CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi everyone,

I was attempting to do a new installation of CiviCRM 2.1.4 onto a new version of Joomla 1.5.9 tonight and kept running into the same error message. The installation is on MediaTemple's dedicated virtual server.

Here's the message:

Cannot open /var/www/vhosts/.../httpdocs/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm.settings.php

The installation installs the tables into the database, and creates menu items for CiviCRM in Joomla, but does not seem to place files into the Joomla installation.

I've read through the forums and tried most of the suggested remedies, but still haven't had any luck. My frustration level is pretty high. As much as I don't want to give up on CiviCRM, I'm about at my wits end.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I too am having the same issues. I have tried two different servers / hosting companies. I've tried the .htaccess and the php settings. It gets about half way through then throws the
Cannot open /var/www/vhosts/.../httpdocs/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm.settings.php

I've been installing other components just fine w/o incident. The install was done via directory. I ftp'd the zip file and then unzipped via console. Any help or suggestions would be apprecaited.

Brian

I'm pretty sure it's permission related. You said this is a dedicated server. Sometimes on a dedicated server or VPS environment, the ftp user is permissioned in a different group from the web user (apache). So having uploaded the files via ftp, your web user may not be able to work with the files now. If you have a control panel file browser, see what the permissioning is for other files and directories (specifically who the owner and group is), then change the unpacked civicrm files to match.

Tech support at my webhost sent me to this article. http://rackerhacker.com/2007/05/20/joomla-and-plesk-permissions/.

Here's what is says to do:

Change the umask in ‘/etc/proftpd.conf’ to ‘002′ and add the ‘apache’ user to the ‘psacln’ group. Then, update the directory permissions:

cd /home/httpd/vhosts/[domain.com]
chown -R [username]:psacln httpdocs
chmod -R g+w httpdocs
find httpdocs -type d -exec chmod g+s {} \;

Joomla also complains about some PHP settings, sometimes including not being able to write to ‘/var/lib/php/session’. To fix the issues, make some adjustments to the vhost.conf for the domain:

<Directory /home/httpd/vhosts/[domain]/httpdocs>
php_admin_flag magic_quotes_gpc on
php_admin_flag display_errors on
php_admin_value session.save_path /tmp
</Directory>

If the vhost.conf is brand new, then run:

/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/websrvmng -av

Make sure Apache runs with your new configuration:

# httpd -t (check your work)
# /etc/init.d/httpd reload


Does that make sense? If so, do you think you could walk me through those instructions so I can get this up and running?

Thanks again!!!

In order to complete the various tasks from your instructions, you need to have the following skills:

1- Use a text editor as su to edit the .conf files
2- Access user and group administration as root
3- Open a terminal, login as su, and enter the cd, chown, chmod, and find commands
4- Open a terminal and issue the httpd commands

If you can do these things, I can follow-up with more help about the specifics of each step.