Install fails on lighttpd - svn branch 0.9.6 rev. 3669

Hello everbody,

I have been trying to install MODx svn branch 0.9.6 rev. 3669 for more than an hour without success. I got the error which is really annoying for the first timer.

I am using Lighttpd with fast-cgi. I have deactivate mod_magnet and modx_lua. But I still just get the blank screen on install/index.php. The Lighttpd error log says as below:



It looks like it can not initialise PHP session. I have been testing quite a lot of other CMS’ on this Lighttpd web server, and I have never experienced session initialisation issue. Is there something I have to set some where to get this install going? Could anybody please give me hints?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

Cheers,

Anto

Some more information.

As suggested in the Wiki, I tried to disable my PC firewall and set session.use_trans_sid=1 as I don’t have session.save_path, but those don’t help.

The third option on that Wiki page does not apply to me as I am using my own web server.

Would it help to help me if I said that I am using Lighttpd 1.4.19, PHP 5.2.5 and MySQL 5.0.51a? And I also disabled the XCache? I have also followed every single steps on the installation guide in the MODx’s Wiki.

Anyway. According to the discussion here, here and here, the workaround for the similar issue are either:
1. set session.save_handler = files in php.ini (with session.save_path set as well), or
2. set auto_prepend_file = /any/path/to/php.ini.prepend in php.ini
with the content of php.ini.prepend like below
<? session_module_name("files"); ?>

But none of them helps as MODx seems to always override the storage module of files with user. Of course I have always restarted Lighttpd every time after I changed the php.ini. I searched in the whole MODx’s folders in my server, but I can not find any lead.

My experience in PHP script programming is almost nothing. All what I have said above is just copies from the sites that I found using Google. So please could anybody give me suggestions?

Once you do manage to get it installed, you’ll have major problems with that version of MySQL as reported by lots of members in the forums. Might want to give an earlier version a go. I’m not sure if that has an effect on the installation, but it might.

Quote from: anto at Apr 30, 2008, 03:14 PM

But none of them helps as MODx seems to always override the storage module of files with user.

Well, MODx does not attempt to change any of the PHP configuration in regards to the session storage module, so this would indicate something else is wrong. Perhaps you have a rogue php.ini that is being loaded, but I can only guess as I have no experience with lighttpd.

Thanks a lot Ryan and Jason for the ideas. I have MODx installed now. So lets see if MODx would be the CMS that I have been looking for

I have indeed noticed the instability of MySQL 5.0.51a, either when I used other CMS’ or other applications using it. But that didn’t really bother me before. And indeed there seems to be something weird with PHP 5.2.5, but not the configuration on my php.ini.

The main reason I used both MySQL 5.0.51a and PHP 5.2.5 is because they are part of Debian Sid (unstable) packages that I used. I decided to use that Debian version just because I wanted to use Lighttpd 1.4.19. And I was too lazy to maintain different packages versions of Debian in my server.

Anyway. The problem disappears after I downgraded PHP to version 5.2.0 which is part of Debian Etch packages. And considering the issues on MySQL 5.0.51a, I downgraded it as well to 5.0.32 which is also part of Debian Etch packages. In the end I said, "Hey! Why don’t I just downgrade everything to Etch to have less hassle server, and use lighttpd and php5-xcache from Etch backports repository?". So I did it. It took me quite some time though, as I didn’t want to do clean install.

Up to now, I found 2 problems in MODx. First, the Friendly URL using url.rewite or mod_magnet as described in the Wiki, doesn’t seem to be working. And the second is, that there seems to be a problem with CAPTCHA due to the separation of user and manager login forms. When I log in from the web user login form with a user with administrator right, I got error saying "The security code you entered didn’t validate! Please try to login again!". But there is no CAPTCHA code being displayed in the web user login form. It is only being displayed in the manager login form.

If I still could not find the workaround for those issues, I will post them in new topics.

Sounds like GD might not be enabled with your PHP build or some sort of session issue. You might check those two first. As far as rewrites with Lighty, I believe the ones specifically for Apache require some modification in order to work. I’ve got no personal experience there so you might want to Google for info there. Good luck!

If GD was not enabled, the CAPTCHA code would not appear on the manager’s login form, would it? It does appear there. And it seems not possible to have the enable CAPTCHA code in the use login form. As to the Friendly URL, I am trying to adapt other CMS’ lua file for MODx. And yes, I really need lots luck due to my inexperiences on this. Thanks again Ryan.