PhpMyAdmin on Ubuntu Server 10.04: Strange configuration issues

My situation

I recently installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server on a virtual machine. I installed apache2, php and mysql. Several vhosts I sat up are running fine and I can also connect to the MySQL server using the mysql command-line client.

I now want to setup PhpMyAdmin to allow the vhosts owners to administrate their DBs. I installed the package using apt-get install phpmyadmin. I answered the questions and accepted the creation of the phpmyadmin database. The install finished successfully.

I did a small modification to the main website vhost to access it easily:

Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin

I can now access the interface and login with my root user.

My problem

The problem is that on the bottom it says that I need to add a blowfish_secret to the server configuration. I've done it once in Fedora but here it's different. I tried to add it at the end of the /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php and to reload apache and clear the browser cache but it had absolutely no effect (the message is still here). I also noticed several other files :

• /etc/phpmyadmin/config-db.php (apparently contains config needed to access the phpmyadmin database)



• /var/lib/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php (empty!?)


• /var/lib/phpmyadmin/blowfish_secret.inc.php (contains a correct blowfish_secret config line and was already there from the beginning)

I don't know where to do the blowfish configuration. Could someone explain in details or give a link about the configuration layout of phpmyadmin on Ubuntu 10.04 ?

I also have a second problem which is probably related. It says on the bottom that some features are disabled. I read somewhere that this line should be added:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking'] = 'pma_tracking';

but I don't know where to put it. Again, it has no effect when put in /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php.

I can provide the files if needed. Please just ask in a comment.

PS: The default installation works like a charm on my Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 laptop. No error messages and warning on the web interface.

Thanks!

Answer

Here's my honest opinion:

Uninstall PHPMyAdmin (I'm guessing you installed it via apt-get.

I've seen this happen and I pulled my hair out. What I recommend is, downloading PHPMyAdmin from their website and extract it to /etc/phpmyadmin. Then I'd change your Apache alias to

Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin

From there, restart apache and you should be good.

One quick thing, you will need to edit the /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file (which will need to be renamed upon installation, by the way - originally it is called config.sample.inc.php). You basically, will need to edit the $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; section with random letters/numbers.