Joomla! Discussion Forums

@jimscott77:
Unrelated issue - your /media folder isn't writeable - you need to chmod the folder to make it so.
If ftp doesn't allow this then use a tool like Joomla Explorer.

@Tommygj:
I'd check whether that path is correct - I doubt that /customers/ is on the root of the drive.
Does your $mosConfig_absolute_path start with /customers/

Dean

Yes the "customers" is in root - the path is correct.

It also matches the value of _SERVER["REDIRECT_WEBC_USER_DOCUMENT_ROOT"] from using phpinfo();

hi, o got problem with my installation, i'm still in the pre-installation page,. my session save path is unwritable and the most thing is i cant press next button, can u help me with this, i search all over the web but cant find one.. tq

Hi

I also have a customer with domain/web hosting from http://www.one.com
Path: '/customer/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www'

I followed these steps:

1. Created a tmp folder in the same folder as Joomla (root - chmod 755)
2. Opened globals.php
3. Inserted this code:
ini_set('session.save_path','/customers/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www/tmp/');

It didn't work, any sugestions?

Thanks
Olemot (Norway)

Yes, you might have miss read my text.

>1. Created a tmp folder in the same folder as Joomla (root - chmod 755)
>2. Opened globals.php
>3. Inserted this code:
>ini_set('session.save_path','/customers/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www/tmp/');

I created my tmp folder in the root meaning '/customers/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www/tmp/'

However you wrote that you created in in same folder as Joomla, so instead you should essentially use:

ini_set('session.save_path','/customers/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www/joomla/tmp/');

Btw: I have started to see session files being created so it actually do work, I am just not sure when it starts writing the files, at least it do not seem to happen when just logging in, maybe it is when editing or creating content it start writing to the tmp-folder.

Sorry

I installed Joomla on root, I also created the tmp folder there.
So this path should be correct:
/customers/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www/tmp/'

Did you only change globals.php?
I've got Waning and Fatal error in includes/joomla.php - line 71

Line 71
---
require_once( $mosConfig_absolute_path . './includes/version.php' );
----

Thanks
Olemot (Norway)

Yes that was the only file i changed. I just looked into it, and might also have changed
RG_EMULATION

I have it set to:
define( 'RG_EMULATION', 0 ); 

Not sure it has anything to do with it, have tested by setting it to 1, but it does not have any immediate effect.

If you check the file you refer to getting an error from:
includes/joomla.php line 71:
>require_once( $mosConfig_absolute_path . '/includes/version.php' );

I suspect this is wrong: $mosConfig_absolute_path

Check the configuration.php file, it is one of the top definitions, it should point to your joomla installation "/customers/xxx.no/xxx.no/httpd.www/"

Thank you very much!  :-*
It worked after a new installation of Joomla!

---------------------------------------------

Here's my guide:

1. Open Control Panel (http://www.one.com/admin)
2. Choose Advanced
3. Change these settings:

PHP error messages = On
Click Update

PHP - Register globals = Off
Click Update

Please note that it may take up to 15 minutes before changes take effect.

4. Login to your FTP account
5. Remove all files without the folders (_vti.xxx)
6. Upload all Joomla! files
7. Create a tmp folder (chmod 755)

8. Start your browser.
9. Go to http://www.yourdomain.com/index.php

Pre-installation - Errors:
Session save path = Unwriteable - /tmp
Safe Mode = On

10. Open globals.php

Orginal:
define( 'RG_EMULATION', 1 );

Edit:
define( 'RG_EMULATION', 0 );

Insert this code:
ini_set('session.save_path','/customers/yourdomain.com/yourdomain.com/httpd.www/tmp/')

I used line 14

11. Open your browser.
Click Check Again

You should see this:

Session save path = Writeable
/customers/yourdomain.com/yourdomain.com/httpd.www/tmp/

Note: Safe Mode is still = On 

Complete installation steps...
Frontend and Backend should work fine....

Good luck! 

Olemot (Norway)

I have read this entire thing. I have full control of my server and everything is set up, the options are set in php.ini sessions directory is set... and the sessions are being saved in the directory. The files do have info in them yet i still get the same looping problem saying "You need to login". So i went back and tried the new version of mambo and its not better, i  can log into the back end but as soon as I click anything (users, etc etc) it takes me back to the login screen. Im thinking its a similar problem.

My settings im running a windows server with
Apache/2.2.4 (Win32) PHP/5.2.1 mod_jk/1.2.21

@peteyg: probably a cookies problem or a $mosConfig_live_site variable that is set incorrectly.
It must match exactly the url in your address bar.

If you are connecting locally as http://localhost/ then don't put http://127.0.0.1/ or http:/// as the live site variable.
If you are connecting over the internet then frames based redirects (url masking), firewalls, security software and a host of other issues can get in the way and interfere with cookies, etc.

ZONEALARM is a pain for this - if you have zonealarm installed disable it altogether and try again - you'd be amazed how often that fixes things.

Dean

Dean, Based on your advice to the local windows webserver I changed all of my backslashes to forward slashes in my php.ini file.  Therefore session.save_path = "C:\Program Files\xampp\tmp" became session.save_path = "C:/Program Files/xampp/tmp".

However this didn't work and I still have the symptoms you described as follows:

When you installed did you notice a warning about 'session save path unwriteable'?

Here are the telltale signs.
- You can login to the front end but not the backend
- You do NOT receive an incorrect username/password message - you are just dumped back to login screen.

If this is you then there are three solutions:

a) edit php.ini (a server configuration file) if you have access to, or control of, the server.
If you don't have access to the server - you could ask your host.
In your solution a) you didn't describe what to change in the php.ini. You just said IF you can change the php.ini...... But what do I change??

The session.save_path is the variable to change within your php.ini file - but it looks like you did that already.  I notice that you have the server installed within /program files/ most servers advise against this. The space in the file path causes problems for many. I am not sure off hand whether xampp is one such server. I would uninstall and reinstall directly on the root of the drive - eg c:/xampp/ just in case.

Dean

Dean,

Thanks. That is where the Graf book told me to put it. However I couldn't get past my failure to be able to get into the Admin page even with lots of forum help. So I gave up hosting at my home and am hosting on GoDaddy, which is working out much better. I only had one problem and that was that GoDaddy's documentation is outdated on where to load Joomla from the GoDaddy site. I tried uploading myself and I again couldn't get through the MySQL install from Joomla. However when I used the GoDaddy install everything worked instantly.

Hal

I'm having this problem on a site I'm trying to upload, but with the same provider, my own site is fine.

I'm currently on a php 4.x and the one I'm uploading to is php5.x. Would this make a difference?

I have the server host working on this to change it to the one my own site is on to see, but your help would be great.

Thanks

One day ago i bought new hosting from BLUEHOST and tried to install Joomla but found the same problem... SESSION SAVE PATH Unwriteable.... I have an access to php.ini as well. session_save_path at php.ini file is /temp but in my cpanel public_html folder there is nothing like tmp... so I created tmp and chmod it to 777. I re-checked Joomla Installer but it still says session save path Unwriteable..

I also found that BLUEHOST has Fantastico, what if I install Joomla from Fantastico, I will be even more desperate why it doesn't work properly. I'm happy that I;ve tried to install manually and could see the host php.ini session setting. I've contacted the support team, they are yet to reply...

Any other members here with Bluehost? What's your experience?

Well heres the slump.

I have a test server running Window xp pro,  Apache 5.058, MySql 5.0.22, PHP 5.1.4.

I'm very much a new to webservers and have chosen to make Joomla my first project into this world. My first mistake was not puting the Joomla folder under htdocs - yeh yeh enough of the laughter, but that should tell you how basic my understanding is...

So to the problem  - Session save path  Unwriteable:

Like so many other I have this message on my screen, unlike other here going cap in hand to there provider I have full access but don't know what to do with it.

Below is a paste of session section from php.ini

Is it as simple as changing  ;session.save_path = "/tmp"  removing ; to  session.save_path = "/tmp" and and restarting apache. If so where should the TMP directory be under \php\tmp or  elsewhere

All and any pointers would be welcome as my main aim is to expand my knowledge. If you want to go the extra mile and can see other possible issues within the session section, I'm happy to learn from your mistakes....

Thanks

Micheal



[Session]
; Handler used to store/retrieve data.
session.save_handler = files

; Argument passed to save_handler.  In the case of files, this is the path
; where data files are stored. Note: Windows users have to change this
; variable in order to use PHP's session functions.
;
; As of PHP 4.0.1, you can define the path as:
;
;    session.save_path = "N;/path"
;
; where N is an integer.  Instead of storing all the session files in
; /path, what this will do is use subdirectories N-levels deep, and
; store the session data in those directories.  This is useful if you
; or your OS have problems with lots of files in one directory, and is
; a more efficient layout for servers that handle lots of sessions.
;
; NOTE 1: PHP will not create this directory structure automatically.
;        You can use the script in the ext/session dir for that purpose.
; NOTE 2: See the section on garbage collection below if you choose to
;        use subdirectories for session storage
;
; The file storage module creates files using mode 600 by default.
; You can change that by using
;
;    session.save_path = "N;MODE;/path"
;
; where MODE is the octal representation of the mode. Note that this
; does not overwrite the process's umask.
;session.save_path = "/tmp"

; Whether to use cookies.
session.use_cookies = 1

; This option enables administrators to make their users invulnerable to
; attacks which involve passing session ids in URLs; defaults to 0.
; session.use_only_cookies = 1

; Name of the session (used as cookie name).
session.name = PHPSESSID

; Initialize session on request startup.
session.auto_start = 0

; Lifetime in seconds of cookie or, if 0, until browser is restarted.
session.cookie_lifetime = 0

; The path for which the cookie is valid.
session.cookie_path = /

; The domain for which the cookie is valid.
session.cookie_domain =

; Handler used to serialize data.  php is the standard serializer of PHP.
session.serialize_handler = php

; Define the probability that the 'garbage collection' process is started
; on every session initialization.
; The probability is calculated by using gc_probability/gc_divisor,
; e.g. 1/100 means there is a 1% chance that the GC process starts
; on each request.

session.gc_probability = 1
session.gc_divisor    = 1000

; After this number of seconds, stored data will be seen as 'garbage' and
; cleaned up by the garbage collection process.
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440

; NOTE: If you are using the subdirectory option for storing session files
;      (see session.save_path above), then garbage collection does *not*
;      happen automatically.  You will need to do your own garbage
;      collection through a shell script, cron entry, or some other method.
;      For example, the following script would is the equivalent of
;      setting session.gc_maxlifetime to 1440 (1440 seconds = 24 minutes):
;          cd /path/to/sessions; find -cmin +24 | xargs rm

; PHP 4.2 and less have an undocumented feature/bug that allows you to
; to initialize a session variable in the global scope, albeit register_globals
; is disabled.  PHP 4.3 and later will warn you, if this feature is used.
; You can disable the feature and the warning separately. At this time,
; the warning is only displayed, if bug_compat_42 is enabled.

session.bug_compat_42 = 0
session.bug_compat_warn = 1

; Check HTTP Referer to invalidate externally stored URLs containing ids.
; HTTP_REFERER has to contain this substring for the session to be
; considered as valid.
session.referer_check =

; How many bytes to read from the file.
session.entropy_length = 0

; Specified here to create the session id.
session.entropy_file =

;session.entropy_length = 16

;session.entropy_file = /dev/urandom

; Set to {nocache,private,public,} to determine HTTP caching aspects
; or leave this empty to avoid sending anti-caching headers.
session.cache_limiter = nocache

; Document expires after n minutes.
session.cache_expire = 180

; trans sid support is disabled by default.
; Use of trans sid may risk your users security.
; Use this option with caution.
; - User may send URL contains active session ID
;  to other person via. email/irc/etc.
; - URL that contains active session ID may be stored
;  in publically accessible computer.
; - User may access your site with the same session ID
;  always using URL stored in browser's history or bookmarks.
session.use_trans_sid = 0

; Select a hash function
; 0: MD5  (128 bits)
; 1: SHA-1 (160 bits)
session.hash_function = 0

; Define how many bits are stored in each character when converting
; the binary hash data to something readable.
;
; 4 bits: 0-9, a-f
; 5 bits: 0-9, a-v
; 6 bits: 0-9, a-z, A-Z, "-", ","
session.hash_bits_per_character = 5

; The URL rewriter will look for URLs in a defined set of HTML tags.
; form/fieldset are special; if you include them here, the rewriter will
; add a hidden field with the info which is otherwise appended
; to URLs.  If you want XHTML conformity, remove the form entry.
; Note that all valid entries require a "=", even if no value follows.
url_rewriter.tags = "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=fakeentry"

For testing joomla, I have installed Joomla though SESSION SAVE PATH was Unwriteable. And the site is working in frontend as well as backend. I could login as admin in both the pages. Will this cause problem in the future. I thought of using Community builder, and other third party integration.

Now back to Joomla Installer, since the Session Path is Unwriteable, I tried to solve the problem before installing in another folder.
I have accesss to php.ini, the session save path is /tmp and I look out for this folder in /home/username/ (cpanel) but found none, so I created tmp folder and chmoded to 777. But the installer still says Unwriteable. The Host - Bluehost support team replied that I must change session save path to /home/path/to/tmp for the particular page and place php.ini in the page and also put the same where the script is going to be executed. How do I achieve? Confuses! 

Just a quick pointer for everyone struggling to understand where /tmp is located on their server.
Any folder path that starts the a / is 'anchored' at root.
That is to say, it starts at the root of the drive - not within their user folder, or within public_html or anywhere else.
On a windows machine this is like c:/tmp - on unix they don't quote a drive letter.

Just to confuse matters - an url that starts with / is anchored in the web root (/public_html/ or /wwwroot/).
So be careful not to confuse urls with file/folder paths.

Hope that helps.

Dean

I have same problem "You need to login"

I did like this: created folder "sessions"  (home/mysite/public_html/sessions) with .htaccess file including this code: php_value session.save_path '/home/mysite/public_html/sessions/    it worked only once but next day I had same problem   
Can anybody help 

Hi to all, thank you for help in solving "Session_save_path" for Joomla installation.
My host is "HOSTMONSTER"
Here it is what I did to make it run:

1) create a directory "tmp"on root with 777 permission.
2) put a phpinfo command on a simple php page on root, for example phpinfo.php with this code inside:
   
3) run this page and read the Configuration File (php.ini) Path . This is the full path to your php.ini, find it with your ftp favourite program, download it and open it for editing.

4) find out the line with "session.save_path" and if there is a ";" before it delete it... write down the path you have read on phpinfo in this way.
instead of

you will write

save and upload, overwriting the old one.

5) download the globals.php from the root and edit it by inserting this line at the top of the code, after "

6) save and upload it overwriting the old one....

7) start the installation and that's it.

Hope that it will help somebody.

Thank you for this!  I've tried everything else, including putting a php.ini in every Joomla directory.  This was the only thing that worked.  Thanks again! 

I am having the same problem with the session save path. My host will not change the setting on the server so I am trying to change the .htaccess file instead since I do not have access to the php.ini file. I have added the line php_value session.save_path ('/var/www/vhosts/xyz.org/httpdocs/sessions') and when I try to log back in it does not recognize my login. I comment it out and I can login again. Is there a certain spot where you enter this line in the .htaccess file or am I out of luck. I dont want to have to edit the configuration.php file since it will not hold the info after changing global config. Any help would be appreciated. I am using a free host also so I may need to change to get this all going.

Rich

If you can login okay - then don't worry about it.
The symptoms of a mis-configured session save path are that you can't login. If you can, then you don't have a problem. It is likely that Joomla is falsely reporting the session save path.  Just ignore it - as long as it isn't a problem.

Dean

Dean,

My problem is I need to be able to install mods and templates and such and my host will not make the needed change because of safety concerns and I wanted to ad this alternate method in so I could install modules and templates. Right now I can do none of that. My other option is moving the site elsewhere to a pay service that I would have to pay out of my pocket since this project is for a unfunded church group. I know you said it may be a false reading on the file but since I cannot do any type of install of extensions I dont think it is.

Rich

I don't think your issue is session save path related - sounds more like "safe mode" or one of the open base dir restrictions.
I don't think there is an easy solution - installing from a local folder rather than uploading the zip may work - have your tried it.
Unpack the zip and ftp all of the files to a 'working space' folder on your server.
Then use the second box in the installer screen - entering the full path of the working (temporary) folder.
See if that works.

If not then I am afraid you will need to wait for Joomla 1.5 and its 'ftp layer' which will simulate you (the ftp user) to install files.
Alternatively - find a more reasonable host - sorry.

Dean

I am trying to install Joomla on a One server, and as you have been talking about, I am having problem with the "Save setting path".

I therfore followed the guide posted by Olemot. When I came to number 10 in his guide and made the corrections in the globals.php file, I got the following reply when I opened the browser:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /customers/ginfo.dk/ginfo.dk/httpd.www/joomlainst/globals.php on line 15

And now I don't now what to do, can anyone help.

Re-examine the globals.php file and ensure that you have the following:



Copy and paste the above code over your code if you wish - just make sure that afterwards it looks exactly like this.
Also edit with a PLAIN TEXT editor - not a wordprocessor. Notepad is good - wordpad / write / ms word are bad (for this process).

Dean

Thank You for your reply.

I have checked the code in the file globals.php, and it should be ok, but I still get the same error message.
The Joomla installation is placed in at folder called joomlainst, and there I have put the folder tmp as well.
Can the CHMOD has anything to do with the error message and the missing access?

UPDATE:
Forget everything I wrote. I made a fresh installation and tried a couple of things. AND now it is working

It works for me. Thank You

Hi,

Since I installed Joom!fish 1.7 on my Joomla 1.0.12 installation, my frontend simply disappeared (backend is okay). Could this have anything to do with save session path not being writable

btw : I know for sure both Joom!fish and Joomla packs are not corrupted. I also know for sure this combination works, as I did it before (on another server, which had the save session path writable)

Thnx in advance.

Grenouille