Answered ModX not working after fresh installation, multiple progressing issues.

I have installed ModX but it's not working. Actually, I tried fresh install 5 times but none was successful. It feels that I had all the possible issues mentioned in other forum topics.
The story is that I have successfully installed it by manually creating database user and administrator otherwise it couldn't create it from installation directly. After successful installation I could see the default page but could never login to the manager. After installation it was always blank despite deleting cache in browser and in the cms itself. Next day it was showing manager login page but user name or password was always incorrect despite the user in a database was fine and privileges ware ok. After a few days without changing anything it began showing an error page with a red message "Site temporarily unavailable." on both default web page and manager. As per other replies I tried to change settings like compress css or js to 0 and feeds from external links to 0 but no change. I also checked user attributes in the db but they seem ok too.
Since I have noticed that errors like blank manager page or incorrect login name or password repeats very often to many users, I think there's an unresolved problem or a bug lasting for years. I am trying to run ModX on Windows 10 with EasyPHP all latest versions and ModX (2.5.6).
First of all, my question: is here anyone running ModX with EasyPHP Devserver on Win 10 successfully?

This doesn't really answer your question, but I'm running a number of MODX sites locally with XAMPP under Win 10.

Some of the information here might be useful (though perhaps out of date): https://bobsguides.com/xampp.html.

If your site is in a subdirectory rather than the web root, you may have to add its name to the RewriteBase line in .htaccess.

Look closely at the paths and URLs in the core/config/config/inc/php file.

FYI, login problems are often caused by session issues, since the user's entered data is store in the $_SESSION array. If there's a problem with sessions, or if the domain in the URL changes after the form is submitted, but before the user is validated, the user won't be able to log in.

I did not try XAMPP yet but that idea was coming to my mind that ModX for some reason may not work with easyPHP. So far, still trying to find out the reason why it is not working.

1. Yes, my website is in a subdirectory. I have added the RewriteBase line in .htaccess. Although it is ht.access instead of .htaccess and windows doesn't allow me to rename that file, it asks for a filename before the dot. Anyway after adding RewriteBase nothing has changed. The default ModX page not showing up. Still getting an Error 503 - "Site temporarily unavailable". It was working after installation for a couple of days. I didn't change or move anything to cause this problem.

2. The paths and URLs in the core/config/config/inc/php file all look right.

3. The $_SESSION array. Well, not sure what I suppose to do with this one. Any suggestions? Is it build-in server variable being updated by ModX or is it a native part of ModX?

Although it is ht.access instead of .htaccess and windows doesn't allow me to rename that file, it asks for a filename before the dot. Anyway after adding RewriteBase nothing has changed.

The ht.access file will be ignored by the server, since it's looking for .htaccess, so you really haven't tested the RewriteBase change. You can load the ht.access file in a text editor (I think Notepad++ will work) and use "Save As" to save it as .htaccess. Make sure the RewriteBase line ends with a slash.

That's exactly what I was trying to do but it doesn't allow me to save under Windows OS. It treats as a file with htaccess extension but no file name given and rejects. Probably, the only thing what I can do ir rename it on Linux and move it to Windows. That's what I didn't try yet. I will try to look into these ways of renaming of htaccess file. Or maybe will try to reinstall to the root directory.

UPDATE: I have successfully created .htaccess file copied the code from ht.access but no change. The site still temporarily unavailable. [ed. note: zinturis last edited this post 6 years, 11 months ago.]

Put a simple html file called test.html in the MODX root and see if you can get to it in your browser.

Also, look in the DB at the modx_system_settings table and check the value of the site_status record. The value should be 1.

test.html is accessible, ModX default page is not.
A value of the site_status is 1 in my db.

While working on this I'd recommend renaming the .htaccess file to something else. MODX will work fine without it and it will take that out of the equation.

Try putting this at the end of your test.html file:



It should give you a long page of info about your server setup.

If that doesn't work, your PHP engine is not enabled.

Another possibility is that the rewrite engine is not enabled in you hosting setup. XAMPP installs with the rewrite engine off by default, so maybe EasyPHP is the same.

There's probably a server error log somewhere in EasyPHP that might help.
You can also check the MODX error log file in the core/cache/logs directory.

Try adding a php code and it is working fine. (Of course I needed to rename the html file to .php and close php tag)

Rewrite module seems to be set to load automatically. I found just this in my server config:


From ModX error log file it says ERROR in xPDOConnection::connect .. , it cannot load module but my php configuration set to load it. It is very strange that after installation the default ModX page was working I just couldn't log in to the manager but after a few days stopped working both.

That is strange. If it wasn't local, I would suspect a change to the DB server. If you re-run setup in upgrade mode, it will give you a chance to test the connection to the DB server.