SID-00892: Installation Issue. Navigation bar does not show

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	5.0.0	Perl version:	Perl 5.8.8
Category:	CategoryInstallation	Server OS:		Last update:	15 years ago

Hello,

I just installed TWiki, following the steps outlined in http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki05x00/TWikiInstallationGuide

When I browse to the TWiki site, I get a completely messy design. http://www.zeitschichten.com/twiki/bin/view/TWiki/WebHome

I checked the permissions for the pub directory, but they seem all right. u+rwx g+rx o+rx

Could you please point me in the right direction here?

Thank you! Matthias

-- MatthiasRoeder - 2010-07-09

Discussion and Answer

If you access one of the referenced images such as you get: =403 Permission Denied You do not have permission for this request=. This is either a directory permission issue or an Apache config issue.

-- PeterThoeny - 2010-07-09

Thanks, Peter, for your reply.

I checked the following: I set all permissions in the pub folder and its subdirectories to ugo+rwx in order to test the file permissions. Still no change. (In the meantime I did restore the file permissions as suggestes in http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki05x00/TWikiInstallationGuide#Notes_on_Installing_TWiki_on_Non)

One note here: My webhost does not allow me to change the owner for the files to the username of the Apache service (nobody), so these files still belong to me.

I went through all the .htaccess files in all the subdirectories (if present) and couldn't find anything unusual. These .htaccess files are basically exactly what was shipped with TWiki. I copy and paste below for your information:

TWikiDocGraphics: no .htaccess file
TWiki: no .htaccess file
pub:

# Sample '.htaccess' file for 'pub' subdirectory

# Controls access to TWiki 'pub' subdirectory - copy this into 'pub', 
# naming it '.htaccess', to have Apache use it.

# This is useful if you install TWiki on a web host, or an intranet host
# where you can't edit the Apache http.conf file.  If you can edit the
# http.conf file, just set the 'Allow from all' there (or locate these
# directories outside the Web-visible directory tree.)

# Allow all access
Allow from all

# Deny people from looking at the index
# Bare in mind that this is largely inadequate
# See http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/SecuringAttachments
# and http://develop.twiki.org/~develop/cgi-bin/view/Bugs/Item610
# If you think you have a solution it is in your best interests to share it 
# so others can test your idea.
Options None

# We need to protect the entire pub directory tree against any kind of script execution
# TWiki has a renaming protection scheme that alters certain file names to prevent
# script execution but it may not be 100% safe only to rely on this. The safest
# protection is to disabled all scripting.

# If you have PHP4 or PHP5 installed as Apache module make sure the directive below is enabled
# If you do not have PHP installed you will need to comment out the directory below
# to avoid errors.
# If PHP is installed as CGI this flag is not needed and will in fact make Apache fail 
# File modified on Fri Jul  9 13:02:07 2010 by server
# For security reasons, mod_php is not used on this server. Use a php.ini file for php directives
# php_flag engine off

# If you have PHP3 installed as Apache module make sure the directive below is enabled
# If PHP is installed as CGI this flag is not needed and will in fact make Apache fail
#php3_engine off

# This line will redefine the mime type for the most common types of scripts
AddType text/plain .shtml .php .php3 .phtml .phtm .pl .py .cgi

#add an Expires header that is sufficiently in the future that the browser does not even ask if its uptodate
# reducing the load on the server significantly
#IF you can, you should enable this - it _will_ improve your twiki experience, even if you set it to under one day.
#LoadModule expires_module libexec/httpd/mod_expires.so
#AddModule mod_expires.c
#<ifmodule mod_expires.c>
#  <filesmatch "\.(jpg|gif|png|css|js)$">
#       ExpiresActive on
#       ExpiresDefault "access plus 11 days"
#   </filesmatch>
#</ifmodule>
#Add ETags too
FileETag MTime Size

twiki:
# Sample Root '.htaccess' file

# Controls access to TWiki 'root' directory (parent of the 'bin' directory)
# - rename this file to '.htaccess' to have Apache use it.

# Turn off directory indexing in this and sub directories
Options -Indexes

# Redirect any access to 'index.html' to the 'view' script (i.e. Main.WebHome)
# Disabled by default - uncomment if required, will hide the real index.html.
#
# The first path here must be a URL path, not a file pathname
# Redirect /urlpath/to/twiki/index.html http://your.domain.com/urlpath/to/twiki/bin/view

public_html:
# Use PHP5 as default
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

I'd be very grateful for any additional leads and thank you for your valuable time!

With best wishes, Matthias

-- MatthiasRoeder - 2010-07-10

The twiki/data, twiki/pub and twiki/working directory trees must be owned by the webserver user, no way around it. Try submitting a support ticket with the provider.

-- PeterThoeny - 2010-07-10

Hi Peter,

I just heard back from them and it seems as if I can't install TWiki 5.0 on their server then. Here is their reply:

"It is not possible for us to do this. The permissions that such an operation would allow are just not something that we can do in a shared hosting environment. If any code were to be created in a directory owned by Apache, that code would inherit access to everything that Apache has access to, on a shared server this would include many things that are outside of the scope of your account. I honestly cannot think of a reason that a script should require that certain items be owned by the Apache user, but if this is truly the case it will not be possible in our environment."

I will try to see if I can convince our IT staff at Harvard to host the site. If that doesn't work, would you be willing to consider a proposal to host our research site pro bono at TWiki On Demand? I can send a project outline any time.

With best wishes, Matthias

-- MatthiasRoeder - 2010-07-11

I'll contact you by e-mail.

-- PeterThoeny - 2010-07-11

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