I am encountering an error when trying to install HikaShop

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1 month 1 week ago #372325

-- HikaShop version -- : 6.5.0
-- Joomla version -- : 6.1.1
-- PHP version -- : 8.3

Hello HikaShop support,

I am encountering an error when trying to install HikaShop for the first time on a Joomla website.
This is a fresh installation with no previous HikaShop data present.

Error messages shown after installation attempt:
1. Warning: Table 'ID470049_DemoAllUnited.r1e6l_hikashop_config' doesn't exist
2. Error: Error installing component

Could you please advise what might be causing this and what the recommended steps are to resolve it?

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,
Lumiga

Kind regards,
Lumiga
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1 month 1 week ago #372333

Hi,

That error means HikaShop's database tables were not created during the installation, so the install could not finish (the config table it needs right after is therefore missing). The component files were copied, but the database step did not complete.

On a fresh install this almost always comes down to one of these, in order of likelihood:

1. Database user privileges. The MySQL user set in your Joomla configuration.php must be allowed to create tables (CREATE, ALTER, INDEX). On some shared or managed hosts the user only has SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, so the CREATE TABLE step fails and no tables are made. Ask your host to grant that database user full privileges on the database, then reinstall.

2. Incomplete or corrupted package. If the upload was truncated (server upload limit) or the download was incomplete, the install SQL gets cut off. Download a fresh copy from your account and install it again.

3. PHP limits. A low max_execution_time or memory_limit can interrupt the install part-way. Make sure max_execution_time is at least 60 and memory_limit at least 128M.

Before retrying, clear the failed attempt first: Extensions > Manage, search for hikashop and uninstall anything left over, so you start from a clean state.

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1 month 5 days ago #372397

Hi Nicolas,

I had the hosting provider look into it, but there was nothing on their end that could be improved. I also downloaded a fresh installation file and checked the other points you mentioned, but everything looks correct there.

I then installed a clean new website on the same hosting environment and installed HikaShop on it — and that worked without any issues. So I suspect the problem is specific to the existing website.

What could be causing HikaShop to fail installation on this particular site? I am using AdminTools, and I also tried resetting the .htaccess to the default Joomla version, but that didn't help either.

Do you have any other ideas on how to resolve this?

In the Joomla log we see only this:
026-06-27T12:04:21+00:00 WARNING 212.83.80.222 jerror Table 'ID470049_DemoAllUnited.r1e6l_hikashop_config' doesn't exist

Kind regards,
Lumiga

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1 month 4 days ago #372402

Hi,

Well, to me, the most likely is that the MySQL user account configured in the Joomla configuration cannot create the table during the installation. Did you use the same MySQL user account on both websites ?
Do you see any HikaShop table in the database after the failed installation ?

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1 month 3 days ago #372412

Hi Nicolas,
After reading your last replay, I did an extra test using the same username and password on the same database. I first emptied the database, deleted all the website files, and installed a fresh Joomla 6.1.1.
After installing HikaShop on this clean setup, we don't experience any issues. So it appears that something within the existing website is causing the problem.
In the database of the website with the error, we can see the following HikaShop records in the extension table.
See images 201 and 202:




Kind regards,

Lumiga

Kind regards,
Lumiga
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Last edit: 1 month 3 days ago by Lumiga.

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1 month 3 days ago #372414

Hi,

Try deleting this entry and then installing HikaShop again. Maybe that will help.

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1 month 2 days ago #372428

Hi Nicolas,

We did that — see the screenshots before and after, and the error.
It's still not possible to install HikaShop on this site. After trying, the only thing we see installed is the component and plug-ins. But we do not see the plugins in Joomla..








After trying, the only thing we see installed is the component and plug-ins. But we do not see the plugins in Joomla..




Kind regards,
Lumiga
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Last edit: 1 month 2 days ago by Lumiga.

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1 month 2 days ago #372434

Hi,

Your clean-site test is the key result: same host, same database, same MySQL user and a fresh package all install HikaShop fine, so the host, the database, the user privileges and the package are all ruled out. The cause is something inside this existing site that interrupts HikaShop's installer.

What you are seeing fits that exactly. HikaShop creates its database tables and then, in a second automatic step right after the component is registered, installs its bundled plugins and modules. On this site that run is being aborted partway: the component and plugin entries get written to the extensions table, but the tables (including hikashop_config) are never created and the plugins never finish registering, which is why Joomla does not list them.

So we need to find what aborts the install on this site. The most likely cause is a third-party system plugin or a security tool throwing an error or blocking part of the install. Since you have Admin Tools, that is the first suspect. Note that resetting the .htaccess does not turn off Admin Tools' PHP-level firewall: that part runs as the System - Admin Tools plugin, so it was still active in your tests.

Please try this:

1. Get the real error. The "table doesn't exist" log line is only the downstream symptom, not the cause. Set Global Configuration > Server > Error Reporting to Maximum and Debug to Yes, then retry the install and note the exact error shown. Also check the server PHP error_log, and Admin Tools > Web Application Firewall > Security Exceptions Log, to see if anything was blocked during the install.

2. Temporarily disable the third-party system plugins, Admin Tools in particular (unpublish the System - Admin Tools plugin), then install HikaShop again. If it works, re-enable them one at a time to find the one responsible.

3. Start each retry from a clean state: delete the leftover HikaShop rows you can see in the extensions table (the com_hikashop component and the hikashop plugins) before reinstalling, so the install does not trip over half-installed entries.

Send us the exact errors from step 1. We might be able to find out the issue with them.

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3 weeks 4 days ago #372527

I've removed everything except Akeeba Backup and YOOtheme. I emptied the database of everything HikaShop had added, and I had the Joomla core files reinstalled. I then made a backup and tried installing HikaShop again. But it still won't work. I've restored the backup so you can take a look yourself to see what's going on ;-) I'm completely stumped.

I've also done step 1 as you described it, and the results are attached.

I don't see any messages appearing on screen other than the standard message this ticket is about.

The errorlog:
[Tue Jul 07 16:48:08.321825 2026] [error] [pid 2904836] apache2_util.c(275): [client 2a02:a420:21d1:a051:28f8:629b:5c2f:a343:0] [client 2a02:a420:21d1:a051:28f8:629b:5c2f:a343] ModSecurity: Rule 62df7e97d720 [id "35013"][line "40"] - Execution error - PCRE limits exceeded (-8): (null). [hostname "support.allunited.club"] [uri "/administrator/index.php"] [unique_id "9f9b0a6cce9948bfa3c99215b3881418"] See also the eccess log file [attachment=63287]The-accesslog.txt[/attachment][file "/usr/local/httpd/conf/modsecurity-crs/activated-rules/modsecurity_00_combell.conf"][line "40"] - Execution error - PCRE limits exceeded (-8): (null). [hostname "support.allunited.club"] [uri "/administrator/index.php"] [unique_id "9f9b0a6cce9948bfa3c99215b3881418"]

See also the eccess log file

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Kind regards,
Lumiga

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3 weeks 3 days ago #372530

Hi,

That log line is the answer we were missing. The install is being aborted by ModSecurity, the web application firewall running at your host's Apache level, not by anything inside Joomla:

ModSecurity: Rule [id "35013"][line "40"] - Execution error - PCRE limits exceeded (-8)
[file ".../modsecurity-crs/activated-rules/modsecurity_00_combell.conf"]
[uri "/administrator/index.php"]

What happens: HikaShop's install sends a large request to /administrator/index.php. One of your host's firewall rules (id 35013, in a Combell ruleset file) tries to scan that request, its regular expression hits the PCRE backtracking limit and errors out (that is the -8), and the error kills the request in the middle of the install. So the component and plugin rows get written to the extensions table, but the CREATE TABLE step never runs, which is exactly the "hikashop_config doesn't exist" symptom.

This also explains everything else you found. It is at the web-server level, so removing your Joomla plugins, reinstalling the core and resetting the .htaccess could not change it, and the clean test site only worked because the same rule did not trip there.

Only your host can change this. Go back to them, this time with the exact rule instead of just "the install fails". The rule file is theirs (modsecurity_00_combell.conf, so this is Combell), and ask them to either:

1. whitelist or disable ModSecurity rule id 35013 for /administrator/index.php on this site, or
2. raise the PCRE limits (SecPcreMatchLimit and SecPcreMatchLimitRecursion) so the rule can finish evaluating the request instead of erroring.

Either one lets the install request through and the tables get created. If your hosting control panel has a ModSecurity on/off switch, you can also disable it just for the install and turn it back on afterwards.

Before the next attempt, delete the leftover HikaShop rows from the extensions table again so you start from a clean state.

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23 hours 40 minutes ago #372938

Hi Nicolas,

We have done a lot of systematic testing since your last reply. The results
point away from the ModSecurity rule, so let me describe exactly what we
tested and what came out of it.

THE TEST THAT ISOLATES THE PROBLEM

Everything below was done on the same hosting, same server, same HikaShop
installation package.

1. A fresh Joomla, created by our host -> HikaShop installs without any
problem.
2. I then make an Akeeba Backup of an again new fresh joomla site and back-up it with akeeba backup, and restore it
with Kickstart, using "Drop ALL tables" during the restore.
3. On that restored site, HikaShop fails on the very first attempt:

Warning: Table '..._hikashop_config' doesn't exist
Error: Error installing component

This is a site that has never had HikaShop on it in any form. The failure
appears the moment the site has been restored, and not before. We have
repeated this and it is reproducible.

WHAT WE HAVE RULED OUT

- Database privileges: SHOW GRANTS returns GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES on the
database. We repeated the entire test with our own database and user, AND
with the automatically created database and user from our host: the same
failure both times. The Akeeba restore itself creates over 100 tables with
that same user, so CREATE clearly works.

- Leftovers: no jos_hikashop_* tables exist, and
SELECT ... FROM jos_extensions WHERE element LIKE '%hikashop%' returns 0
rows. No HikaShop files on disk either.

- Character set and collation: identical to the working site
(utf8mb3 / utf8mb3_general_ci).

- Paths: after the restore, tmp_path and log_path still pointed to the
original site's directory. We corrected both. It made no difference.

- The assets table: the nested set is healthy. root.1 has id=1, parent_id=0,
lft=0, level=0, and the child records follow on without gaps or overlaps.

- Upload size and the installation method: we also uploaded the package over
FTP and used "Install from Folder", so no large upload passes through Apache
at all. It still fails.

A CONTROL TEST WITH A COMPARABLE EXTENSION

To check whether the problem is HikaShop-specific or general, we installed
Admin Tools on this same restored site. That is a component of comparable size
to the HikaShop package, and it installed without any problem.

ABOUT THE MODSECURITY MESSAGES

We looked at the Apache error log more closely. The ModSecurity "PCRE limits
exceeded" messages for rule 35013 also appear during other administrator
requests and during installations that complete successfully, including the
Admin Tools installation on this same site. So those messages do not correlate
with the failure: they occur both when an installation succeeds and when
HikaShop fails.

We have reported the rule to our host anyway, but based on this we do not
believe it is the cause of the HikaShop installation failure.

WHAT WE SEE IN THE LOGS

Joomla Debug and Error Reporting are set to maximum. Nothing extra appears on
screen, and the Joomla log contains only the downstream line:

2026-07-31T23:47:15+00:00 WARNING jerror
Table '..._hikashop_config' doesn't exist

NEXT TEST

We will now try an older HikaShop installation package on the same restored
site, to see whether this behaviour was introduced in one of the recent
versions or whether it is tied to the restored state itself. We will report
the outcome here.

QUESTIONS

- What exactly does the HikaShop installer use to decide between a fresh
install and an update? On a restored site nothing of HikaShop exists - no
files, no tables, no extensions record - yet the installer queries
hikashop_config immediately and then aborts.

- Is there anything an Akeeba restore changes or rewrites that HikaShop's
installer depends on? We are happy to check or reset anything specific.

- Is there a way to make the installer report the underlying failure instead
of only "Error installing component"? A debug switch or a log would tell us
in a single attempt where it stops.

Kind regards,
Lumiga

Kind regards,
Lumiga
Last edit: 23 hours 23 minutes ago by Lumiga.

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18 hours 22 minutes ago #372940

Hello,

Your test isolates it perfectly, and we have reproduced it here. It is a bug on our side, and it has nothing to do with the database, the host or ModSecurity. Thank you for the very detailed tests, they are what allowed us to find it.

The trigger is a leftover com_hikashop folder on the site. Joomla decides between a fresh install and an update by looking at the folders, not at the database: in ComponentAdapter::checkExtensionInFilesystem(), if components/com_hikashop, administrator/components/com_hikashop or api/components/com_hikashop already exists, and the extension provides an update() method in its install script, which HikaShop does, Joomla routes the installation as an update. And for the "update" route, InstallerAdapter::parseQueries() does not run the SQL file declared in the manifest, which is the file that creates the tables of HikaShop. So no table is created, HikaShop then queries its configuration table, the query fails, and Joomla aborts with the two messages you get.

That is why a really fresh Joomla works and a restored one does not: the restore brings back the folders of HikaShop while the tables are gone, and deleting the rows of the extensions table does not remove those folders.

So to answer your questions:
- What decides fresh install versus update: the presence of the component folder on disk, decided by Joomla before our install script even runs, not anything of ours in the database.
- What the Akeeba restore changes: nothing it does wrong. It simply puts the files back, and the empty database then no longer matches them.
- A debug switch: not needed here, the fix removes the problem.

We fixed it: HikaShop now creates its missing tables itself in that situation, instead of stopping. We reproduced your exact case on a Joomla 6.1 site with the com_hikashop folders present and no HikaShop table, and the installation now goes through.

So you can download the install package on our website and install it on yours and then the problem should not happen.

Alternatively, delete the com_hikashop folders before installing: components/com_hikashop, administrator/components/com_hikashop, api/components/com_hikashop, and media/com_hikashop, then install the package again. That works with the version you already have.

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