Topic: Apache 2.4.10 64bit fails to start with PHP 5.6.2 32bit

[KARichardson]

System:
Windows 8.1 64-bit

Visual C++ Redist:
2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013
Installed vcredist_x64.exe
Installed vcredist_x86.exe

Apache:
Installed httpd-2.4.10-win64-VC11 (main focus)
Installed httpd-2.4.10-win32-VC11
C:/Apache/httpd/x64/Apache24
C:/Apache/httpd/x86/Apache24

PHP (Thread Safe):
Installed php-5.3.29-Win32-VC9-x86
Installed php-5.4.34-Win32-VC9-x86
Installed php-5.5.18-Win32-VC11-x86
Installed php-5.6.2-Win32-VC11-x86 (main focus)
C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/v5.6/

Hello. Okay, so I am pretty new to installing and configuring the latest version of Apache and PHP on my system. I found a video on youtube called "Install Apache 2.4 PHP 5.4 on Windows 8 PC" and i followed those instructions as a guideline. I got all the way in the video to 13:50 and tried to start the Apache service but i get "The request operation has failed" error. I tried to debug the issue by opening the command prompt "Run as Administrator" and ran the following command: "httpd.exe -e debug", and i got this:

C:\Apache\httpd\x64\Apache24\bin>httpd.exe -e debug
...
...
[Modules loaded fine]
...
...
httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 177 of C:/Apache/httpd/x64/Apache24/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/v5.6/php5apache2_4.dll into server: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.


I back traced my steps in the video to the first time i got my first error during the service install and i recall this on the service install with the 64-bit service:

C:\Apache\httpd\x64\Apache24\bin>httpd.exe -k install
Installing the Apache 2.4 service
The Apache 2.4 service is successfully installed.
Testing httpd.conf....
Errors reported here must be corrected before the service can be started.
httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 177 of C:/Apache/httpd/x64/Apache24/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/v5.6/php5apache2_4.dll into server: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.


I then tried uninstalling the 64bit Apache service and tried installing the service using the 32-bit service and got this:

C:\Apache\httpd\x86\Apache24\bin>httpd.exe -k install
Installing the Apache 2.4 service
The Apache 2.4 service is successfully installed.
Testing httpd.conf....
Errors reported here must be corrected before the service can be started.
AH00526: Syntax error on line 533 of C:/Apache/httpd/x86/Apache24/conf/httpd.conf:
PHPINIDir takes one argument, Directory containing the php.ini file


Any help or feedback in understanding would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks.

[glsmith]

You cannot load a 32bit module into a 64bit Apache.

Jan has 5.6.2 64bit builds of PHP if you want to try
php-5.6.2-Win32-VC11-x64.zip

See Jan's post here
http://www.apachelounge.com/viewtopic.php?t=6123

[wm003]

If you use fcgi instead of mod_php then you can still use php 32 Bit together with apache 64-bit.

[KARichardson]

Thanks for the inputs.

To be honest, I was a little hesitate to install any of the x64 (64-bit) builds of PHP. I noted on the windows.php.net site that the x64 were experimental builds. So, I wanted a more stable version of PHP which I assumed would be the x86 (32-bit) builds.

Does anyone know if they've tried the x64 builds of PHP and have had success with no buggy issues that would make them revert back to the x86 builds?

I've seen some of these acronyms before (i.e., fcgi, etc...) but i'm not too familiar with these acronyms. I googled search fcgi php apache and found some links. So, I will read up on this.

But...May I ask, "what advantages/disadvantages does one gain/lose by using these mod versions versus the normal Apache/PHP installs?"

Appreciate your input/feedback again.

Thanks.

[James Blond]

For me I noticed that the x86 PHP builds are faster ( last test in autumn last year. might have changed) and the x64 wasn't always stable.

Many admin in the forum use PHP over f(ast)cgi(d). It is very stable and can run high performance. An example setup http://www.apachelounge.com/viewtopic.php?t=2394

[KARichardson]

To all that have responded, I appreciate your feedback and input and help in this topic.

So, I decided to install the x64-bit version of PHP on my machine. This turned out to be an interesting task for me. Even with the install of the x64-bit PHP version, I still had issues starting up Apache which drove me nuts for the last couple of days of trying to figure out what else could be causing the problem. Then I finally decided to comment out the PHP modules and just get Apache running first. Turns out that there was a binding problem on port 80. Didn't know how to figure out which software was using that same port. Found this command in one of the forums from google search:

netstat -aon | findstr 0.0:80

Come to find out, there was a port conflict on my machine. Seems my Apache and Oracle XE software were using the same port number. So, once I changed the port for Apache, I got it working and running. And then, I was able to successfully use PHP x64-bit version with Apache.

So, thanks again to everyone that help with his topic. I appreciate it very much.