URGENT!!! FORUM GONE???

[Tony Reid]

using your FTP - right click on the file and choose permissions, then set it to 755

I do not know what FTP client you are using so cant provide specific instructions.

[Ruddy Kitty]

Okay, did that... It's still saying that it cannot be written. What else can I do?

[Tony Reid]

Try 777 then.

If that fails, then your host's support desk needs to CHOWN the file to match your user account.

[MrPhil]

755/777 etc. are a characteristic of each file (permissions), and are viewed and changed in your host's file manager. Don't try doing it via FTP -- most servers ignore chmod requests from FTP clients. Settings.php should be 644, not 755 or 777. That says that the owner (you) have read-write access (6) and all others (group, world) have read-only access (4). In some instances it may need to be 664 or even (temporarily) 666 for utilities such as repair_settings.php to run.

[Ruddy Kitty]

Oh man, none of the permissions work.

Just called customer support and they had never heard of CHOWN. I certainly never have. What exactly is it and how would they go about doing that?

[Tony Reid]

Only the root user can chown - it changes the ownership of the file to your account.

Ask the helpdesk person to elevate the ticket if to a systems admin (ie: root user).

I'm guessing your on a linux based hosting account?

[Ruddy Kitty]

Yes, I am.

Alright, So I ask them to make me the root user through chown, elevating me to a systems admin? Is that right?

[Tony Reid]

No - they need to associate the files in your account to your account!

Currently it appears that some of the files you have cannot be modified by you, and that suggests that apahe/php owns the files and not your account.

They need to rectify that and only the root user has the power to do so - they will not give you root access on a shared account, they have to do it themselves.

[Ruddy Kitty]

Alright, called customer support again and explained it to him what needed to be done. They took me through DNS systems wizard and reset the web hosting records to their default. The guy told me it would take up to 24 hours to be able to edit the file x.x

[Tony Reid]

That doesn't sound right, they just need to SSH into your server, switch directories to your account and do a recursive chown.

Should take a couple of minutes - no more.

Unless of course their software is reseting the whole thing from DNS through to file ownership.

[Ruddy Kitty]

I don't really know. The file ownership should be accessible and editable by me, but it seems like it isn't.

[Tony Reid]

It depends on how your files got onto the server, and it is a common problem on shared hosting accounts.

Its usually caused by using web interfaces/scripts to upload files, rather than using an FTP client.

Sometimes although you cannot edit the files - you can rename them (adding a 1 or something to the end of the file) and then upload another Settings.php - which if done via FTP using your new account details, may resolve the problem.

[Ruddy Kitty]

Okay, tried repair_settings1.php and changing the permissions to 777, then uploaded settings.php. No luck.


I uploaded all my files through ftp.

[Tony Reid]

Would you like me to FTP and take a look?

[Ruddy Kitty]

Sure thing. I'm really at a loss of what to do anymore.

[Tony Reid]

PM me your FTP details and I'll see what I can do.

Tony


ps. I am former smf support team

[Ruddy Kitty]

Thank you so so much! Sent you a pm

[Tony Reid]

Ok, your DNS hasn't resolved completely yet - and so running repair_settings.php with your temporary paths is a bit pointless at the moment. You need to wait for the DNS to resolve your web address correctly.

The repair settings script you provided a link to - is not the one you need to use, that one is in the wrong place.

I'll send you a link to the correct one - if you put in your correct database login details, then you can temporarily get your forum running on the temp address the webhost have given you. But you will need to run it again once the proper web address is resolving.

[Ruddy Kitty]

Thank you SO SO SO SO much for your help! I was thinking it was in the wrong place... didn't realize I needed to type out the public_html/forum2/etc. part. x.x my bad.

Right now it says "Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later." Will this just resolve itself in an hour or two? I've seen this before and usually it just goes away on its own.

[Tony Reid]

This error is because Settings.php's settings for mysql db on your new host are incorrect.

It could be that your mysql is on another server, or your username/password for your forums database are incorrect.

You need to check the mysql info part when running the repair settings script.