My DotNetNuke 4 install nightmare

We it all started in the late hours of the night on Christmas day. I had a great day and decided to set up my first Dnn 4 website on a server running windows server 2003. I had install a number of other Dnn prior versions ( prior to version 4 that is ) so I did not anticapte many problems.

First I did a little research on the web as I had not installed anything on asp.net 2.0 yet and I thought a little research could go a long way.

It turns out that I found an article that said there were problems running Asp.net versions 1.1 and 2.0 in the same process and recommend creating a new Application Pool for your asp.net versions. I found more information on msdn http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/PAGHT000009.asp to aid in this process. Sorry I lost the original link that stated the problem .

Second I went on the server and created a new folder to install the new website into. Next I unziped the install package into the folder for version 4.0.2 of DNN. Then I open IIS and create a new website with as recommended by the installation guide for DNN 4x and set its application pool setting to my newly created application pool. Finally I opened Sql 2000 and created a new database for the new website and of course I set the web.config file of the DNN site to work with Sql 2000.  So far so good right.

Not so! While I was in the Properties window of the website in IIS I decided to take a peek at the web.config file in the new edit configuration section of the Asp.Net tab. ( i was just curious, really! ) Any way I closed the window hoping all was well.

When  I ran the site I Kept getting a DotNetNuke Configuration Error Object reference not set to an instance of an object. And was told by the error to make sure that all the security permissions were set for the website... Well after a few futile attempts on my own to no avail I went back to the Installation Documentation once again and read it all again. I confirmed that all the security permissions were ok and they were as my website was in a parent directory that already had all the correct permissions set ( not to mention that there are DNN 3x sites in the parent directory that were working fine.) .

Finally I ran out of energy for the day and called it quits. I hate calling it quits with an unsolved problem as it seems to get into my sleep.
Well I started again the next day on getting this to work as I was convinced I was doing something wrong as I had seen other posting that it worked for others.

I decided to install a copy on another computer running VS 2005 and debug it. I used the pretty cool starter kit and created a new site. This was all pretty new to me in VS 2005 so I found the ASP.NET Configuration on the website toolbar and decided to run it ( again just curious right! ) Well I got things ready to run ( new database and all that stuff ) and ran the website. Much to my surprise I was still getting the same DotNetNuke configuration error  I was nearing my wits ends. Well never one to quit I started to try a little debugging of the application which in itself I found very different in the new VS 2005 .

After many hours of looking for the problem I discovered that when you use the configuration editors for asp.net 2.x they add an attribute to the configuration element of the web.config file ( xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0" )

I removed the Attribute and ran the website once again and much to my surprise the website compiled and ran all the installation scripts.

I was still not done but I was much closer. It seems that on more error had to be overcome.

Unhanded Error

Error Details

After more research I discovered that your Application Pool Account ( Usually the Network Service Account ) needs write access to the windows temp directory. After I set this security permission the website finally started.

Hope this post save someone some time.

Happy new year to all!

Aahhh... there is no greater feeling then profiting from someone else's pain and misery... er... I mean... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! You just saved me so much time!

Bill

Thank you very much !!!

I was inside a loop for several days trying to install DNN 4 !
I searched all over the Internet seeking for a solution.

I could never imagine that a little @$@¨%$!#$@ line of code like that could make so much damage !

Thank you again !

Guilherme Hahn
Brazil.

I have tried to get version 4 operational and having a tough time and being new to all this need a little help.

After following your detailed isntructions i continue to get the following error:

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0"

any ideas on how i can move ahead to get this installed - for the moment i gave up on the source code install and will try that after i at least see the package installed

GALAXYM25A wrote:

I have tried to get version 4 operational and having a tough time and being new to all this need a little help.

After following your detailed isntructions i continue to get the following error:

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0"

any ideas on how i can move ahead to get this installed - for the moment i gave up on the source code install and will try that after i at least see the package installed

If you edit the Web.config of you web site using the built in ASP.NET Configuration tool then the Tool will change the very first line of you Web.Config file. This will cause DotNetNuke to fail during installation. The first line of your web.config file should read <configuration> But after you edit you site using the ASP.NET Configuration tool the line will be changed to
<configuration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0"> 
Open you Web.Config file in the root of your website and simplly erase the attrib xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0" from the first line and then try your install again.

The Acutal Problem is in the UpdateMachineKey of the Config Class in the DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities Namespace.

1:   Public Shared Function UpdateMachineKey(ByVal xmlConfig As XmlDocument) As XmlDocument
2:    
3:    
4:               Dim objSecurity As New PortalSecurity
5:               Dim validationKey As String = objSecurity.CreateKey(20)
6:               Dim decryptionKey As String = objSecurity.CreateKey(24)
7:    
8:               Dim xmlMachineKey As XmlNode = xmlConfig.SelectSingleNode("configuration/system.web/machineKey")
9:    
10:              xmlMachineKey.Attributes("validationKey").InnerText = validationKey
11:              xmlMachineKey.Attributes("decryptionKey").InnerText = decryptionKey
12:   
13:              xmlConfig = AddAppSetting(xmlConfig, "InstallationDate", Date.Today.ToShortDateString)
14:   
15:              Return xmlConfig
16:   
17:          End Function

Line 8 is the problem and could be changed to the example below to correct the problem. Although I am not certain if the configuration/.../... xpath is used anywhere else in the code.

1:   Public Shared Function UpdateMachineKey(ByVal xmlConfig As XmlDocument) As XmlDocument
2:    
3:    
4:               Dim objSecurity As New PortalSecurity
5:               Dim validationKey As String = objSecurity.CreateKey(20)
6:               Dim decryptionKey As String = objSecurity.CreateKey(24)
7:    
8:               Dim xmlMachineKey As XmlNode = xmlConfig.ChildNodes(0).SelectSingleNode("system.web/machineKey")
9:    
10:              xmlMachineKey.Attributes("validationKey").InnerText = validationKey
11:              xmlMachineKey.Attributes("decryptionKey").InnerText = decryptionKey
12:   
13:              xmlConfig = AddAppSetting(xmlConfig, "InstallationDate", Date.Today.ToShortDateString)
14:   
15:              Return xmlConfig
16:   
17:          End Function