Can't click next on new installation

Question

Not the place I though I would get stuck. My web host (buddy) reinstalled his OS and since I had never really worked on the site much I opted to start over. He is using NGINX if it matters.

Simple problem to describe really. I cannot click next on the first page of the installation. When you click the button, regardless if the form is filled to completion, a progress bar appears briefly and then goes away.

The version is 3.4.8 but I don't think the version matters. Server is running php v5.4.16 which meets the recommended specs for that.

I have cleared and unzipped the webroot directory a couple of times. This does not seems like a permissions issue but I am not sure.

Answer 1

If you cannot install Joomla, then your server is not filling the minimum requirements. For instance, a basic PHP configuration must have certain PHP extensions enabled.

Check your browser console or server log to review if there is a more detailed error output.

PD: PHP 5.4 is not longer stable, it has reached its end of life. I would recommend at least PHP 5.5 https://secure.php.net/releases/

Answer 2

I used CentOS 7 with NGINX and Joomla 3.6.2 and had the same problem.

Problem: Permission in the folder "/var/lib/php/session" for group "apache"

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo ls -al /var/lib/php/session
total 8
drwxrwx--- 2 root apache 4096 May 12 10:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Aug  9 07:35 ..

Solution: Change the folder permission for group "nginx"

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo chown root:nginx /var/lib/php/session
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo ls -al /var/lib/php/session
total 12
drwxrwx--- 2 root  nginx 4096 Aug  9 08:13 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root  4096 Aug  9 07:35 ..
-rw------- 1 nginx nginx 1261 Aug  9 08:20 sess_a4j5nrejik5lqjq07es7if3dq6

It worked!

Answer 3

Another reason for the Installer "Next" button not working is problems with sessions/cookies causing CSRF token checking to fail and redirect back to the first page and the error message to be lost due to lack of a session. Some potential causes:

• Cookies are disabled in your browser.
• Cookies are filtered/blocked by a browser extension.
• Cookies are filtered/blocked by a (forward or reverse) proxy or other middleware.
• PHP sessions are non-functional due to misconfiguration in php.ini.
• Using an HTTP connection when session cookies are blocked for non-HTTPS connections (e.g. session.cookie-secure in php.ini).