Cannot install PEAR packages/BAD support

[BlackCatWeb]

Hello,

Has anyone else had trouble with installing PEAR packages?

On my Control Panel, I select "PHP Pear Packages." On there:

- "Installed PHP Extension(s) and Applications". No list.
- I select "Show System Installed Modules." Resulting list is empty.
- I select "Show Available PHP Extensions". I select one. I always get (using Console_Table as an example):

downloading Console_Table-1.0.7.tgz ...
Starting to download Console_Table-1.0.7.tgz (7,485 bytes)
.....done: 7,485 bytes

Warning: PEAR_PackageFile::require_once(Archive/Tar.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in PackageFile.php on line 298

Warning: PEAR_PackageFile::require_once(Archive/Tar.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/lib/php/PEAR/PackageFile.php on line 298

Fatal error: PEAR_PackageFile::require_once(): Failed opening required 'Archive/Tar.php' (include_path='/usr/local/lib/php') in /usr/local/lib/php/PEAR/PackageFile.php on line 298
/usr/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin

I had a support ticket raised about this, using the HTTP_FloodControl package (listed as an available package) to demonstrate this problem. I waited days and finally got this answer:

On our servers you can only install sable releases of the software. In that mesasge it stated the fersion was under 1.0 still in beta.
"stable", latest release is version 0.1.1

So it was unable to install it.



Please contact us if you require any more assistance.

Support Level 3
BlueHost.com
888.401.4678


Absolutely beside the point. I responded, saying that the problem was that I couldn't get PEAR packages to install, whether or not they were in beta. I got this as an answer:

You don't have access to list the currently installed packages. Here is the list
root@box295 [~]# /usr/bin/pear list
Installed packages, channel pear.php.net:
=========================================
Package Version State
Archive_Tar 1.3.2 stable
Auth 1.5.4 stable
Console_Getopt 1.2.3 stable
DB 1.7.13 stable
Date 1.4.7 stable
HTML_Template_IT 1.2.1 stable
MDB2 2.4.1 stable
Mail 1.1.14 stable
Mail_Mime 1.5.2 stable
Mail_mimeDecode 1.5.0 stable
Net_SMTP 1.2.10 stable
Net_Socket 1.0.8 stable
Net_URL 1.0.15 stable
Net_UserAgent_Detect 2.4.0 stable
PEAR 1.6.2 stable
Structures_Graph 1.0.2 stable
XML_RPC 1.5.1 stable


Please contact us if you require any more assistance.

Support Level 3
BlueHost.com
888.401.4678

Once again, absolutely beside the point.

I raised another ticket days ago, but it is still in "New" state. I have talked a couple of times with BlueHost support about it, and the engineer on the phone seems to understand, Yet, the above is all I've been able to get in terms of action from BlueHost.

So is anyone else grappling with this issue?

*VERY* frustrating.

- Jim

[Early Out]

Why do you keep putting in tickets, instead of just using Live Chat? The ticket system is constantly backlogged.

[BlackCatWeb]

The first ticket was not filed by me, but by the phone support engineer I contacted, who seemed to understand the problem perfectly. He, like the engineers available on live chat, did not have the authority or tools to change the server configuration. He therefore wrote the ticket up.

I wrote the second ticket myself after the first one was erroneously rejected, and after I encountered a very long wait on the phone support line in attempting to respond to it (I was 8th in a line and got to be 6th after waiting 15 minutes). I wrote the ticket under the assumption that another engineer on the phone or on live chat would not be able to directly intervene.

Last night, I called support again, after I saw the newer ticket was not even looked at. Thankfully, I got right through. Again, the engineer couldn't directly help, but has E-mailed support to have another look at this issue. He seemed to understand the issue perfectly, too.

As you can see, I've given up on tickets. If by now I haven't made it clear enough as to what this problem is, I presume that at this point I never will.

I am holding out hope that BlueHost will find it sufficiently in their interest to fix this problem. Even if they don't care so much directly about my single business, they might care if this PEAR package installation issue affects a number of accounts, which it just might.

Obviously, the experience here has been less than ideal. :(

Thanks,
Jim

[genericv]

Is there anyone that has successfully installed any of the PEAR packages that
can tell how it went?

I tried to install the Image Canvas package, no luck.
Is an "alpha" release not allowed?

[BlackCatWeb]

As I've read it, the stated policy is to forbid the use of PEAR packages that are not yet in released/stable state.

In my case, though, it seems they have forbidden the use of EVERYTHING. :confused:

[genericv]

There is a php directory on each BlueHost website.
For the case of packages not installing, you could download the PEAR package you want, unpack it, and ftp it to a new directory in the php directory. then use ini_set and ini_get to add the new directory to the include_path.

<?php
ini_set( 'include_path',
ini_get( 'include_path' ).PATH_SEPARATOR."/user/mylibs" );
?>

The above is from "PHP Hacks" by Herrington.

Place the code in every php file, or the header used by every php file.

The include path in my php.ini file in the www directory is:
include_path = ".:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php" ;

But the php directory where BlueHost places the PEAR packages is not "/usr/lib" so this path part is confusing.