New Phorum install but no admin creds

Ok, I super stuck and I can't figure this one out.

I recently installed Phorum on a webhost, went to admin.php. It ran through an update then kicks me to the admin login. So no where did it ask me to setup admin creds. I looked in the SQL tables and found the admin username and password in the user table but those creds don't to login into the admin interface.
The database is an import from the //phorum-5.2.23\Core-phorum_5_2_23\tests\_data. I'm assuming that I did that incorrectly or am I missing something? Oh also the MySQL db is run through a manger that the hosting service supplied, so I wasn't able to use the create db SQL from the guide, is that the reason I didn't get to setup my own creds?

It might be strict mode.
Also note that Phorum has issues with PHP 7.x

[www.phorum.org]

How do I turn off strict mode or is there another work around for it? I'm assuming you mean MySQL is in strict mode correct?

After looking at the server setup I've setup, it looks like its running PHP FPM, is that the issue?

Please note; I have not tested this at all. Do not use on a production phorum without testing.
[www.phorum.org] Fixes for PHP 7/8

For info about "strict", use the advanced search feature of this phorum.
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Ok I'm a dumb. I wasn't going through the setup correctly. I was creating a blank DB and then importing the tables from the .sql files from \tests\_data.

What I should have down, is setup a blank DB, added the user info to the config file for said DB and then go to the admin.php.

Also, I did make the changes that you told me to look for in the .php files. Everything seems to be working like a champ!