PHP Fatal error when trying to access phpmyadmin mb_detect_encoding

Question

Not sure what happened, but below is what the log is giving me when trying to access phpmyadmin, please help. Trying to debug a different problem and ran into this. Not really possible to revert back to when it was working.

PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_detect_encoding() in /usr/share/php/gettext/gettext.inc on line 177

When trying to go the the site, I get this error, I think it's likely the two errors are related:

Database connection error (1): The MySQL adapter 'mysqli' is not available.

Yes but I don't think this is a joomla issue. Joomla is having trouble connecting to the the database. — milan, Nov 12 '12 at 21:20
I decided to delete the server and start fresh, everything is working properly on the new one. thanks everyone. — milan, Nov 12 '12 at 23:12

Michel Feldheim · Answer 1 · 2012-11-12T21:52:17.960

27

First error is caused by php because the extension mbstring is either not installed or not active.

The second error is output of phpMyAdmin/your site asking you to install / enable the mysqli extension.

To enable mbstring and mysqli edit your php.ini and add/uncomment the two lines with mbstring.so and mysqli.so on unix or mbstring.dll and mysqli.dll on windows

Unix /etc/(phpX/)php.ini

extension=mysqli.so
extension=mbstring.so

Windows PHP installation folder\etc\php.ini

extension=mysqli.dll
extension=mbstring.dll

Don't forget to restart your webserver after this.

EDIT: User added he was using redhat in the comments so here's how you install extensions on all CentOS/Fedora/RedHat/Yum based linux distros

sudo yum install php-mysqli
sudo yum install php-mbstring

restart your werbserver
sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart

you can verify your installation with a little php script in your document root. This lists all settings, versions and active extensions you've installed for php

test.php

<?php
phpinfo();

edited Nov 12 '12 at 21:52

answered Nov 12 '12 at 21:24

Michel Feldheim

16,339
5
53
77

I opened my php.ini file I don't see mbstring.so or mysqli.so. I'm on linux. – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:36
which linux distribution do you use? – Michel Feldheim Nov 12 '12 at 21:40
I added both of those and still no luck – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:44
on redhat you should be able to install extensions this way ( if you have root access ) sudo yum install php-mbstring php-mysqli – Michel Feldheim Nov 12 '12 at 21:45
Package php-mbstring-5.4.8-1.el6.remi.x86_64 already installed and latest version Package php-mysql-5.4.8-1.el6.remi.x86_64 already installed and latest version Nothing to do – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:47

phpNoob · Answer 2 · 2013-07-05T18:28:40.320

After reading about the extension_dir = "ext" i added the line to php.ini but didnt work, then started to look apache error log and saw the PHP was in fact unable to find the dll's in the specified directory "ext". I commented the extension_dir line, restarted Apache and looked the error log again, saw that PHP was now looking the dll's in C:/PHP/ext (by default i guess), but since im using other folders, that's not the correct path, so i uncommented the extension_dir line and wrote this:

extension_dir = "C:/Apache24/PHP/ext"

In my configuration that is the correct path to dll's.

and of course, uncommented:

extension=php_mbstring.dll
extension=php_mysql.dll
extension=php_mysqli.dll

Restarted the Apache server and internet browser and now phpMyAdmin works with my mySQL login.

So, dll's incorrect path and dll's needed commented in php.ini were the problem.

Remember to restart Apache and internet browser after editing config files.

System spec: Windows 7 HB 64bit httpd-2.4.4-win32-ssl_0.9.8.zip php-5.4.16-Win32-VC9-x86.zip phpMyAdmin-4.0.4.1-all-languages.zip mysql-installer-community-5.6.11.0.msi

Hope this help. Thx for your comments too.

Dimitris Kougioumtzis · Answer 3 · 2016-05-01T17:00:03.187

10

in ubuntu 16.04 when i tried to connect to phpmyadmin a white blank paged appeared so i ran the above command and phpmyadmin works

sudo apt-get install php-mbstring php7.0-mbstring php-gettext

for mysql support install

sudo apt-get install php7.0-mysql

tested in ubuntu 16.04 with php 7 version

edited May 01 '16 at 17:00

answered May 01 '16 at 15:42

Dimitris Kougioumtzis

1,880
1
20
32

Should be a `comment` instead of `answer`. Read [here how to answer](http://www.stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer) :) – Variable May 01 '16 at 15:58
This solve a problem for me on Ubuntu Server 16.04. Thanks Dimitris. – Mirsad Batilovic Sep 14 '16 at 15:47
This worked for me! Had previously turned on display_errors in php.ini which let me to this post. – Steve Oct 15 '16 at 13:33

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 12 '12 at 21:17

3

It looks like your PHP installation does not have the mbstring extension and the mysqli adapter extension installed.

Please check your phpinfo(); or run php -i | grep 'mbstring\|mysqli' in a terminal.

answered Nov 12 '12 at 21:17

Koen.

21,087
6
75
76

I ran phpinfo. What should I look for? – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:19
Or the lack of it. In that case it means you have to install them. – Koen. Nov 12 '12 at 21:21
in the configure command, i have: mysql=shared,/usr' '--with-mysqli=shared,/usr/lib64/mysql/mysql_config' '--... in the additional .ini files parsed section I have ql.ini, /etc/php.d/mysqli.ini, /etc/php.d/oci8.in and in the additional .ini files parsed section I have .d/json.ini, /etc/php.d/mbstring.ini, /etc/php.d/mcrypt – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:22
I'm pretty sure mbstring is installed because yum install php-mbstring and it said it was installed – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:23
Have you restarted php afterwards? – Koen. Nov 12 '12 at 21:24
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/19452/discussion-between-koen-and-milan) – Koen. Nov 12 '12 at 21:25

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 09:30

3

I had the same problem on my windows7- 32 bit:

1."PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_detect_encoding() in /usr/share/php/gettext/gettext.inc on line 177"

when i opened my php.ini file , "extension_dir" line looked like following :

extension_dir = "C:/wamp/bin/php/php5.4.16/ext/"

which i changed to :

extension_dir = "C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.4.16\ext\"

and it worked.

answered Oct 24 '13 at 09:30

Rajeev Ranjan

107
1
6

This answer helped me. – Germstorm Jan 18 '14 at 12:21
Also helped this one. – user1954544 Jan 23 '14 at 17:36

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited May 15 '14 at 04:56

2

In php.ini, I had to change

extension_dir = "ext"

to

extension_dir = "C:/PHP/ext"

as my PHP was installed in C:\PHP. I had to use / instead of \, and then it worked.

Also uncomment mbstrings, mysqli and mysql extensions.

edited May 15 '14 at 04:56

Arman H

5,018
9
47
70

answered May 15 '14 at 04:37

Fernando Maffeis

21
1

1

Remove the comment (;) from these extensions `extension=php_mbstring.dll` and `extension=php_mysqli.dll` and `extension=php_gettext.dll` – Manoj Kumar Jul 29 '16 at 08:35

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 15 '13 at 10:38

What helped me (using XAMPP on Windows) was to:

make sure that my path included the correct path for PHP (I had two PHP installations, one under c:\php and the XAMPP installation in c:\xampp\php which was the one I wanted to use)
check that the lines
extension_dir="C:\xampp\php\ext"
extension=php_mbstring.dll
extension=php_exif.dll ; Must be after mbstring as it depends on it
were uncommented in the php.ini file (i.e. no ; at the beginning)
restart the Apache server
last but not least, clear the cache when reloading the page http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ (for instance with Ctrl-F5 in Chrome)

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 25 '14 at 06:36

1

Recompile PHP with mbstring.

./configure --enable-http --with-apxs2 --with-mysql --with-gd --with-curl --with-mbstring

make 

make install

answered Sep 25 '14 at 06:36

Harikrishnan

8,629
9
75
119

its --enable-mbstring – Kinetic Mar 05 '15 at 10:11

RDK · Answer 9 · 2012-11-12T21:42:50.730

0

Try to install mysqli and pdo. Put it in terminal:

./configure --with-mysql=/usr/bin/mysql_config  \
--with-mysqli=mysqlnd \
--with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd

edited Nov 12 '12 at 21:42

answered Nov 12 '12 at 21:19

RDK

4,475
2
18
27

Quite an assumption to think that someone 's using joomla when they're posting a generic PHP error. – Koen. Nov 12 '12 at 21:21
Instead of letting OP downgrade to an ancient API it would be better IMHO to let OP install `mysqli` (if this indeed is the issue of OP). – PeeHaa Nov 12 '12 at 21:21
extension = php_mysqli.dll you have this in your php.ini file – RDK Nov 12 '12 at 21:26
@RadikCH I don't have extension = php_mysqli in my php.ini file – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:37
If you don't have, add extension = php_mysqli.dll this to php.ini – RDK Nov 12 '12 at 21:39
still having the same prob. I am going to post my php.ini file – milan Nov 12 '12 at 21:41

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 12 '12 at 21:22

0

My guess would be to check that the mysqli extension is enabled in your PHP configuration. More info would be great (eg. OS, AMP stack, etc.).

Check in your php.ini configuration for mysqli and make sure there is no ';' in front of the extension. The one enabled on my setup is php_mysqli_libmysql.dll.

answered Nov 12 '12 at 21:22

thorne51

556
7
22

Also referring to Koen's answer dido for mbstring in the php.ini file. php_mbstring.dll – thorne51 Nov 12 '12 at 21:25

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited May 26 '13 at 03:29

0

I tried on Windows and I was getting same issue after enabling this in PHP installation folder\etc\php.ini:

extension=mysqli.dll 
extension=mbstring.dl

You should also enable the following in the ini file:

extension_dir = "ext"

phpMyadmin is working now!

edited May 26 '13 at 03:29

Danny Beckett

18,294
21
100
129

answered May 26 '13 at 03:09

amitgoswami

51
7

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 21 '13 at 23:14

0

In windows 2008 Server.

i removed ";" in front of extension=php_mbstring.dll in php.ini file and it worked... i followed below link...

https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64965

answered Jun 21 '13 at 23:14

shashikanth

1

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 06 '14 at 23:33

Some versions of windows do not come with libmysql.dll which is necessary to load the mysql and mysqli extensions. Check if it is available in C:/Windows/System32 (windows 7, 32 bits). If not, you can download it DLL-files.com and install it under C:/Windows/System32.
If this persists, check your apache log files and resort to a solution above which responds to the error logged by your server.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 11 '14 at 05:53

0

One options is: disabled this extension_dir = "ext"

and the other is:

go to wamp icon and see php and the click on php error logs then from error log u can find exact error.

this error occurs only if paths are not properly set.

answered Dec 11 '14 at 05:53

S Ali Khan

1

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 02 '15 at 00:40

I had the same trouble, this is what worked for me.

You can click at the wampserver icon, then at the PHP error log. Check if it says this: Unable to load dynamic library 'c:/wamp/bin/php/php5.5.12/ext/php_ldap.dll'

If yes, then you can reload your version of PHP, by clicking at the wampserver icon, then PHP, then version, and then you click at your version. Wait for everything to be online again, then try to access phpmyadmin.

PHP Fatal error when trying to access phpmyadmin mb_detect_encoding

15 Answers15

Linked