PHP errors are not showing in browser only page goes blank [closed]

I'm learning to set up my LAMP server. I'm in a stage where I'm trying to connect MySQL to PHP files. It's kinda hard to work out where the problem is considering that all I'm getting is a blank page. No error lines, nothing.

here's my block of code:

<?php
//connect to mysql

$con = mysqli_connect('localhost','root','vengaboys','shoutit');

//test the connection

if(mysqli_connect_errno()){
echo 'failed to connect to MySQL: '.mysqli_connect_error();
}
ini_set('display_errors', 'shoutit');
error_reporting(E_ALL);

?>

Initially, display errors in PHP are OFF. You have to turn it ON Manually.

Locate the following files.

/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
/etc/php5/cli/php.ini

Now find display_errors in that page. It must be Off. You have to change it and make it On.

Now restart the server.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

An error will display instead of a blank page.