apache - PHP errors NOT being displayed in the browser [Ubuntu 10.10]

Question

I'm new to PHP and the whole LAMP stack but I've managed to get it up and running on my Ubuntu 10.10 system. Everything seems to be working with the exception of error reposting in the browser which I just can't seem to get working (and which I can't work without!).

I've read a number of article and other threads which indicate that the following values should be applied in the file /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini:

• display_errors = On
• display_startup_errors = On

I've restarted apache2 and even restarted my computer but for the life of me I just can't get it working. I've even tried using phpinfo() function which reports that these settings are as I've set them so I know it's picking up the correct configuration file but nothing!

Any help would be welcome.

Answer 1

Don't just enable the first occurrence of display_errors in the php.ini file. Make sure you scroll down to the "real" setting and change it from Off to On.

The thing is that if you settle with changing (i.e. uncomment + add = On) by the very first occurrence of display_errors your changes will be overwritten somewhere on line 480 where it's set to Off again.