blank page during installation / PHP Extensions "pdo_mysql" must be loaded.

[marco_schindler]

I am trying to install Magento 1.9 on a test server following these instructions:
http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/m1x/install/installing_install.html

1) When I am supposed to go the the magento directory to load the installer I only get a blank page.

2) So instead I tried running "install.php" directly with the parameters given in the comments in that file but I get the following error message.

    FAILED

    ERROR: PHP Extensions "pdo_mysql" must be loaded.

A forum discussion here say to add the following lines to php.ini

    extension=pdo_mysql.so
    extension=pdo_mysqli.so
    extension=pdo.so

but this doesn't change anything, even after a restart.

I am using
 - Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
 - Apache:  Server version: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
 - mysql:   mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.21, for Linux (x86_64) using  EditLine wrapper
 - php:     PHP 5.6.34-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli)

[Damian Culotta]

Hi @marco_schindler,

What if you try adding a simple php file with:

<?php
phpinfo();

Just to be sure all de extensions are installed. Can you try that?

[marco_schindler]

What are "all the extensions"?

I didn't find anything about that in the instructions.

The output of phpinfo is very long (600+ lines).  Not sure if I'm supposed to post that here.

What exactly am I looking for?

[Damian Culotta · Accepted solution]

Hi @marco_schindler,

Could you check if your server meets the requirements?

https://docs.magento.com/m1/ce/user_guide/magento/system-requirements.html

[Benabee]

I think you must install the PDO extension.

Run:

sudo apt-get install pdo-mysql php5-mysql

Edit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini and uncomment:

extension=pdo.so
extension=pdo_mysql.so

Restart Apache.

[marco_schindler]

I was busy with other things but I went back to it now and it is true that there must be certain php extensions installed.

These are the ones I installed (for php 5.6):

sudo apt-get install php5.6-mysql
sudo apt-get install php5.6-gd
sudo apt-get install php5.6-xml
sudo apt-get install php5.6-mcrypt
sudo apt-get install php5.6-curl
sudo apt-get install php5.6-soap
sudo apt-get install php5.6-mbstring

Unfortunately this is not clear neither from the manual nor from the instructions on the website (http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/m1x/install/installing_install.html).

Magento is sending you on a wild goose chase here which makes the installation procedure frustrating.

Another issue I ran into is that the default setting in the installer for the "Web Access Options" does not work for "Base URL", it has to be http://127.0.0.1/magento if you are using localhost.

Anyways, I have a running test system now, where I can try out things before working on the actual website.

Thanks, Damian.