Installation Error session_start()

[pmichaelis]

Hey Everybody,

As I was trying to move an exsisting site form my local dev (xampp) to a production server, the following error appeared:

Error: session_start(): Failed to initialize storage module: user (path: /usr/local/www/services/.../data/tmp) (line 103 of /home/.../html/wire/core/Session.php)

This error message was shown because /install.php still exists. Error has been logged. 

 I searched the forum for help, but the only related topic I could find is this one:

Problems with ProcessWire on Cloud Hosting

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/5089-problems-with-processwire-on-cloud-hosting/

The thread says, that it might have something to do with some isses in the master branch of pw. So I downloaded the dev branch (2.4), and made a fresh install. There are no problems with the requirements, nor with mod_rewrite. In the last installation step, after the admin user creation the error message from above appears again.

Is it usual, that pw creates a tmp/data diretory?

I changed the file permissions for the assets and changed the htaccess, but still there is no change.

Thanks for any hints on that. And thnaks for that lovely CMS

[SiNNuT]

Strange,

It seems that there might be a stray install.php file at the root dir of production server?? The explanation of the error message comes from wire/core/shutdown.php with the following logic:

else if($config && is_file($config->paths->root . "install.php")) $why = "/install.php still exists.";

Normally install.php will be removed by the PW installer, but maybe there is something preventing it from doing so. Have to tried adjusting the permissions from within the installer. Or checking if there is an old file 'install.php' that can't be removed for some reason?

[pmichaelis]

Hello SiNNuT,

thanks for your quick reply!

I removed the install.php manually after the installation process, but the error still exsists.

Do you mean it might be a good idea to check if there are some old files with the same name (install.php) located anywhere else?

I havo no clue ...

[pmichaelis]

The "session.save_handler" was set to "user", but must be set to "files". DONE

Many thanks for help!

[SiNNuT]

Nice catch. This is the first time i read something about session.save_handler being set to anything other than files (this is the PHP default) on this forum. As you noticed this will indeed cause problems and lead to a (for most) quite cryptic error message, and is pretty much a show-stopper.

I'm not sure if this happens a lot, but this could be a worthwhile addition to the http://processwire.com/docs/tutorials/troubleshooting-guide/ . Or maybe even better, add a check for this in the install.php/index.php or wherever Ryan thinks this should take place.

[pmichaelis]

 Yep,

you are right. I didn't have this problem before. Maybe it occurs rarely.

Anyway, thanks for helping.