By edro on

Used Fantastico to install Drupal where my site is hosted.

Attempting to go to drupal/index.php yields the 403 forbidden error plus "Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument..."

Looking at directory, files, perms looks right but index.php is a 0 length file. Empty. Nada. Nothing.

Uninstalled. Removed frontpage extensions as per another thread just in case... Installed. Checked MySQL DB and it's all there okay as far as I can tell.

Version installed 4.4.0

Nothing in the site Error Log

Suggestions? Please help, this is the first content management system that appears to suit my requirements. Already tried php-nuke, installed and worked fine but just didn't do it for me. Looked into several others... I'd really like to get this working to see it it'll do.

THanks,
edro

Comments

morbus iff’s picture

morbus iff
they/them
commented

Alright, the "Additionally, a 404 Not Found" error can be safely ignored. The default .htaccess file within the drupal directory sets a 404 path of /index.php. Since your drupal installation is not in the root of your web directory, the index.php isn't being found. So, we can rule that one out. No biggie.

As for the 403, you /should/ be seeing something in your error log - Apache logs any annoyance like that in the error_log (an installation of Drupal normally takes over 403's and 404's, but the error verbiage you pasted sounds like the standard Apache words).

Likewise, the 403 /shouldn't/ have been caused by the zerobyte index.php file - there's nothing "forbidden" about having a blank .php file, so there should be no reason to flag an error there. Of course, there's the curiosity of how you got the zerobyte anyways, but...

Do you know if your host is running PHP as a module or as CGI? Have you been able to upload the files, and ensured that the index.php wasn't zerobyted? Are you using this on Win32? My knowledge, unfortunately, of webserver issues stays firmly in the LAMP arena.

http://disobey.com/
http://gamegrene.com/

http://www.disobey.com/

dublin drupaller’s picture

dublin drupaller commented

I had the same problems when I first installed Drupal (am on apache, similar setup to yours).

Deleted the .htaccess and worked okay. Had a few teething problems, but have gradually found workarounds.

It's tricky to install for people like me (a non programmer), but it's worth the hassle. I too tried a lot of other CMS solutions, none come with as many ace features as drupal.

Best of luck.

J

Currently in Switzerland working as an Application Developer with UBS Investment Bank...using Drupal 7 and lots of swiss chocolate

edro’s picture

edro commented

I deleted the .htaccess and got diff error, 500, checked log, this time it had an entry, "writable", it was a 664 so I made it 644 and now it works

I can prob. figure it out, but what is the risk of not having the .htaccess? (haven't looked at it yet) maybe it is the follow symlinks setting...

edro’s picture

edro commented

I am in the middle of trying cms solutions. Have already gone through php-nuke (did that one first), now i'm up to drupal.



things I like: simple home page.

things i don't: my own limitations...

All I want is the new user registration and control over access to directory under that point. Please let me explain:

public content
     |
logon/new user page
  |         |
member    registration 
content   process

the people responsible for member content are completely non-technical and use only frontpage so everything under member content is only .htm, that is: no php, no sql driven/contained content, nothing else.



I have not looked at the php code but I am guessing that content access is controlled via the sql. I am looking for something (if this is even possible) that will dynamically update .htusers, .htgroups, and .htpasswd as needed to allow people access to the member directory. Maybe cookies will need to be involved.



I'm a newbie but I catch on fast.



Can you tell me if drupal can help me with this? any other content management that can? is it possible at all??



thank you for any assistance here,

sincerely,

edro

dublin drupaller’s picture

dublin drupaller commented

I think I understand your question.

A few points:

A) if you need drupal to allow some people to edit their own pages in a simple Wysiwyg type way. Yes, drupal can handle that.

b) If you need to control the access of content for certain users - yes drupal can do that.

It's a lot simpler than playing with the SQL. If you (as the administrator) go to SETTINGS, then go to ACCOUNTS and then go to PERMISSIONS, you can specify which accounts can access content, edit content, access certain content etc.

It's a piece of cake to setup new ROLES or account types..for example, let's say you want to have the following types of accounts:

1. Unregistered Visitors
2. Registered Visitors
3. Members
4. VIP members

You simply go to the SETTINGS --->> ACCOUNTS -->> ROLES and setup the new accounts.

The next stage is to set PERMISSIONS for each account. For example lets say you only want REGISTERED VISITORS to access the content of the site.

YOu simply go to SETTINGS --->> ACCOUNTS -->> PERMISSIONS and you can determine the account PERMISSIONS for each ROLE.

Hope that makes sense.

c) If you want unregistered users or visitors to be automatically brought to a LOGIN page when they enter the site - Yes drupal can do that.

Simply go to the SETTINGS -->> CONFIGURATION option and scroll down for the default home page and specify what the people see as the first page.

I hope that answers your question(s).

J

Currently in Switzerland working as an Application Developer with UBS Investment Bank...using Drupal 7 and lots of swiss chocolate

edro’s picture

edro commented

Ok. Set up roles and an account that can add a static page. Made such a page. The comment says, "If you just want to add a page with a link in the menu to your site, this would be the best choice. Unlike a story, a static page by-passes the submission queue." Called the page test.

Now I look in the directories for something called test.htm... nothing there. That's what I need, controlled access to files that will be eventually edited by the non-technical staff (myself included) using frontpage.

Just a "door" is what I want. All the wonderful other stuff is more than they want.
Am I making any sense? Sorry if I communicate poorly.
edro

dublin drupaller’s picture

dublin drupaller commented

Hi Edro

There should be a link at the bottom of the page you created that says something like "MODIFY THIS..." or "EDIT THIS..." when you view the TEST page.

you don't need frontpage. editing pages within drupal is a breeze and there is an add-on called HTMLAREA which makes it extremely easy - as somple as editing a Word document - for non techy people to edit the page(s).

Jason

Currently in Switzerland working as an Application Developer with UBS Investment Bank...using Drupal 7 and lots of swiss chocolate

edro’s picture

edro commented

thank you jason, i will play around with all this. i am amazed at all there is! what fun! see ya, edro

edro’s picture

edro commented

Linux Kernel version 2.4.25
Apache/1.3.29
PHP version 4.3.4
I don't know enough to answer if host is running PHP as a module or as CGI, they are l40.net

.htaccess in root is empty, looking at .htaccess in drupal dir reminds me of a post I'll have to look up again regarding the Options FollowSymLinks flag... here it is as it now is:

# Apache/PHP/site settings:
order deny,allow
deny from all

# Set some options
Options -Indexes
Options FollowSymLinks

# Customized server error messages:
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
# Set the default handler to index.php:
DirectoryIndex index.php
# Overload PHP variables:
[...stuff omitted...]
# Various rewrite rules
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
# $Id: .htaccess,v 1.56 2003/12/18 18:53:11 dries Exp $

edro’s picture

edro commented

From the very little I know about .htaccess, it seems that a:
deny from all
without allowing something pretty much would disable the entire site beyond this point. I am not familiar with the rewrite at all, not a clue.

dublin drupaller’s picture

dublin drupaller commented

...the site worked...

am unfamiliar with rewrite as well...actually I'm unfamiliar with mostly everything..so you should really listen to me!

Jason

Currently in Switzerland working as an Application Developer with UBS Investment Bank...using Drupal 7 and lots of swiss chocolate