The installer was unable to detect MySQL support in PHP

[frustrated]

Hi,
I had found a topic already on this but it was old one and the system recommended I write a new one (how very efficient  )

I've have Apache2, Php5 and Mysql 5.0.16  installed on my system and when I try to run the SMF install.php I get an error message;

The installer was unable to detect MySQL support in PHP. Please ask your host to ensure that PHP was compiled with MySQL, or that the proper extension is being loaded.

The other thread recommended activating the php_mysql.dll extension.
I have activated that and the other php_m...dll extensions inturn to see if this would make a difference and I'm still having no luck.

Please Help!!

[Thantos]

can you post a link to your phpinfo?
What is phpinfo.php?

[frustrated]

Mike,

I'm affraid I can't do that because it's a test system set up on my home computer. Here's the result though??

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in E:\Localhost\www\php5\phpinfo.php on line 1

I'm thinking I'm doing something wrong now! 

[Oldiesmann]

That means you forgot the semicolon after phpinfo().

[frustrated]

Mike,

Doh!

I uninstalled everything, and reinstalled following the instrutions from the link below;

hxxp:www.webmasterstop.com/86.html [nonactive]

For anyone who's is completely new to this as I am, the above link is fantastic for setting up Apache2, php5 and Mysql4.
You do still need a bit of common sense but mostly I just followed the above to the letter.

There is one major point though, php.ini seems to prefer being in 'C:\Windows' rather than the webserver as stated on the link.

As soon as I got all that bit right the SMF Forum worked liked a dream.

Hooray for me!?! 

Cheer Mike!

[Oldiesmann]

As long as you tell PHP where to find PHP.ini, it doesn't really matter where you put it. On my virtual test box (Apache2, PHP 5.0.5, MySQL 5.0.whatever), I've got it in the same directory that PHP is installed in.