Can't Get ImageMagick to work.
 

My host has image magick installed, and Ive entered the path as many different ways as I can, but it just won't seem to work on my board.

Am I doing something wrong or missing something? I've had it working before on a different host, just doesn't seem to want to work with my current host.

There is only one path to ImageMagick...What has your host said the path is?

/usr/local/bin/convert/

I have tried also
/usr/local/bin/
/usr/bin/

and still the image magick picture doesn't show up.... I'm not sure why?!

If you host says it is /usr/local/bin/convert/ and it does not work - you will need to consult them. We cannot really help you with a server-specific path.

I am in contact with them, I was asking here because I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem before, or maybe I did something wrong or missed something.

I don't want to use GD, but its starting to look like i might have to.

u might ask, have they got ALL the modules installed.... in other words, does their install support all graphic formats..... jpg, png, gif etc...
i had a nightmare installing ImageMagick on the server, (linux), even with a lot of help and support from the ImageMagick crew... got there in the end.....
i haven't got a clue how to actually use ImageMagick, i installed for a pal, however it is interesting that u need specify a path... with the correct install, i believe u need only call the module, something like "use Image::Magick" (dont quote me on this, it was for perl scripts, not PHP)

well vbulletin only has one input box for a path.

So if the convert binaries are located in /usr/bin/convert/ wouldn't the identify binaries be in /usr/bin/identify/, which would mean the path to use in vbulletin would be /usr/bin/ ...

correct? .... maybe?

I couldn't get mine to work at first either. But after opening a ticket, eventually my host got it working. I forget the exact reason they gave me.

If you type "which convert" at a shell prompt, it should return the complete path to the convert utility. On my dedicated server, it comes out as:

/usr/local/bin/convert

...which means in vB, I enter "/usr/local/bin/" (with the trailing slash) to point to the directory in which convert and identify reside. Works fine on our server.

You do NOT want to use a backslash after ......./convert, since you'll have vB looking for a directory named "convert". You have to think of convert as being the filename of the "program" you are running, whereas everything preceding it (in my case, the /usr/local/bin/) being the directory hierarchy in which it is found.

This is the email I got from my host most recently.... it still doesnt work though.

I dont have access to a shell prompt on my host :(

Well, you've got their ear, so let them know. Send them a screenshot because you can bet they aren't familiar with vb and don't know you have a little test utility right there in Options.

Here, I dug back through my support tickets and found their explanation - this after giving them admin access and jumping through all kinds of hoops:

i would ask hosts if any other domain holder is using IM, and see some "physical" evidence that it is actually working for someone else. as stated before, i had a nightmare with this package, until i finally got it installed "properly". u could save urself a lot of useless testing etc

well they cant enable exec() or its enabled for the whole server and this is a huge security risk they say.

I did however find this useful test script
http://www.expertzzz.com/Downloadz/view/880

which i put on my server
http://96cougar.com/cgi-bin/magickpm.cgi

and it tells me that they are using version 5.51, and not image magick 6

i clicked your "test" link.... and it says it all. i guess ur hosts are going going to tell u anything but the real reason why IM wont run, that being, IM is a +++++ to install! :) they either can't figure it, or can't be bothered. i will try dig out the exact build files that i used on the server, which u can suggest to them. they will, however, still need to load libs for each graphic format u need, (thats after u installed the app!). it really is a ball-ache. :(

--------------- Added [DATE]1224858243[/DATE] at [TIME]1224858243[/TIME] ---------------

here are some details of my install:
IM build = ImageMagick-6.4.1
here are 3 of the lib files i installed (the "-devel" extension is important!)
libjpeg-devel.i386
libpng-devel.i386
libtiff-devel.i386
here is the shell command i used to configure, prior to "make", then "make install" (which worked for me :) = ./configure --enable-shared --with-perl --disable-openmp --with-jpeg --with-png --with-tiff --disable-static LDFLAGS='-L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib -rpath,/usr/lib'

here are 2 shell commands which tell the whole story, about the install and config, of IM
identify -list configure
identify -list format

hope this helps

they installed 6.4.4 for me, and it still isnt working.

the test script now returns good info, and passes all tests, except the one for the font which says it needs to be uploaded (it is) and it doesnt tell you the directory that the script is located in, or the path to upload the font file.... which is the path the script is located in.

ill pass your post on to them and see what they say about.... what i do know, is that they wont enable exec(), they said they've had a hacker break in with that enabled.

i would say u are nearly there! :)

edit: default location for libfreetype would be /usr/lib

this is what my host has to say most recently

I have did the

i dont know what to say....
however, i am seriously tempted to open a server just for "ppl who cant get their host to run IM".............

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't IM mostly just useful for fancier captchas? If so, forget it - captchas were broken long ago, and now the bots have an easier time reading them than people do.

i think it used for a little bit more than this :p

Not from what I'm seeing. Most of the newer features in IM won't ever be used in vb (composite, montage, HDR, etc.). IM had cropping long before GD, but even that feature isn't used in vb. GD has no trouble doing thumbnails now.

I think .gif support has been dropped in GD, but I'm not sure.