magento install gets to a 500 error

Question

I am facing a issue while trying to install magento.

I am getting the following error:

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Function name must be a string in /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Layout.php:555
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Action.php(390): Mage_Core_Model_Layout->getOutput()
#1 /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Install/controllers/WizardController.php(120): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->renderLayout()
#2 /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Action.php(419): Mage_Install_WizardController->beginAction()
#3 /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Router/Standard.php(250): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->dispatch('begin')
#4 /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Front.php(176): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard->match(Object(Mage_Core_Controller_Request_Http))
#5  /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/App.php(354): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Front->dispatch()
#6 /var/www/html/magento/app/Mage.php(682): Mage_Core_Model_App- in /var/www/html/magento/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Layout.php on line 555

Configuration details:

• OS: ubuntu 15.10
• Apache: 2.4.18
• php: 7.0.2
• mysql: 5.7.10

Answer 1

Magento 1.x is not fully compatible with PHP 7, see: Is Magento ready for PHP 7?

This specific bug can be fixed, by overriding Mage_Core_Model_Layout and change line 555 from:

$out .= $this->getBlock($callback[0])->$callback[1]();

to

$out .= $this->getBlock($callback[0])->{$callback[1]}();