Manager just won't load. [SOLVED]

Sorry, it's another one of those. Most of the threads on this topic are left unanswered but I've been on what should be a 20 minute project for almost 16 hours, so what the hell, maybe someone will see what I missed.

Environment: Linux 2.6.18-028stab091.2, VDS
PHP: 5.3.3 (updated specifically for this install)
mySQL 5.0.77
Revo version: 2.0.8 (see below before you fire off "upgrade to the latest version")

Problem: white page accessing manager.

Followed to the letter the instructions here:
http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Moving+Your+Site+to+a+New+Server

Which specifically indicate getting the current version to run before any upgrades.

I then turned to this page:
http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Troubleshooting+Installation

Even dug through a ton of these in hopes one grain of unrelated info would help
http://tracker.modx.com/issues/6063

Nada. White page.

I've deleted and re-installed this thing five times today, including a bare bones nothing-in-it database. .htaccess disabled per instructions. White manager page. There were some issues on some of the subsequent reinstall attempts - resolved them and got the setup to un again and again, all with the same result: Front end displays fine. White page accessing the manager.

modX error log entries are from 2011, NO errors. No errors in server error log. Nothing, it just won't fly.

So I finally gave up, and attempted an install of 2.20. Fail. Same results.

edit: Not exactly true. I get a "1" when I try to access the manager (that's all that's on the page, nothing else, just a 1) and the front end still displays fine.

You can probably guess I hit all the usual suspects - clearing cookies, trying different browsers, searching files via command line, but I'm just out of ideas.

The closest I could come is that the error point is HERE in manager/index.php:

$modx->getRequest();
print "HERE";
exit;

Anything previous to that line prints "HERE" but it dies without a sound at that point.

<about to fall on sword> [ed. note: rocknbil last edited this post 12 years, 2 months ago.]

PHP Tip - error_reporting(-1) at the top of your script during dev to turn on all warnings, notices, etc in all versions of PHP

How did you re-install MODX? When I moved my MODX Revolution site to a new server I too had a white manager page, it was solved by simply deleting the contents in the /core/cache/ folder.

Although I never had use for it, another solution was suggested to be turning off compress_css and compress_js through a PHPMyAdmin interface.

PHP Tip - error_reporting(-1) at the top of your script during dev to turn on all warnings, notices, etc in all versions of PHP

Thank you goldsky, I usually use just E_ALL, but as mentioned,

No errors in server error log.

Which is really the same thing. To clarify, it's not causing any errors at all, either in the server log or the modX error log.

How did you re-install MODX?

First I followed the intructions in the first link: Clear cache, gzip files, database dump, etc., etc., etc. The result: no manager and front page only output the main page content, without templates.

I then uploaded 2.08 setup and core, reran setup, this gave me the home page but no manager. (I did have some on-page errors relating to plugins like breadcrumbs, but can fix that later once I get into manager.)

I then reran setup as a complete install, overwriting DB, then re-imported DB. Same result.

I then uploaded 2.20 core and setup, ran setup as an upgrade, the only change: instead of a blank white page, manager prints a single 1 (which, I presume, is some return from a function.)

Between each function, I constantly checked the server logs and modX eror log for errors. The installs reported no permissions errors, and constantly looked for permissions errors in server log and got none.

What follows is hazy and chaotic, imagine another 6 hours or so of doing all of the above with slight variations over and over until I couldn't see any more.

When I moved my MODX Revolution site to a new server I too had a white manager page, it was solved by simply deleting the contents in the /core/cache/ folder.

I'll try this again, though I'm sure I've done it multiple times. Today a fresh start, going to nuke everything and (attempt to) update the live site to 2.20, re-export the DB, do a fresh 2.20 install, by the documentation. I really don't know what else to try.

OMG. I just did something really stupid, and will require a lot of undoing, and doesn't tell us what the problem was . . . but it worked.

I did a recursive chmod 777 on everything in core and manager. EVERYTHING. Reran install on 2.20 . . . and the manager is now loading, site is loading, everything is working.

Now I need to go back and reset permissions, fortunately this is a test version and not live.

(BTW clearing the cache didn't effect any change.)