Resolved Failed to start the session

Hi,
1) for test purpose try:
https://www.joomshaper.com/downloads/template/keynote

2) Are you able to install raw Joomla package, downloaded from joomla.org?

Mike, from my side, thank you for the checking,
indeed those 3 templates are "old" and their installer may not be ready for PHP 7.1 and above

Mike, from my side, thank you for the checking,
indeed those 3 templates are "old" and their installer may not be ready for PHP 7.1 and above

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately, a new problem today. I can now get the Joomla installation page to come up, but I can't get past the first page of the installation.

I finish filling out the information on the first page, click next and the Joomla logo spins for a couple of seconds, then the first page comes up again, with all the information I entered still in the fields, and I can't go to the next page.

I have tried it on the 3 different templates I have loaded up so far, and get the same thing on all 3, so I don't think it is just a case of a bad upload, unless all my uploads had the same problem.

I've tried it with 3 different browsers on 2 different computers, one desktop, one lap top, and again the results are the same.

I even tried lowering the PHP down to 5.6 to try it, but still the same outcome.

Any thoughts or advice on what to try would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

In general, it's not normal, all steps are from Joomla core installer, we only added our demo sql file.
---
Are you able to install raw Joomla 3.9, downloaded from Joomla.org ?

In general, it's not normal, all steps are from Joomla core installer, we only added our demo sql file.
---
Are you able to install raw Joomla 3.9, downloaded from Joomla.org ?

Hi Paul,

I set my php back down to 5.6 and tried loading one of the old quickstart's that I have successfully done in the past, and it did the exact same thing, so I figured this had to be something on my end, not yours.

After digging around on the internet, I found a suggestion to make a change to the PHP.ini file to make sure that the max_execution_time must equal at least 300.

Thinking this was in the quickstart kit, I searched for the file and couldn't find it, got frustrated and went to bed.

This morning, when I went to set the PHP back to 5.6, I noticed that the PHP.ini file is part of my Control Panel.

After quick search, I found the setting and it was set to 120. I changed it to 300 and now it works fine, at least to the second page!

This is what the section on my Control Panel PHP.ini file looks like:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
; http://php.net/max-execution-time
; Note: This directive is hardcoded to 0 for the CLI SAPI
max_execution_time = 120

This was my original setting, it is now at 300 and, so far, working fine.


So, in short, I have learned that if you get a "Failed To Start The Session" message when you first go to the web site to finish the installation, you likely have a PHP version issue and if you get hung up on the first screen where you can't move to the second screen, you likely have a "max_execution_time" below 300.

I think (hope?) this should now all be sorted out, thanks for the quick responses, it's always appreciated. Especially since all the errors ended up being on my end...

Thanks again,
Mike

ABout "max_execution_time" I am not surprised, I added info about it in almost any template documentation in "Technical Requirements" section.