CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I'm using Ubuntu 8.04, Drupal 5.7, MySQL 5.051a

I installed Drupal and MySQL using Ubuntu's package manager and everything (magically) worked!  So I downloaded and installed a new theme and some modules.  They also worked.  I was now ready to tackle CiviCRM.

1. Since I had gotten to know Drupal better, however, I began to have doubts about CiviCRM.  Why did I need it when Drupal did so much?  (especially if I use modules like CCK, Events, Organic Groups, etc.)  CiviCRM CRM has its own Events capability and OG_sync, etc. but this just seems like a duplicate effort.  SUGGESTION 1: CivicCRM marketing and online docs say WHAT CiviCRM does but not how it improves on Drupal.  I know (now) that the short answer is CMS vs. CRM but how the difference in focus is important (and a better description of how CiviCRM integrates all its functionality) would help a newbie.

2. I got to the CiviCRM installer page by pointing my browser to http://localhost/drupal5/sites/all/modules/civicrm/drupal/install/index.php and I was expecting that it would tell me that the database wasn't set up but it also told me that "InnoDB is not enabled in the database Could not determine if mysql has innodb support. Assuming no"

So I looked at CiviCRM online docs (yet again) and searched the forum.  Then I checked MySQL (using phpmyadmin) and found that my  Drupal DB was ISAM! (I thought that I had requested InnoDB).  So now I'm confused.  InnoDB is enabled by default in MySQL 5.0.31 but I discovered in the MySQL docs that there are options that need to be or could be set.  Do I have to set these options and create an InnoDB tablespace BEFORE I install Drupal or CiviCRM?

Drupal forums recommend using InnoDB for heavily trafficed sites and eventually I'll change the my Drupal ISAM to InnoDB but can CiviCRM run with a Drupal ISAM DB (I'll be using a separate CiviCRM InnoDB)?

In addition (sorry for the lengthiness), the installer page tells me: "The web server user www-data needs to write be able to write to this file:
/usr/share/drupal5/sites/default"  I looked for "www-data" in the forums but got no useful info.
a) Does it need write access for the CiviCRM InnoDB tablespace, a config file (my best guess), a log file or what?
b) I don't see www-data as "user" on my system.  How do i give this "user" access?

Thanks for your help!  SUGGESTION 2: It would save someone like me some time and confusion if the installation docs said that InnoDB has to be "CONFIGURED" (and a Tablespace set up), not just "ENABLED" if that is the case.  Also, SUGGESTION 3: some explanation about the www-data "usser" seems warranted.

I've updated the installation script for 2.1 to add some clarification regarding INNODB and a bit more explanation regarding the web-server account write permission requirement.