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Drupal Installation Problems With Yahoo SB Web Hosting

Now that I had my WordPress blog stable, I wanted to explore Drupal Content Management System and see if I could use it along with my blog to enhance user experience. I downloaded Drupal 6.2 (which is the newest release with a security fix), and followed the installation sequence. I created a new MySql database on my Yahoo web server account, and then tried running the Drupal installation script.

The first step for language selection went smoothly, and in the second step — Verify Requirements — it failed. The error message says:

Requirements problem
The following error must be resolved before you can continue the installation process:

register_globals is enabled. Drupal requires this configuration directive to be disabled. Your site may not be secure when register_globals is enabled. The PHP manual has instructions for how to change configuration settings. (Currently using PHP register globals Enabled (‘1’))

Please check the error messages and try again.

So I looked around and found many forum discussions on this particular issue. The common ways to turn off “register_globals” is by using the “.htaccess” file or a “php.ini” file. Yahoo Web Hosting does not allow users to create a .htaccess file, and even if you create a php.ini file, it seems to be ignored. At this point, the only option left for me was to contact Yahoo support and check if they could change the default setting of register_globals for me. Unfortunately, there is no way they can do that on a per-user basis at this point. Here is the reply I got from Yahoo support:

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Web Hosting.

I understand that you wish to set the “register_global” directive to be
“OFF”.

I can realize the level of inconvenience that you are facing with this
issue and I apologize for it. In order to turn off the
“register_globals”, the “php.ini” file needs to be edited. As Yahoo!
provides shared Web Hosting hence it does not allow its users to edit
the “php.ini” file and so the status of the directive cannot be changed.

However, the feature you wished is really recommendable and I appreciate
your understanding for bringing them to our concern. I have forwarded
your concern to our engineering and development team and hope that the
features will be available very soon in near future.

I would also request you to voice your words and send your valuable
suggestions to our development team directly on the following email
address:

hosting-suggestions@cc.yahoo-inc.com

We are always looking for ways to make Yahoo! Web Hosting more useful to
our users, and we will be sure to keep your question in mind as we
continue to make improvements to our service.

I appreciate your understanding in this regard.

Please do not hesitate to reply if you need further assistance.

Regards,

<signed>

Yahoo! Customer Care

I then called them and spoke to a support person and explained that this issue was practically making it impossible for me to use Drupal and unless they could find a way to fix it in the near future, I would have no option other than using another hosting service. He did promise me that he would make this a priority issue that would be seen by the engineering team, and took the reference for my email support case to add to his case description. I told him about the discussions I had seen in forums where many people had decided to use hosting other than Yahoo just to avoid this issue.

I am hoping that Yahoo will find a way to fix this. It would be a shame to have to my blog to another hosting service to be able to use Drupal.

See also: Yahoo! Q&A on this topic.

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7 Comments

  1. holim holim June 3, 2008

    hey Peeds I ‘m the one who responded to your comments at another blog. Have you tried seeing if there is a way to force php5.0+ ; because it looks like the default setting for register_globals in v5.+ is ‘off’

  2. Editor Editor June 9, 2008

    Hi Miloh, Thanks for the great suggestion! I have asked Yahoo! this question, and am yet to receive a reply. Will post an update when I hear from them.

  3. bimpelido bimpelido February 16, 2009

    has this been resolved? i have a SB Yahoo account and want to use Drupal.

    please let me know. Thanks

  4. Will Will July 8, 2009

    This stinks. I can’t install Drupal on my yahoo account either because of this htaccess register_globals issue. I’ve pretty much had it with their web hosting.

  5. Sandeep Goyal Sandeep Goyal March 14, 2010

    Yahoo Small Business >> REALLY VERY SMALL..

    Friend. I also have some major issues with yahoo. Done the same as you. But NO HELP from YAHOO PEOPLE.

    mod_rewrite is disabled: no clean url
    sub domain is also a big issue
    and a lots more flaws..

    >>PLEASE DO NOT GO FOR YAHOO.. IT LL SUCK YOUR BLOOD. I LOST 4.3 🙁

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