Blank page after installation

Hi Everyone,

I have a problem after installing MODx on our server. This is a fresh install, not an upgrade. We’re on Centos 4.4, with Mysql, Apache, PHP4.3.something, etc. I’ve now gone through this a half-dozen times making sure that I haven’t missed a step. After decompressing the zip (or the tar, I’ve tried both), and going through the readme-en.txt file step-by-step, I ran the install routine, and everything passed. After the install was done, that’s when things went sideways.

Visiting the site or the /manager gives only a blank screen in the browser. There is a hint as to what might be happening in the apache error log:

[client aa.bb.cc.dd] PHP Warning: fopen(/home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/media/style//login.html): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/includes/accesscontrol.inc.php on line 85
[client aa.bb.cc.dd] PHP Warning: filesize(): Stat failed for /home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/media/style//login.html (errno=2 - No such file or directory) in /home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/includes/accesscontrol.inc.php on line 86
[client aa.bb.cc.dd] PHP Warning: fread(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/includes/accesscontrol.inc.php on line 86
[client aa.bb.cc.dd] PHP Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/includes/accesscontrol.inc.php on line 87

I’ve googled, and read through various posts in the forums, but can’t find what might cause this. Some have complained of similar error messages when upgrading, but this is a fresh install.

I’ve played with MODx before on a different server and never ran in to this problem.

Is there some PHP module I might be missing? Some configuration option in a .ini or .conf file somewhere that needs tweaking?

In short, I’m stuck. Need help.

Thanks,
Wyley

Ok, I see the problem... the path is missing the MODx Manager’s style:

/home/mysite.com/public_html/modx-0.9.5/manager/media/style//login.html

Notice the double // there, between "style" and "login.html". It should say something like

.../style/MODxLight/login.html

Why it would be doing this is another matter.

How does MODx populate the variable $manager_theme after the initial installation? It would seem from this, its current value is null.

It should be in the database; it may also need to be in one of the cache files.

Yes, in siteCache.idx.php, lines 2 and 3:

$c=&$this->config;
$c[’manager_theme’] = "MODxLight";

Although it should take it from the database if that $c array is not there.

I had the same a couple of days ago. Somehow my cachefiles got corrupted. They were both completely empty. This is how I made the site working again.

I copied all the files and folders from /manager/media/style/MODxLight/ to /manager/media/style/ (so just one level up). Now there are files in the place where MODx "expects" them. Then I could access the manager (not perfectly styled, but it works) and then I saved the Configuration and hit the "Refresh site" button and then everything worked again (the cache files were rebuilt). After all this I cleaned up the files I copied earlier.

In my case my hoster decided to install a new version of Plesk without telling me so I assumed that my cache files got corrupted when they killed the webserver while I was in the manager. If you also have the same issue it might be something else and worth investigating more.