[Some Resolutions] Checking if sessions are properly configured: Failed!

Mod note: Some threads have been merged here
Hey,

I have done a few searches throughout the forums and while there are some topics referring to my issue, none of the suggestions seem to work for me.
I am currently running a test system on an old Windows 98 machine, running a program called EasyPHP, and this computer runs MODx fine, my problems have started though when I have tried to install MODx on a hopefully more stable and secure OpenBSD server.
On the server I am running:
OpenBSD 3.8 (with Apache included ver 1.3.29)
MySQL 4.0.24
MyPHP 5.0.4

The only error that I have received so far is ’Checking if sessions are properly configured: Failed!’, origanally I did have a few errors stating the directories were not writable, but i have now fixed them.

If anyone has any ideas of how i can fix this problem, it would be greatly appreciated, also if anyone has some ’default settings’ that I should have my setting info set to in php.ini, this would also be useful.

These are the settings I am using
Session Support enabled
Registered save handlers files user
Registered serializer handlers php php_binary wddx

Directive Local Value Master Value
session.auto_start On On
session.bug_compat_42 Off Off
session.bug_compat_warn On On
session.cache_expire 180 180
session.cache_limiter nocache nocache
session.cookie_domain no value no value
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 no value no value
session.serialize_handler php php
session.use_cookies On On
session.use_only_cookies Off Off
session.use_trans_sid 1 1

Regards,
Simon

P.S. Sorry about the mess, I tried to neaten it up, but there appears to be a limit on the ammount of spaces I can have.

Edit: In the end I decided because of my deadline, I would try reinstalling OpenBSD and see if it worked then, and in the end it did work, after setting it all back up again.
I’m not sure if it was the cause of the problem, but with;
session.auto_start Off Off
session.use_trans_sid 1 1
it seemed to work, not sure if it was related or not.

This issue has been addressed before, but there have been no concrete solutions as yet. Can anyone please help - this is severley hindering our development!

You can use XAMPP, and for the sessions problem, I guess its an issue with browser cache.

regards,

zi

I must have missed this post before. Sure is getting busy around here (sigh)

Actually guys, the session problem below is either because there is no session.save_path defined and/or the value for use_trans_sid is set to 1 (true) in your configuration. I do not believe MODx supports the use_trans_sid sessions (though I’m not real sure on this one), and I know it requires a valid session.save_path, which is generally configured in the webserver, to a tmp directory outside of the web document root path.

For the session_save_path issue, you can modify your /manager/includes/config.inc.php file where you see the function definition for startCMSSession() from:

to

Make sure you create a directory that matches the parameter value for the session_save_path() function, in this example it’s /manager/sessions/. But, this can be wherever you decide to configure it that is legal on your server, so long as the directory can be written to by the user running the webserver process.

Heh thanks for the late reply.

Somehow Simon got the server working. No idea what happened. But yeah, we prefer OpenBSD just cause of its security. I use XAMPP at home for local testing.

Hi there

I just spotted the update to this thread. I have to say that in my case I had the same error message and it didn’t turn out to be either Quote from: OpenGeek at Mar 07, 2006, 06:36 PM

because there is no session.save_path defined and/or the value for use_trans_sid is set to 1 (true) in your configuration

In my case I tracked it down to my Zone Alarm firewall cookie and ad blocking feature on my client computer. I tried it a few times to make sure - and with a combination of either/both of these enabled at different levels I could keep replicating the sessions error without changing anything on the server. Disabling both meant that I could complete the install no problem .

Regards

Martin

Martin,

Great catch. You saved me alot of grief. It was my Zone firewall. So happy now

Jason, I have just pointed out your solution to someone on another thread, but naturally he got stuck at the point of modifying /manager/includes/config.inc.php, as the error shows up in the installer before this file is created. Would putting the line at the top of instprocessor.php, and at the relevant part further down work?

Quote from: PaulGregory at Sep 18, 2006, 06:48 AM

Jason, I have just pointed out your solution to someone on another thread, but naturally he got stuck at the point of modifying /manager/includes/config.inc.php, as the error shows up in the installer before this file is created. Would putting the line at the top of instprocessor.php, and at the relevant part further down work?

Yes, I believe it might -- the session_start call in install/index.php is the problem and it is going to require that we handle all these session detections/warnings/fixes up front somehow.

Hi!

I’m having the same problem.

When i’m stalling MODx for the first time, i’m getting this error:

"Checking if sessions are properly configured: Failed!"

My ’config.inc.php’ is blank.

What i do?

Thanks.