SOLVED: Unable to Find Install Package

[MissVicky]

Symptoms:

Joomla 1.5 fresh install was working fine and was able to install and uninstall mods, extensions templates, etc. just fine. After a few days of set up,  modifying my templates and adjusting my Global Settings, I was not able to upload any modules, extensions, templates, etc. and continuously received the 'Unable to Find Install Package'. This was not a legacy issue.

The Solution:

During my setup, I had enabled my FTP but later turned it off in my Global Settings. However, what I discovered was that my FTP was not actually 'turning off'. When I would deactivate it, and save my settings, the next time that I logged into my Global Settings, it would be back on. To resolve this, I went directly into my configuration.php file and manually adjusted the FTP settings.

var $ftp_enable = '0';
var $ftp_host = '';
var $ftp_port = '';
var $ftp_user = '';
var $ftp_pass = '';
var $ftp_root = '';

So, in short -- try adjusting your FTP settings directly in your configuration.php file.

I hope this helps someone else!

Miss Vicky

[raptorserve]

This so much needs to be on the top of the forums.. There are so many posts regarding this problem.  I had this problem for hours on end and completely wiped out my server and re-installed everything only to get the same error.  I decided to look ONE MORE time on the forum and found this post! 

Thanks You are a life saver.

[MissVicky]

Wonderful, Raptor...

Glad it worked for you! Remember to help others out as you learn the Joomla ropes too!

Good Luck On Your Site!
Miss Vicky

[bassglider]

OMG Thank you so much !

[MissVicky]

You Are Very Welcome 

Miss Vicky

[swiftcorey]

That is all good but what if you want to use the ftp layer?

I NEED to use it for permission errors and its giving me the "Unable to find install package"

What is the ftp root?

[MissVicky]

Sorry, Swift... I do not use FTP layer.

You might try editing the configuration.php code offline and reuploading it? Just an idea...

Hope This Helps!
Miss Vicky

[chrispeter]

I too am a new user and have just installed Joomla for the first time. I wanted to install the docman and fireboard extensions and like many other had problems. I unzipped instalation files and ftp'd to my host server but kept getting messages about being unable to find install package. After much rumaging about on this forum and other sites I discovered what is meant by absolute path. On my server it is  /home/httpd/vhosts/mydomainnname.com/httpdocs/joomla/docman, I'm not sure if this pattern will hold good for other servers but using it allowed me to install both extensions without problem.

I hope this may be of some use to others.

[rycrostud]

After reading through this thread and a couple of others I came to a slightly different solution. This may be of help to others.

In order to fix it I had to change "Path to Temp-folder" to the full file path to the tmp folder within the Joomla installation, rather than the global server /tmp folder. I'm not yet sure why this would make a difference but from a security point of view it makes better sense.

There is more testing to be done but at the moment it looks like the FTP file layer will work properly meaning NONE of my files will need to be globally writeable by PHP :-)

[barua]

Thanks Guys.
The [Full path]/tmp did the trick. I was finally able to install the extensions.

[sadutolio]

so far it didnt work to me MissVicky, i did as you explain but it comes no result, my page shows the same command "Unable to find install package"...do you had any idea..?thanx a lot..im waiting your next tutorials..

[humvee]

http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... 2#p1278556

[sadutolio]

well you have my thanks buddy..it's a nice manual..

[iTeam]

Thank you so much...

[Gadabout]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!! I was having this issue and about to rip my hair out. I couldn't figure it out...but did as you suggested and voila, works fine now!

thanks
M

[kimberlee]

4 hours of frustration and I found your resolution, Thank You for taking the time to post!

[PPFedin]

Thank you for this theme!

This is common problem with all joomlas. First of all it takes a lot of time to figure out what the problem is with each server manually. I used 1.0 for a long time and decided to try 1.5 for the first time and the problem differed with 1.0.

I had this message in 1.0, and what worked for that:

- parameter "session autostart" must be ON in PHP server options, and "safe mode" - OFF
- all required permissions must be writable ( shown in joomla administration menu )

And in 1.5 this problem was solved with setting 777 CHMOD to "tmp".

I hope someone could find it useful.

P.S Greetings from Ukraine!

[muang]

I have tried your steps but I still get this when I tried to install a package.
http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jfolderbk2.png

Any help would be appreciated.. Do i need to start all over from scratch and install a fresh one?

[Mac2605]

Hi guys,

I had the same problem and all the above didn't quite solve it. but I managed (after many tries...) to find a workaround.

The issue in my humble opinion is a bug in the way Joomla handle the info provided in the configuration.php file about path to the tmp folder

I run Joomla 1.5.7
This is hosted on a VPS Server Linux (kernel 2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp)
Apache 2.2.8 (unix)
PERL 5.8.8
PHP version 5.2.5
MySQL version 5.0.51.0-community

The FTP account I created to handle joomla gives me access to the folder where Joomla is installed

the line 31 that informs the system about the FTP root then is

var $ftp_root = '/';

When I run the FTP layer on, in order to be able to successfully modify the configuration.php file the path to the tmp folder must be '/tmp' ie line 61 in my configuration.php file is

var $tmp_path = '/tmp';

Now IF I try to Install and extension package with these setting I am able to upload the package all right (joomla installs the zip file on the /tmp folder - I can see that with FileZilla) BUT I have a very frustrating message
'unable to find install package'

Here what worked for me.
I had to change the configuration.php file to modify the var $tmp_path to the path the Joomla detected for FTP on the first install. for me it was

var $tmp_path = '/home/VPSNAME/public_html/FOLDER/tmp';

where VPSNAME was the name of my VPS server and FOLDER the folder where I installed joomla.
In order to find your path yoopilive posted a solution here:
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... a&start=30

once this was done I was not able to modify the configuration.php file in the backend anymore (JFTP errors) BUT Tadaaa!!
I was able to upload and install a package without the 'unable to find install package' error

there is still (at least) one issue with this workaround as you can't modify the configuration.php in the back end with these settings.
error is
* JFTP::login: Unable to login
* JFTP::write: Unable to use passive mode

Maybe a Joomla expert can have a look at this and tell me if there is a better way?

I hope this helps someone....

[caspernet]

Thanks. That's very helpful.
I didn't know the FTP in Joomla can be so bad.

[sketteksalfa]

Turning tmp to chmod 777 is a quick fix to my problems. thanks for posting the solution, thanks to the forum.

[twilite25]

Does it matter that the open basedir path has a semicolon and the log and tmp paths don't? And if so how do I edit it? I'm using Joomla 1.5.9, linux server, shared hosting, Thanks

Config php file:

var $log_path = '/var/www/vhost/mydomain.com/home/httpdocs/logs';
var $tmp_path = '/var/www/vhost/mydomain.com/home/httpdocs/tmp';

Open basedir: /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/httpdocs:/tmp

[asherinho]

Hi guys.I tried to follow some of the solutions above,I changed the permission of tmp folder to 777 and disable FTP,but still I can't install some of the components especially the forum components.I tried to install like 3 different forum components but I got the same error UNABLE TO FIND INSTALL PACKAGE.Whats wrong here guys.

[twilite25]

In the Config php file I change the following line from:

var $tmp_path = '/var/www/vhost/mydomain.com/home/httpdocs/tmp';

to:

var $tmp_path = '/tmp';

and that worked for me

[PJI]

Hello all...this particular problem is driving me insane. Anyone with a solution or even a new idea out there? Here is what I am running:

Hostmonter for the host company
Apache: 2.2.11 (UNIX)
PHP Version: 5.28
Operating System (host system that is): Linux

Joomla Settings:

Path to temp: /home/username/public_html/foldername/joom/tmp

FTP Settings:

Enabled
FTP Host: ftp.domainname.com
FTP Port: 21
FTP Username: [email protected]
FTP Password: ********
FTP Root: /home/username/public_html/foldername/joom

Foldernames as used above indicate a sub-directory, or more importantly, a separate domain name hosted on my main account. Upon advice from Hostmonster I set the ftp settings and path to temp folder as listed above.

I've tried just about everything from this board and dozens of others, including turning off ftp layering, editing config.php (in main joomla directory and in the tmp directory), fresh install's, an install to the main domain name...and still nothing but the error telling me that the install file cannot be found.

If anyone out there has a solution I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. Thanks and have a good one.

[harelguy]

Another solution:

This may have already been stated somewhere, but I had the same problem on my local machine - using php uploads, not FTP.

The solution turned out to be quite simple - the PHP upload_max_filesize parameter was too small. This parameter, as its name implies, limits php from uploading any file larger that the size specified.

You can check the value of this parameter by using phpinfo() available from Help->System Info, PHP iformation tab in the Joomla administrator. In default installations, this will probably be 2M.

To change it, find the php.ini file (on my Mac XAMPP install, this was in: /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/etc), and change the value to something reasonable like 5M.

Remember to restart your apache after doing this

[premkanth]

very useful indeed i think it solve most people problem surely mine thanx a lott


cheers :-)

[jarb1]

This was an extremely frustrating problem for me.

This is what worked for me:

1. Go to: "Global Configuration"
2. Go to: "Server Settings"
3. My path was set to "/tmp"
I changed to: /home/username/public_html/tmp

I hope this helps others....

[Kotetsu52]

Hi alp,
Your'e not supposed to unzip the package file before you upload it. Upload the zip file (it should start with com_ or plg_) and Joomla will unzip it for you

Well I'v downloaded several components for joomla but they never start withcom_ or plg_ ...

It seems it upload the file but the says: "Unable to Find Install Package".

It's been weeks now and I haven't been able to figure out what to do so far...

[harelguy]

Sometimes what you download is a zip file that in itself contains other zipfiles. Unzip the original one. If it contains zipfiles which start with com_ and mod_, then those are the ones you want to upload. If it contains directories such as "components" and "admin" and an XML file, then youv'e unzipped the wrong file and that's the one you need to upload.