FATAL ERROR: MODx Setup cannot continue. Make sure your PHP session configurati

Hi there,

I am trying to get a new MODx site set up - but I get this error:

FATAL ERROR: MODx Setup cannot continue.

Make sure your PHP session configuration is valid and working.

The site is on a VPS server, on which I have another site running perfectly sith the same php.ini file so I have no idea what’s happening.

PHP is running as a CGI module rather than an Apache module.

Any help very gratefully received!

Jim.

Here is the phpinfo() output:

Configuration
PHP Core
Directive Local Value Master Value
allow_call_time_pass_reference Off Off
allow_url_fopen Off Off
allow_url_include Off Off
always_populate_raw_post_data Off Off
arg_separator.input & &
arg_separator.output & &
asp_tags Off Off
auto_append_file no value no value
auto_globals_jit On On
auto_prepend_file no value no value
browscap no value no value
default_charset no value no value
default_mimetype text/html text/html
define_syslog_variables Off Off
disable_classes no value no value
disable_functions no value no value
display_errors Off Off
display_startup_errors Off Off
doc_root no value no value
docref_ext no value no value
docref_root no value no value
enable_dl On On
error_append_string no value no value
error_log no value no value
error_prepend_string no value no value
error_reporting 6135 6135
expose_php Off Off
extension_dir /usr/lib/php/modules /usr/lib/php/modules
file_uploads On On
highlight.bg #FFFFFF #FFFFFF
highlight.comment #FF8000 #FF8000
highlight.default #0000BB #0000BB
highlight.html #000000 #000000
highlight.keyword #007700 #007700
highlight.string #DD0000 #DD0000
html_errors On On
ignore_repeated_errors Off Off
ignore_repeated_source Off Off
ignore_user_abort Off Off
implicit_flush Off Off
include_path .: .:
log_errors On On
log_errors_max_len 1024 1024
magic_quotes_gpc Off Off
magic_quotes_runtime Off Off
magic_quotes_sybase Off Off
mail.force_extra_parameters no value no value
max_execution_time 120 120
max_file_uploads 20 20
max_input_nesting_level 64 64
max_input_time 60 60
memory_limit 128M 128M
open_basedir no value no value
output_buffering 4096 4096
output_handler no value no value
post_max_size 16M 16M
precision 14 14
realpath_cache_size 16K 16K
realpath_cache_ttl 120 120
register_argc_argv Off Off
register_globals Off Off
register_long_arrays Off Off
report_memleaks On On
report_zend_debug On On
safe_mode Off Off
safe_mode_exec_dir no value no value
safe_mode_gid Off Off
safe_mode_include_dir no value no value
sendmail_from no value no value
sendmail_path /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
serialize_precision 100 100
short_open_tag On On
SMTP localhost localhost
smtp_port 25 25
sql.safe_mode Off Off
track_errors Off Off
unserialize_callback_func no value no value
upload_max_filesize 16M 16M
upload_tmp_dir no value no value
user_dir no value no value
variables_order EGPCS EGPCS
xmlrpc_error_number 0 0
xmlrpc_errors Off Off
y2k_compliance On On
zend.ze1_compatibility_mode Off Off

hi,

the error speaks about session and you haven’t given us any session params...

something you could have a look at, the session temp dir. Some configurations need you to create a session dir in you website root dir to store sessions tmp files, mays be it could be the case. If so, without that dir, modx session (well any session) can’t work

(prefer session use trans sid on 0 too)

have swing

Jim,
I had the same exact issues. It took me forever to figure out how to fix it. I had just upgraded our PHP version to include PDO support. After doing so, session.auto_start had been set to 0. I have a VDS so I just went in to the WHM and updated the PHP configuration (under advanced settings) and changed session auto start to 1. Then restarted apache and restarted mysql (just in case). The errors went away and I finished the setup with no more issues. Good luck!
Tom

Hi,

Sorry to dig this old thread but I have the same session error with the install of modx revolution.
I have tried the session.autostart = 1 thing but it doesn’t seem to change anything.
And I really don’t know what the correct session configuration should be...

Thanks for any suggestion...

My configuration (Local server):

arch linux
nginx
php-fpm
mysql ..
modx revo

"/tmp" is "world writable".

Session Support enabled
Registered save handlers files user
Registered serializer handlers php php_binary


Sessions info from php_info:
Directive Local Value Master Value
session.auto_start On On
session.bug_compat_42 Off Off
session.bug_compat_warn Off Off
session.cache_expire 180 180
session.cache_limiter nocache nocache
session.cookie_domain no value no value
session.cookie_httponly Off Off
session.cookie_lifetime 0 0
session.cookie_path / /
session.cookie_secure Off Off
session.entropy_file no value no value
session.entropy_length 0 0
session.gc_divisor 1000 1000
session.gc_maxlifetime 1440 1440
session.gc_probability 1 1
session.hash_bits_per_character 5 5
session.hash_function 0 0
session.name PHPSESSID PHPSESSID
session.referer_check no value no value
session.save_handler files files
session.save_path /tmp /tmp
session.serialize_handler php php
session.use_cookies On On
session.use_only_cookies On On
session.use_trans_sid 0 0

Finally it is working...

I am not sure what fixed it but still here is what I’ve done:
I just erased all sessions files in /tmp (wich I already did before), cleared the session cookie for my domain in firefox (which I didn’t do before), went back to the homepage and then to setup... seems to work!

Quote from: holotrope at Aug 20, 2010, 08:29 PM

changed session auto start to 1

In fact this caused me a white screen of death when I tried to login to the manager (just after installation)...

when you are running PLESK and have PHP as "fastCGI" look here for a solution

http://forums.modx.com/thread/28834/revolution-install-problem#dis-post-396734

I fixed this problem by creating the "tmp" folder to my root folder. I'm don't know about any other settings of mine, but this one little folder "/tmp" fixed this output.

I had an similar issue when running the update setup. Unfortunately the php user had now write access to the php session directory.

This fixed my problem.
https://www.sofasurfer.org/blog/2017/05/03/fatal-error-modx-setup-cannot-continue/