Session_start(): Failed to initialize storage module when about to install InvoicePlane 1.6 on local system

Support
1

Hi all,

I am getting below error when I attempt to install InvoicePlane locally on XAMPP (latest version running 8.1 PHP). I went through the installation steps from A to Z and I cannot seem to find the issue. I have to admit the instructions in the wiki about ‘Run InvoicePlane in a sub directory’ was a little cryptic as the content of the file .htaccess does not look 100% alike what is in the wiki, so maybe that is what causes me issues? My directory (sub-directory) is http://localhost/invoices_v2

I’ve been running the 1.5.11 version for a while and wanted to do a fresh installation before I attempt to update my current invoicing platform.

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to initialize storage module: user (path: /var/folders/87/99j1ktt50l7101yfhk36_bx00000gn/T)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/Invoices_V2/application/third_party/MX/Loader.php
Line: 216
Function: _ci_load_library

File: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/Invoices_V2/application/modules/setup/controllers/Setup.php
Line: 34
Function: library

File: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/invoices_v2/index.php
Line: 329
Function: require_once
2

I had to look 3 times, but you’re working on a Mac. That’s interesting.

it’s probably because the cache directory doesn’t have the right permissions. Make sure it is writable.

Here is an entire checklist of someone who had similar problems on a Mac The checklist of things to check when your CodeIgniter 4 web application is not working

It’s related to CodeIgniter 4, but it’s similar for InvoicePlane: InvoicePlane has a ‘cache’ directory and the system cannot write to it. Therefore it cannot start the session.

This is the reason why we use docker: just to avoid these issues on local systems.

3

Thanks UnderDog. I’ll have a look at the cache directory (if I can find it lol). Any idea if there’s a v1.6 docker installation guide out already? I’m pretty new to all this.

4

There is no Docker guide. If you’re in the InvoicePlane directory and if you’ve installed Docker, you can run docker-compose up -d, that should give you everything you need.