UsingWW: Having a couple of Issues with New 2.12 Installation

I am using the 2.12 installation manual to install webwork on a freshly created server. Our IT department installed Ubuntu 16.04 and I am following the manual to install webwork.

First problem occurred when editing the files info.conf and status.conf. The instructions say to replace the numeric IP with the web address, in my case it is "mathdev.oit.edu". I tried using .mathdev.oit.edu and just mathdev.oit.edu without the first dot. In both cases I get an error that the domain is not valid when restarting apache2. If I open the page with a browser http://mathdev.oit.edu, I get the standard apache page.

I went ahead and kept following the manual anyway as the instructions seem to indicate this is an optional step.

The second problem occured when I tried to install MAIL:SENDER in cpan. First I ran check modules and the only issue was the mail sender error. I tried to follow the instructions to install MAIL:SENDER accepting defaults.

When I run check_modules.pl I get the following error:

** Mail::Sender found, but failed to load: Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?) at /usr/share/perl5/Mail/Sender.pm line 318.

Compilation failed in require at (eval 140) line 2.

BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 140) line 2.

Should I just try to install again via the manual or am I missing something from the instructions?

Thanks for any help.

Re: Having a couple of Issues with New 2.12 Installation

by Arnold Pizer - Wednesday, 4 January 2017, 4:42 PM

Hi Jim,

Not sure about your info.conf and status.conf problems. You could try using ip addresses. Also you only want to set this if you want everyone in the designated domain to be able to see info and status of your server.

As for Mail:Sender, it sounds like you followed the instructions below (from

http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.12_on_Ubuntu_16.04#Checking_Module_Dependencies)

and still have problems. Is this correct?

If you see error messages like

defined(@array) is deprecated at /usr/share/perl5/Mail/Sender.pm line 318.
        (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
defined(@array) is deprecated at /usr/share/perl5/Mail/Sender.pm line 2693.
        (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)

it means the Ubuntu package we installed above is still using an old and unfortunately deprecated version of Mail::Sender. Install a current version by

sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell
[sudo] password for wwadmin: <wwadmin password>

Re: Having a couple of Issues with New 2.12 Installation

by Paul Pearson - Wednesday, 4 January 2017, 5:38 PM

Hi Jim,

Here's my uninformed, untested guess: your URL needs to be more explicit. Did you try any of these?

http://mathdev.oit.edu
http://mathdev.oit.edu/
https://mathdev.oit.edu
https://mathdev.oit.edu/

Best regards,

Paul Pearson

Re: Having a couple of Issues with New 2.12 Installation

by Jim Fischer - Thursday, 5 January 2017, 11:50 AM

Thanks for the replies.

Arnie, yes I was using the instructions you quoted.

For now I think I will re-comment the lines in info.conf and status.conf as they don't appear to be mandatory. I can mess around with more specific urls later as Paul suggests.

For the mail:sender issue, would it be bad to follow the install instructions again? That is enter into cpan and do the installation of Mail::Sender? Maybe I hit a wrong key when going thru the steps.

Jim

Re: Having a couple of Issues with New 2.12 Installation

by Jim Fischer - Thursday, 5 January 2017, 2:26 PM

Okay, I made progress. I have completed the WW installation and all seems good except for the email. I can send an email in WW with no errors, but the email(s) do not get processed in that I dont receive any emails.

Note that I redid the intall of Mail::Sender since I think I screwed this up the first time.

I checked the modules with check_modules.pl and the suspect line is:

Mail::Sender is deprecated and you should look to Email::Sender instead at (eval 140) line 2.

I have used the following commands for installing Mail::Sender

$ sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell

I entered N when it asked if I wanted to manually change defaults. The first time I did this I entered "y"
and then the installer asked for information I did not know what to put so I just
kept hitting enter. Doh.



In site.conf I used

 $mail{smtpServer} = 'smtp.oit.edu';
 $mail{smtpSender} = '';

These are the same lines I am using on another server running webwork where the email system is working.
Im not sure what to put for smtpSender, I will check with my IT department contact.

So at this point I need some more direction on how to fix my email.

Re: Having a couple of Issues with New 2.12 Installation

by Ever Barbero - Wednesday, 4 January 2017, 7:02 PM

I barely know what I am doing, but I installed from the Live DVD directly on a server with a bare HDD (no Ubuntu) and did not have any issues. I can't make the email feature work, but it is not a priority right now. i will get to it when time allows. I recommend installing from the live DVD. It will install Ubuntu and WebWork, everything in less than an hour.