After spending a whole day trying to figure out the right combination of fcgi wrappers, Movable Type core file extensions, and .htaccess voodoo, I think I got it figured out. All of my problems were due to 2 main reasons:
- There is no version 3.34-specific documentation easily available, including on the sixapart website
- As always, I made mountains out of molehills. In my defense, I can’t help it – shell access and the command line get me excited…
Therefore, I offer the following advice for the installation/upgrading of MT to version 3.34 on a Dreamhost shared server:
- Change your domain settings to run PHP 5.2.1 and enable FastCGI support via the DreamHost Web Panel (under Domains > Manage Domains > Edit button under heading “Web Hosting”)
- Ignore all of the instructions on the web for enabling fastcgi for MT 3.33 (specifically, don’t change file extensions from .cgi to .fcgi or .fpl)
- Perform a standard MT install/upgrade (choose your own adventure: easier method that takes longer / 1337 h4xx0r)
- Create/modify .htaccess file in your MT core directory with the following 2 lines:
#AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
AddHandler fastcgi-script .cgi
(.htaccess tip taken from here)
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Now, this seems to have worked for me, but obviously I cannot guarantee it will work for you. Also, I’m by no means an expert, I just wanted to share my experience with getting this particular version of MT running on DreamHost (who, by the way, will not help you with any 3rd party software problems that are not “One-click installs” via the Web Panel, including MT – which I totally understand but feels a bit cold when it’s 3:30 AM and you’re just sure the problem is server-related and has nothing to do with the fact that you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.)
with all the faux IT geniuses working RC from all over the place – I cannot believe you could not contribute some of your generated knowledge to some corporation’s IT department. This could be a part-time cash cow for you.
I feel the same way about fishing.