Install can't get past second screen.

[wxkeep]

Used to have smf - worked great.  Had to dump the machine clean and start again though. =(  *curses to you sbc - curses*

ANYWAY.  Freshly installed machine - php 4.3.9  Bind 9.2.4  Fedora-core 3  Apache 2.0.52 MySQL server 3.23.58

So I ftp the zip file onto the machine - unzipped all of the contents into the web directory that I wanted it in.  Went to hxxp:www.mydomain.com/forum/ [nonactive] and the install page came up.  The one where it asks for the FTP information become certain files aren't writeable.  (which I want to mention - the forums here mention that install.php must be writeable too - where that screen mentions everything but that).  Now after trial and error I have decided to chmod 777 the ENTIRE forum directory all of its subs and all of its files and the problem persists.  After entering the correct ftp information I click connect and we move to the next screen where it asks what I want to name the site and for all of the mysql information.  I plug that in - hit continue and I'm carried directly back to the ftp screen that I had just came from.  Nothing is added.  Nothing changes - and I can't figure out why.  Any suggestions out there?  Short of chucking the server off a cliff and paying some web hosting provider to do it all for me? =)

[[Unknown]]

Used to have smf - worked great.  Had to dump the machine clean and start again though. =(  *curses to you sbc - curses*

ANYWAY.  Freshly installed machine - php 4.3.9  Bind 9.2.4  Fedora-core 3  Apache 2.0.52 MySQL server 3.23.58

I strongly recommend using MySQL 4.0 or higher.  Do you have any specific reason for using a lower version?

So I ftp the zip file onto the machine - unzipped all of the contents into the web directory that I wanted it in.  Went to www.mydomain.com/forum/ and the install page came up.  The one where it asks for the FTP information become certain files aren't writeable.  (which I want to mention - the forums here mention that install.php must be writeable too - where that screen mentions everything but that).

Actually, I decided to remove that from the list after all.  But, it's still a good idea to make it writable, because that makes it more possible to delete the file afterward automatically.

Now after trial and error I have decided to chmod 777 the ENTIRE forum directory all of its subs and all of its files and the problem persists.

Can you try this:

chmod -R 777 .

Why chmod 777 is NOT a security risk

After entering the correct ftp information I click connect and we move to the next screen where it asks what I want to name the site and for all of the mysql information.  I plug that in - hit continue and I'm carried directly back to the ftp screen that I had just came from.

That means the path was not correct, or the files were not made writable after all.  What path are you using?  Remember, it shouldn't be the full path.

-[Unknown]

[wxkeep]

I strongly recommend using MySQL 4.0 or higher.  Do you have any specific reason for using a lower version?

It's just the version that was included with the Fedora 3 core.  I plan to upgrade MySQL - but I guess my understanding is that I shouldn't need to in order to make smf install.  Want to make sure its all working before I upgrade I guess - maybe that's silly.

Can you try this:

chmod -R 777 .

Using Webmin I went to the directory - changed the forum directory to 777 and included all subdirectories and files.  I've checked many of the files in the directory and everything is set to 777.  Does chmod -r 777 accomplish something different?

What path are you using?  Remember, it shouldn't be the full path.

When I log in to my machine via ftp I'm automatically taken to  /home/username/
but the path that I have the forum installed into is /var/www/cbg/forum/

The only ways I can even get past the ftp screen are to enter either "/var/www/cbg/forum/" or "../../var/www/cbg/forum/" into the path field. 

Either way I still get kicked back to this screen when I click continue on the MySQL page.


I used to use redhat 9 - so I'm not all that familiar with some of the new features of Fedora.  Don't know if the problem is there, but I'm willing to give anything a shot to try and get this running.

[[Unknown]]

It's just the version that was included with the Fedora 3 core.  I plan to upgrade MySQL - but I guess my understanding is that I shouldn't need to in order to make smf install.  Want to make sure its all working before I upgrade I guess - maybe that's silly.

That's true, but the reason I recommend it strongly is two fold: not only is that version two stable major releases behind (very old), but it is also a lot less efficient and stable.  Regardless, it shouldn't be affecting this issue.

Using Webmin I went to the directory - changed the forum directory to 777 and included all subdirectories and files.  I've checked many of the files in the directory and everything is set to 777.  Does chmod -r 777 accomplish something different?

I'll admit I have no idea what chmod -r does, but chmod -R (case matters!) means to recursively change all files and directories to 777.  Are you sure you did the directories too, not just the files?

It does require attachments (not the files in it, but the directory itself) to be writable, for example, so that it can create new files within it.  Another idea would be to use PHP suExec.

-[Unknown]

[wxkeep]

Figured it out - and thought that I would drop a quick line to let everyone know how.

Fedora Core Runs SeLinux.  The documentation on SeLinux is scare - and what you can find is pretty complicated.  But essentially what happens when SeLinux is running and enabled with the Httpd server - httpd cannot write to ANY files (except maybe /apache/tmp) REGARDLESS of chmod.  So, no matter if you have it chmodded to 777 or not - php cannot write to the files with SeLinux running against the httpd server. 

At first I was comfortable disabling it with regards to the httpd server - but when it comes right down to it - I wasn't running selinux for all the years I was using red hat 9 and was fine - so its really no different. 

If someone finds a better way around this - I would love to hear about it.  Otherwise, I hope this helps everyone with similar problems.

[[Unknown]]

For PHP at least, you can use open_basedir to limit read/write access to certain directories...

-[Unknown]