Database Session tracking problems

I am unsure if this is a bug or some sort of configuration error...

I have been setting up my store locally on Win2K / Apache 1.3.29 etc.

When I add products to my basket as Guest, then go to checkout it prompts me to log on, informing me that the 'visitor cart will be merged with my member cart'.

Once I log on, my shopping cart turns out to be EMPTY! It does not merge them!

I just checked if it remembered my shopping cart at all, and no, it does not. After being logged on and adding a bunch of stuff to my cart, then logging off, then back on again to check if the stuff is still there, my cart turns out to be empty!

I have noticed that a massive URL does not appear online, while locally it does. (with all the random session letters). This is when database session tracking is used.

The software set-up locally and on my server are quite different;

Remotely (live web server)

Server OS: Linux 2.4.18-3
Database: MySQL 3.23.49

HTTP Server: Apache/1.3.23 (Unix) (Red-Hat/Linux) mod_ssl/2.8.7 OpenSSL/0.9.6b DAV/1.0.3
PHP/4.1.2 mod_perl/1.26 (Zend engine 1.1.1)

also has cURL installed


locally I run

HTTP Server: Apache/1.3.29 (Win32)
PHP Version: 4.3.4 (Zend: 1.3.0)
Database: MySQL 4.0.15-nt

no cURL


Once I changed the session tracking to be stored in files (in /tmp) online - setting define('STORE_SESSIONS', '');, suddenly my previous activities - adding products to test the shopping cart merging etc. appeared!


What I would like to know is - WHY is OSCommerce storing the session data in /tmp and NOT in the database?? session saving is set to('STORE_SESSIONS', 'mysql'); yet once this is disabled, I discovered that they had been saved elsewhere.

i have to set it to define('STORE_SESSIONS', ''); for it to work once more.

[pixelhed]

I have also experienced this problem, i was wondering if you have found any solution?

A