GPCJoe, just FYI, my particular problem was resolved by simply recreating the
local.protected.php file containing the following:
<?php
$conf['authtype'] = 'mysql';
require_once ("mysql.conf.php");
If you're unsure of how one php file "includes" another, it's simply achieved by the 'require_once' statement. There are various other ways of including php files which you can discover via a web search, but that's beyond the scope of this topic.
I didn't need to recreate my
mysql.conf.php since it was already there. If you've actually lost this file too, then you'll need to recreate it using either the example file included in the distribution, and/or getting guidance from the dokuwiki wiki.
Good luck.