Forbidden?

I’ve got no idea about this one anymore. I’ve just uploaded the files to my server (on a subdomain - wow.other-net.com, this could possibly be an important note lol). The files are all default as they appear in the tar.gz. The tarball was uploaded, and then the files were placed as is. According to the install docs I had to chmod 777 several folders, those are done, as is the empty config.inc.php in /manager/includes. And still, I keep getting a 403. I am running out of ideas. I can’t even install this.

Apache 1.3.39, ran on unix kernel 2.6.9-023stab044.11-enterprise (pretty sure it’s Red Hat, but can’t say for sure)
PHP version 4.4.6
MySQL version 4.1.22-standard
MODx: most recent, just downloaded, since it’s not installed no plugins or changes made.
Browser/Client: Firefox 2 (most recent as well), tried with Opera 9 as well.
OS of client (me lol) : Win XP Pro

I’ve even tried a chmod 777 on /install (and yes, I do know the correct flag is -R but omitted that part in the post)

Anyone any ideas? On the DocRoot there’s no site, but there *is* a placeholder (it shows an empty splash page).

Have you tried if a simple static page works on your subdomain prior to installing MODx? Make sure to disable/remove any directives that may be in your .htaccess File

Have you been able to install MODx under the main domain but not in the sub or is this server wide. If server wide then it could be a mod_security issue. Mod security often returns forbidden 403 errors.

Check out this wiki post for some info on mod security:
http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/What_is_mod_security_and_how_does_it_affect_me

A static page doesn’t show up either, I don’t have a .htaccess, but ht.access (since that’s what was included on the default tarball and I didn’t wanna mess with it yet). Since my splash page on the root domain works fine, I doubt it’s a server wide issue. To ensure no htaccess messes it up, I’ve actually renamed the one in the root domain and subdomain. This doesn’t solve anything.

Might I add, I have a WordPress install in another subdomain, which is working fine.

Well. If a static page doesn’t show up, it can’t be MODx can it?
Maybe there is something wrong with the Subdomain? Pointing at the wrong directory?

I have tried deleting the subdomain, recreating it, tried a NEW subdomain, tried putting modx in the main directory, used the steps described in the linked wiki. I’ve tried every possible method with the .htaccess, checked all databases, recreated them, point is: my WordPress worked just fine (up until the point where I "updated" the password because issues could arise from version authentification, so now my wordpress got deleted too)

End result: I broke just about everything there is to break, to the point that my hosting needs to be reset.

I am just trying to figure out where it’s going wrong, locally, the install worked fine. But locally I am running xampp (latest version), which means a different MySQL version etc. I’ve never even encountered these errors. At the moment I am just waiting to hear back from my hosting provider, though perhaps I can reset this thing myself.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused by posting here since it’s not a ModX issue, though when I first posted I didn’t know that.

Sounds like something that could be moved to the Hosting Experiences forum. And do keep us posted, as your problems and solutions will undoubtedly be useful for others as well. Good luck!

I did find out the issue just now, what I have yet to find out is how on earth it happened.

Issue: directory permissions of public_html. They somehow ended up 700, while it does require me to use ssh and type the command in, and don’t recall doing so.

So, for future reference, if you suffer from a constant 403 (forbidden error) on ALL folders including the root folder, be sure to do a ls -al

Hmm, that does sound a bit fishy. I’m a SSH user myself, and that’s just not something one would do. Something to keep an eye on.

Yeah I agree, I’ve been using SSH since ..oh I think back in the day of Red Hat 7.1 or so, so that’s a while, even though I use Windows now, PuTTy saves me tuns of time. It’s so much faster and easier than using an FTP application to just rm -R, ls -al and all those things. (Up until Fedora Core 2, I didn’t use Windows at all) I am going to give my error logs a good look and whois the ips I don’t recognize off hand - if there are any.