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Support => English Support => Topic started by: Thoothy on March 11, 2016, 02:01:19 PM

Title: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: Thoothy on March 11, 2016, 02:01:19 PM
Greetings.

After approximately 20 reinstalls (different versions of SP & SMF) & SQL database drops, I finally decided to get here and ask for help.

So my problem is that I get SMF installed with no problems, themes added with no problems etc, but every single time I try to install SP, it fails.

First it failed due temp - folder missing, after getting it fixed, it shows all tests passed, no errors, proceeds to install, then flashes 5 lines of code (that i *assume* are php, ending with something like "welcome to simple portal" or something..), and returns to SMF main menu, with no SP installed.

Package manager shows SP installed, but nothing is there. Removing SP shows *tonns* of warnings (on every php file there is, imo), but proceeding to erase SP does nothing bad to forums.

No, I don't think it's a permission issue, since forum works well, AND all themes install perfectly. Only thing that comes to my mind is that SP installer somehow breaks the forum OR forum breaks the installer, is that I'm trying to install SP on a SMF with finnish translation pack installed, can anyone confirm this? Or just what the XXXX is going on ?

Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: emanuele on March 11, 2016, 02:38:33 PM
It is indeed a permissions (or file ownership) issue.
The simplest way to confirm is: install SP, open a file supposedly modified by SP and search for changes.
For example you can pick index.php and search for:
Code: [Select]
require_once($sourcedir . '/Subs-Portal.php');I'm pretty sure you will not find anything.
That simply means there is a permission/ownership issue that prevents the package manager to modify the files. ;)

Then of course I may be wrong, but I feel I'm not.
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: Thoothy on March 11, 2016, 04:41:06 PM
Okay, could you link me to a page that shows just what permissions does the installer need on files? Just tried (try no 21) clear install, and gave 777 access on every friggin file & folder in the directory, same bloody results. Went through every file individually (the installer does show the "test succesfull" - page; went through every file listed there) and made sure there IS write permission.  Only difference *this* time is, that it has made backups on every overwritable file (~ in end), and the *new* files have permission 666, and different owner(?).

Still lost here....
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: andy on March 12, 2016, 12:14:09 AM
I've had trouble recently with my host (Westhost). Well, problems like this have occurred on a few hosts. The worst was ipage (very cheap). Last week I couldn't do anything from themes to Mods and it was their new setting for files and folders. Also many hosting companies are using Mod Security - Westhost too. A month ago I couldn't enter titles into Subject Titles.  '&' character had become illegal.  Also editing files from the theme menu would not work - permission denied. They did change the settings.
Over on SMF the advice varies a lot. In the end I had to change folders from 700 to 755. Forgot what the files were but probably 644. Cpanel file manager doesn't do it recursively for you either so you have to go into every sub directory and do it again... a few levels in themes.
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: ♦ Ninja ZX-10RR ♦ on March 12, 2016, 03:03:13 AM
The correct file permission is 755 on folders and 644 on files, please do not use higher ones as some servers tend to freak out for some reason.
Ask your host about giving you full CHOWN permissions on your files, you very much likely don't have it - I had a customer who had to change host because they refused to give him CHOWN even upon request, so if your host does the same my advice would become to change host *asap*.
And.. Don't worry, we will figure it out :)

Regards
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: Thoothy on March 12, 2016, 03:50:23 AM
Thanks, Testing today to manually (ftp) change all files & folders again to those you mentioned to see if it works. :P

Are there any more of those MUST have folders that aren't mentioned well in official instructions? I mean, like /temp - folder; that missing was the reason for my first 10 failed attempts. :D
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: ♦ Ninja ZX-10RR ♦ on March 12, 2016, 06:27:49 AM
Not that I know of, in theory.
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: Chen Zhen on March 12, 2016, 10:08:22 AM
Thoothy,

  You stated that a theme installed correctly but SP did not. Does any other mod install correctly (not theme)?
Check and possibly repair url & path settings using the SMF repair settings tool.
The tool should allow you to fix all paths by clicking on the recommended links and then make sure to save the adjustments.
link for the tool & instructions are located here: http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Repair_settings.php

Try that first and then report back whether it fixed the issue or not.

Regards. 
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: Thoothy on March 14, 2016, 07:14:16 AM
Well, after a few more tests, I finally "maximized" filezilla window to full screen, and discovered like someone earlier mentioned, that it is a file ownership issue. For some strange reason my webhost (now, my *former* webhost) had some *really* strange settings, that caused SMF package installer-created files to have different ownership then ftp loaded.

Don't know why, but that caused a "nice" problem of target files (those to be modded) being backup'ed, and the new target files non-writeable by the package installer. (different owner then me).

Well, It was a free service anyway, so i dumped it entirelly and bought a decent webhost, where installation of SMF & SP & themes was a run in the park.

Thanks for everyone for pointing me in the right direction (specially emanuele, that piece of code started the solution).

*
EDIT* Oh, and Chen, installing mods did work well, I think the problem didn't occur on themes / mods due installing a new just made new files, didn't try to modify them. My themes had also wrong ownership, but still worked well....
Title: Re: Simple portal installation fails
Post by: emanuele on March 14, 2016, 10:01:11 AM
Well, it's not *that* strange setup, at least a 20% of the hosts end up like that! xD
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