

Even more importantly: Now that the WordPress installation seems to have succeeded (using the ‘root’ username and password), what are the implications on the ability to maintain this database remotely?

Thanks!