Greetings: this is more like a report back to help others in this situation. Before deciding whether I want to use a manual approach or Softaculous in our cPanel account, I decided to use XAMPP to install OJS 3.5.0.3 (as a testing instance but not for production) to encounter any issues while installing. I have seen a good few postings on the web reporting on an error that reads like this (the specifics vary by user specifications):
“Errors occurred during installation A database error has occurred: Failed to set database timezone: SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user ‘ojs’@‘localhost’ (using password: YES) (Connection: mysql, SQL: SET time_zone = ‘+00:00’)”
After spinning some wheels, I was looking more into additional setting possibilities in localhost/phpmyadmin. Because there is already a config.ini.php file in the installation directory, the database settings provide the credentials but that particular user is missing in phpmyadmin user settings, so you have to make sure that the user and their credentials must match one of the user accounts and create one if you do not see it. I have read it on this forum that root-level access is not advised, so you can create one named after your dog :-). Adding the credentials in the config file has allowed me to complete the installation and get to the login site. Next, it will be important to consult a checklist to see everything is working as expected.
This posting was mainly to pay forward with information that might help others. I myself have received very helpful tips and instructions. Feel free to message me if you have questions with your OJS installation in XAMPP. Take care! – @asabhar Arjun