The above instructions are missing a few important steps:

1. Don't forget to install Django!
easy_install django

2. Some of the easy_install steps won't actually install correctly on all windows version. On mine, installing markdown failed using easy_install. I was able to fix this by going to the sourceforge project site for markdown and downloading the setup EXE directly and installing it.

3. There are no windows binaries on Sourceforge for python-mysql for Python 2.6, so the easy_install of python-mysql will fail on 2.6. I wasn't able to work aroudn this, so I opted to use sqlite3 instead initially, and will use postgres eventually.

This page http://www.codegood.com/archives/4 has some pre compiled auto installable binaries for windows.

Another minor typo above:

> (usually C:\python26) and the scripts folder (C:\python26\script).

The folder is "scripts" not "script". Plus, Python 2.7 is the latest release, so should probably change above to:

> (usually C:\python27) and the scripts folder (C:\python27\scripts).

Also, under "create database schema" above, you must not accept Django's invitation to create a super-user. If you do, then the user ID of your OSQA user will not be 1, which will in turn prevent the stackexchange importer from working correctly.

I just followed these steps and had two issues on the way:

1) "Grab the setup tools installer from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools and run it." - this doesn't seem to work on Windows 2008 Server 64bit with the 64bit version of Python 2.7 installed. The installer fails with a message "Python version 2.7 required, which was not found in the registry." It seems as if this is a known issue (see http://bugs.python.org/issue6792) - I worked around it by installing the package locally and then manually copying the files (not my favorite solution but it worked).

2) I first installed OSQA into some folder below Inetpub/wwwroot. With that setup, when trying to run "manage.py syncdb --all" I got a message that the module was not found. So I moved the folder below Python27/Lib/site-packages. That fixed this issue. Probably that's something obvious to people more intimate with Python/Django.

Anyways, now it's working for me

I install on my local machine Window 7 64bit WampServer. I thought I got everything up and run until I key
manage.py syncdb --all
on the command line. Here is my persistent error.

There is no South database module 'south.db.None' for your database. Please eith
er choose a supported database, check for SOUTH_DATABASE_ADAPTER[S] settings, or
 remove South from INSTALLED_APPS.

I am a python newbie. I need some help

While following the guide i face issues and then after lot of search i finally got it working.

Issue 1. The command "easy_install <dbadapter>" not working.

Explanation:

I tried to install it with "easy_install python-mysql" and its not working.

Result:

D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV\osqa>easy_install python-mysql
Searching for python-mysql
Reading http://pypi.python.org/simple/python-mysql/
Couldn't find index page for 'python-mysql' (maybe misspelled?)
Scanning index of all packages (this may take a while)
Reading http://pypi.python.org/simple/
No local packages or download links found for python-mysql
Best match: None
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:\Python27\Scripts\easy_install-script.py", line 8, in <module>
load_entry_point('setuptools==0.6c11', 'console_scripts', 'easy_install')()
File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\easy_install.py", line 1712, in main
with_ei_usage(lambda:
File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\easy_install.py", line 1700, in with_ei_usage
return f()
File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\easy_install.py", line 1716, in <lambda>
distclass=DistributionWithoutHelpCommands, **kw
File "D:\Python27\lib\distutils\core.py", line 152, in setup
dist.run_commands()
File "D:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 953, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)
File "D:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()
File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\easy_install.py", line 211, in run
self.easy_install(spec, not self.no_deps)
File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\easy_install.py", line 434, in easy_install
self.local_index
File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools\package_index.py", line 475, in fetch_distribution
return dist.clone(location=self.download(dist.location, tmpdir))
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'clone'

D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV\osqa>

Solution:

(Auto Install) Try "easy_install mysql-python" found but cannot install automatically

D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV\osqa>easy_install mysql-python
Searching for mysql-python
Reading http://pypi.python.org/simple/mysql-python/
Reading http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysql-python/
Reading http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysql-python
Best match: MySQL-python 1.2.4b2
Downloading http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysql-python/files/mysql-python-test/1.2.4b2/MySQL-python-1.2.4b2.win32-py2.7.exe
/download
Processing download
error: Couldn't find a setup script in c:\users\abrahe~1\appdata\local\temp\easy_install-y3jrcf\download

D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV\osqa>manage.py syncdb --all

Manual Install

Goto http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysql-python/
Download MySQL-python-1.2.4b2.win32-py2.7
Install MySQL-python-1.2.4b2.win32-py2.7.exe (it should find your python dir)

I got error when tried to run on Windows 7.
Note that server is running without any issue.

D:\osqa>manage.py runserver

Validating models...

0 errors found

Django version 1.4.1, using settings 'osqa.settings'

*Development server is running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/*

Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK.

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "D:\Python27\lib\wsgiref\handlers.py", line 85, in run

    self.result = application(self.environ, self.start_response)

  File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django-1.4.1-py2.7.egg\django\contrib\staticfiles\handlers.py", line 67, in _call_

    return self.application(environ, start_response)

  File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django-1.4.1-py2.7.egg\django\core\handlers\wsgi.py", line 219, in _call_

    self.load_middleware()

  File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django-1.4.1-py2.7.egg\django\core\handlers\base.py", line 51, in load_middleware

    raise exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured('Middleware module "%s" does not define a "%s" class' % (mw_module, mw_classname))

ImproperlyConfigured: Middleware module "django.middleware.csrf" does not define a "CsrfResponseMiddleware" class

[30/Sep/2012 02:16:52] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 500 59

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "D:\Python27\lib\wsgiref\handlers.py", line 85, in run

    self.result = application(self.environ, self.start_response)

  File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django-1.4.1-py2.7.egg\django\contrib\staticfiles\handlers.py", line 67, in _call_

    return self.application(environ, start_response)

  File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django-1.4.1-py2.7.egg\django\core\handlers\wsgi.py", line 219, in _call_

    self.load_middleware()

  File "D:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django-1.4.1-py2.7.egg\django\core\handlers\base.py", line 51, in load_middleware

    raise exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured('Middleware module "%s" does not define a "%s" class' % (mw_module, mw_classname))

ImproperlyConfigured: Middleware module "django.middleware.csrf" does not define a "CsrfResponseMiddleware" class

Solution:

Use Django version 1.3.1 and now everything is working fine (OSQA is now running on my local machine)

If you have installed latest version 1.4.x then you first you delete it and install version 1.3.1.

1. From your python site-packages directory delete django-1.4.x-pyx.x.egg

2. Install Django version 1.3.1 with following command

easy_install Django==1.3.1

While installing on Windows 7 please change the following (its missing from guide)
1. From your main OSQA directory (where you download the OSQA) change the "osqa.wsgi.dist" to "osqa.wsgi"
2. Edit "osqa.wsgi" and enter your fourm location path. My file look like this.

import os
import sys
sys.path.append('D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV')
sys.path.append('D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV\osqa')

# The first part of this module name should be identical to the directory name
# of the OSQA source. For instance, if the full path to OSQA is
# /home/osqa/osqa-server, then the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE should have a value
# of 'osqa-server.settings'.
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'osqa.settings'
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

3. (Optional if source folder name is osqa) If your OSQA source folder name is other then osqa then you need to change the 'osqa.settings' too. Change it to the folder name that you have.
Example:
In above sample file we have two folder paths
1. sys.path.append('D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV')
2. sys.path.append('D:\My Projects\fourmsDEV\osqa')

1.) is the folder which contain another folder named osqa
2.) is the folder which contain forum files, that mean its the root folder of OSQA forum which contain "osqa.wsgi" and "manage.py" files.

lets say you have 2nd folder like this
d:\abc\xyz
then osqa.settings will be xyz.settings because xyz is the folder which contain forum files.

Hope this helps others.

Hi,

let me drop my 2p with this link, seems to be quite simple:

Installing OSQA on Windows in production

http://www.helicontech.com/articles/installing-osqa-on-windows-in-production/