WordPress database error Unknown column 'wp_' in 'field list'

[maythamalsudany]

When trying to install WordPress (setup-config.php), after entering the database details and pressing 'Submit', WordPress says that 'There has been a critical error on this website.'

Apache's error log:

[php:error] [pid 18811] [client 127.0.0.1:36932] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught mysqli_sql_exception: Unknown column 'wp_' in 'field list' in /var/www/mylocalsite.com/wp-includes/wp-db.php:2056
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/mylocalsite.com/wp-includes/wp-db.php(2056): mysqli_query()
#1 /var/www/mylocalsite.com/wp-includes/wp-db.php(1945): wpdb->_do_query()
#2 /var/www/mylocalsite.com/wp-admin/setup-config.php(317): wpdb->query()
#3 {main}
  thrown in /var/www/mylocalsite.com/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 2056, referer: http://mylocalsite.com/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=1

I am running Ubuntu 20.04, PHP 8.1.0, MySQL 8.0.27, Apache 2.4.41

[maythamalsudany]

This error occurred when using PHP 8.1, but did not occur when using PHP 7.4.

[peterwilsoncc]

Hi @maythamalsudany and welcome to trac!

I see you've set the version of WP to 5.8.2; as 5.8.2 was released prior to PHP 8.1 it is unsupported.

Would you be able to test with the latest build of the current beta, WP 5.9? You can download it here: ​wordpress-latest.zip.

WordPress 5.8 is considered ​beta compatible with PHP 8.0. A lot of work has been done to prepare the next version of WP for PHP 8.1 but I am not sure of the current status, I am afraid.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Hi there, welcome to WordPress Trac!

Thanks for the report, we're already tracking this issue in #42362 (as a follow-up to #40655).

Let's continue the discussion on #42362 to keep it in one place. I'll make a note there that the error might be more prominent with PHP 8.1.