Problem with File Not Found admin errors with new host

[rabsaul]

All, I moved some sites over to a new host. Thought everything was well, because all the pages were showing without errors, and I could get into the backend fine.

But then I discovered that nothing can be done as far as editing old pages or creating new ones. Whenever I try to do so, I get an Error 404 (File not found) inside the WB backend.

I contacted support with my host, who was very good to try to figure it out. This is what he wrote back to me:

Spent the last couple hours on this. Pages can be created and deleted. They show in the /pages directory and they show in the database. They can be viewed via the menu link on the site frontend but when you try to edit them a 404 error is returned.

After all this I finally took a look at the publishers website. It looks like WebsiteBaker might require the PHP function "system" but they are unclear on that. Even though we have safe_mode off, we do disable "system" for very good security reasons and very few PHP scripts require that function today, due to the fact most hosts have it disabled. Again, the publisher's website is unclear on the function "system".

I don't know enough about server settings to comment on this "system" setting... what's going on? What do I need to do in order to get these sites fully functional?

TIA.

EDIT: BTW, the WB version is 2.6.7. It was functioning fine prior to the host change.

[rabsaul]

I think the host's comments about "system" above relate to this statement:

The PHP safe mode is an attempt to solve the shared-server security problem. In general, the Safe Mode settings does:

    * disable functions treated as critical (functions executing system programs like system)

.. which is found on the "Common Errors" page under the heading "PHP Safe mode=off":

http://help.websitebaker.org/pages/en/knowledge-base/common-errors.php

Again, I don't know enough about this issue to even know what sort of questions to ask, other than this direct one: will WB function properly with the PHP function "system" disabled?

[ruebenwurzel]

Hello,

can you send us a phpinfo?

Matthias

[rabsaul]

Thanks, Matthias. Will do... you want me to paste it onto this page, or...?

I'm upgrading right now to see if 2.7 cures the problem, but I'm not optimistic. I also noticed the note about FCK editor on the upgrade page, so I contacted the host to see if open basedir restriction is an issue.

[rabsaul]

Still waiting to hear how you want me to post the phpinfo. Edit: sent via PM.

In the meantime, with the upgrade to 2.7 the problems have reversed: Everything appears to work fine in the backend, but when I attempt to view the public site, all the pages show blank (not a 404 error; the pages are all there, they just don't display anything.. view source also shows them as empty).

[rabsaul]

No thoughts, guys? This is essentially an emergency now. At least the public site was viewable before, but now there's nothing to see. I have looked in the config file, but AFAICT, it looks okay. I'm stumped. :\

[rabsaul]

Hm, I can't figure this out. It would appear to me to be a file permissions problem. I took the snippet from this page:

http://help.websitebaker.org/pages/en/knowledge-base/files-and-permissions.php

.. under the Check File Permissions heading.

I put it in a test.php page and wrapped in PHP script < ? p h p  etc - that's what I was supposed to do, right?

When I view that page, everything shows errors. (Everything it checks says ####Not ok!)

But when I view the directories and files via FTP, all the CHMOD looks right??

I'm very confused.

[rabsaul]

Hm... wait a minute... is that snippet only for setups where WB is in a wb directory? those file paths don't look right for a setup where WB is in the home directory as I have here.

Edit: but when I take out the .. from the paths in the snippet, the page comes up "checking..." but doesn't post any results. 

[rabsaul]

Still trying to come up with information that may be relevant. Here's another oddity.

Because I am unable to install modules via the backend, I thought I'd see what would happen if I tried uninstalling something. So I tried uninstalling a template. Sure enough, it won't uninstall. I get this message:

Cannot uninstall/backup/hsphere/local/home/user/domain.com/templates/simple

That can't be right, can it? Why is "backup" at the beginning of that path? Could this all be a paths issue somehow?

[ruebenwurzel]

Hello,

as far as i remember all issues start as you (or your hoster) transfered to a new server. So before asking here for more help i think it is much more better to ask your hoster.

Matthias

[rabsaul]

Hello,

as far as i remember all issues start as you (or your hoster) transfered to a new server. So before asking here for more help i think it is much more better to ask your hoster.

Matthias

If you look at the beginning of the thread, that *is* where I started.

[rabsaul]

Just an update - that path is correct; it does begin with /backup. Host also confirmed that open base directory isn't in effect.

And as you noted earlier via PM, the server settings are fine.

But something obviously went awry here, and staying up all night hasn't got me any closer to figuring out what it is. 

[rabsaul]

Through absolutely above-and-beyond work by my host (Sphere Web Hosting), the pages aspect of the site is back up and running. That end of things would apparently have been repaired by the upgrade to 2.7, except that I had a too-little-sleep brain cramp and  pasted the module include code in the wrong section of the page (above the head under the main WB PHP instead of in the head).

HOWEVER. WB is still broken. The issue with module installation and deletion still remains. I can't upload templateedit or delete unused addons. I have a suspicion that the problem has to do with ownership (I've got CHMOD settings correct), although I never had any problems with ownership in earlier versions (did this become more critical in more recent updates to WB?).

Unfortunately the help page tells me it's bad bad bad to use FTP rather than the backend, for ownership reasons... but as far as I can tell, there's no hint of what to do if something got messed up that way, or even where exactly to look to determine if that's really the problem. Any ideas?

EDIT: Well, it was CHMOD that solved the modules after all. Even though I had changed the directories to 777 earlier and it still didn't work, and they always worked at 755 at the previous host, I managed to get things working with 777 just now. I dunno if there was some sort of delay with the CHMOD earlier and so I didn't give it long enough, or what. I've never known CHMOD to have any sort of propagation issue, and I also refreshed the page prior to testing. But if you think that's weird, what's even weirder is that while this fixes the modules upload issue, it still doesn't fix the templates one (still can't uninstall)... maybe that still is an ownership issue. But that doesn't matter, at any rate. I don't need to change templates.

<shrug>