The file Cache Storage is not supported on this platform - seen in front and backend

[DSeger]

I am getting the error "The file Cache Storage is not supported on this platform" when attempting to access my Joomla site from the front end (user view) and backend (Joomla admin login).

Here's my setup:
I've started a clean install of Joomla 3.6.1 on AWS instance running AWS Linux. I followed all the steps on AWS site to setup LAMP stack (excellent instructions) at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/late ... -LAMP.html. I also followed the AWS tutorial for SSL/TLS setup.
Next, I followed the steps at joomla.org to install Joomla at https://docs.joomla.org/J3.x:Installing_Joomla. Everything went well and without errors until the last step where I click the "Remove installation folder". It failed to remove the installation folder due to permissions. (my first clue). So I removed the installation folder manually from Putty session.

Right after that I attempted to access Joomla frontend and backend, and both fail with "The file Cache Storage is not supported on this platform". I assume that I have a general permission issue with either Apache or PHP. I'm comfortable on Linux command line but Linux permissions are always a bit confusing to me. And for security reasons, I want to get the Joomla permissions right.

I unzipped the Joomla install archive as the logged in user "ec2-user", and created a group "www" of which ec2-user is a member. So all of the Joomla files are dirs are have owner "ec2-user" and group "www". I used sudo for all the rest of the LAMP setup, since AWS linux disables root login by default.

Apache does display my helloworld.html, phpinfo.php and the phpMyAdmin interface.

I reviewed other postings on this topic, I confirmed that both /cache and /administrator/cache exist. Both dirs have drwxr-sr-x (755) permissions.

I have two questions:
1. Any guess where I went wrong in the installation of Joomla?
2. Can you explain or point me to a topic/page that clearly describes what permissions are needed for apache/php/Joomla?

Finally, here is the output from Forum Post Assistant.

The file Cache Storage is not supported on this platform - seen on both front and back end

The file Cache Storage is not supported on this platform.

Read through other postings. Cache folders exist with permissions as expected.

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.6.1-Stable (Noether) 2-August-2016
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 13.1.0-Stable (Curiosity) 24-Apr-2013
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Writable (664) | Owner: ec2-user (uid: 1/gid: 1) | Group: www (gid: 1) | Valid For: 1.5
Configuration Options :: Offline: 0 | SEF: 1 | SEF Suffix: 0 | SEF ReWrite: 0 | .htaccess/web.config: No | GZip: 0 | Cache: 0 | FTP Layer: 0 | SSL: N/A | Error Reporting: default | Site Debug: 0 | Language Debug: 0 | Default Access: N/A | Unicode Slugs: N/A | Database Credentials Present: Yes

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 4.4.16-27.56.amzn1.x86_64 | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: Apache/2.4.23 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.1k-fips PHP/5.6.24 | Encoding: gzip, deflate | Doc Root: /var/www/html | System TMP Writable: Yes

PHP Configuration :: Version: 5.6.24 | PHP API: apache2handler | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: | Error Reporting: 22527 | Log Errors To: | Last Known Error: | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 2M | Max. POST Size: 8M | Max. Input Time: 60 | Max. Execution Time: 30 | Memory Limit: 128M

MySQL Configuration :: Version: 5.5.51 (Client:mysqlnd 5.0.11-dev - 20120503 - $Id: 76b08b24596e12d4553bd41fc93cccd5bac2fe7a $) | Host: --protected-- (--protected--) | Collation: utf8_general_ci (Character Set: utf8) | Database Size: 3.73 MiB | #of Tables:  68

PHP Extensions :: Core (5.6.24) | date (5.6.24) | ereg () | libxml () | openssl () | pcre () | zlib (2.0) | filter (0.11.0) | hash (1.0) | Reflection ($Id: fbcf7a77ca8e3d4cd7501de8025235b947b8240f $) | SPL (0.2) | session () | standard (5.6.24) | apache2handler () | bcmath () | bz2 () | calendar () | ctype () | curl () | dom (20031129) | mbstring () | fileinfo (1.0.5) | ftp () | gd () | gettext () | iconv () | exif (1.4 $Id: 5564de4b4a8fd6b32ae8bd44debf9f13b18c7768 $) | mcrypt () | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 5.0.11-dev - 20120503 - $Id: 76b08b24596e12d4553bd41fc93cccd5bac2fe7a $) | PDO (1.0.4dev) | Phar (2.0.2) | posix () | shmop () | SimpleXML (0.1) | sockets () | sqlite3 (0.7-dev) | sysvmsg () | sysvsem () | sysvshm () | tidy (2.0) | tokenizer (0.1) | xml () | xmlwriter (0.1) | xsl (0.1) | zip (1.12.5) | mysql (1.0) | mysqli (0.1) | pdo_mysql (1.0.2) | pdo_sqlite (1.0.1) | wddx () | xmlreader (0.1) | json (1.3.6) | mhash () | Zend Engine (2.6.0) |
Potential Missing Extensions :: suhosin |

Switch User Environment (Experimental) :: PHP CGI: No | Server SU: No | PHP SU: No | Custom SU (LiteSpeed/Cloud/Grid): Yes
Potential Ownership Issues: No

Apache Modules :: core | mod_so | http_core | mod_access_compat | mod_actions | mod_alias | mod_allowmethods | mod_auth_basic | mod_auth_digest | mod_authn_anon | mod_authn_core | mod_authn_dbd | mod_authn_dbm | mod_authn_file | mod_authn_socache | mod_authz_core | mod_authz_dbd | mod_authz_dbm | mod_authz_groupfile | mod_authz_host | mod_authz_owner | mod_authz_user | mod_autoindex | mod_cache | mod_cache_disk | mod_cache_socache | mod_data | mod_dbd | mod_deflate | mod_dir | mod_dumpio | mod_echo | mod_env | mod_expires | mod_ext_filter | mod_filter | mod_headers | mod_include | mod_info | mod_log_config | mod_logio | mod_macro | mod_mime_magic | mod_mime | mod_negotiation | mod_remoteip | mod_reqtimeout | mod_request | mod_rewrite | mod_setenvif | mod_slotmem_plain | mod_slotmem_shm | mod_socache_dbm | mod_socache_memcache | mod_socache_shmcb | mod_status | mod_substitute | mod_suexec | mod_unixd | mod_userdir | mod_version | mod_vhost_alias | mod_watchdog | mod_dav | mod_dav_fs | mod_dav_lock | mod_lua | prefork | mod_proxy | mod_lbmethod_bybusyness | mod_lbmethod_byrequests | mod_lbmethod_bytraffic | mod_lbmethod_heartbeat | mod_proxy_ajp | mod_proxy_balancer | mod_proxy_connect | mod_proxy_express | mod_proxy_fcgi | mod_proxy_fdpass | mod_proxy_ftp | mod_proxy_http | mod_proxy_hcheck | mod_proxy_scgi | mod_proxy_wstunnel | mod_ssl | mod_cgi | mod_php5 | Apache/2.4.23 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.1k-fips PHP/5.6.24 |
Potential Missing Modules :: mod_security | mod_evasive | mod_dosevasive | mod_qos | mod_userdir |

Core Folders :: images/ (755) | components/ (755) | modules/ (755) | plugins/ (755) | language/ (755) | templates/ (755) | cache/ (755) | logs/ (---) | tmp/ (755) | administrator/components/ (755) | administrator/modules/ (755) | administrator/language/ (755) | administrator/templates/ (755) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) ::

Components :: SITE :: com_mailto (3.0.0) | com_wrapper (3.0.0) |
Components :: ADMIN :: com_users (3.0.0) | com_contenthistory (3.2.0) | com_newsfeeds (3.0.0) | com_finder (3.0.0) | com_joomlaupdate (3.6.0) | com_ajax (3.2.0) | com_redirect (3.0.0) | com_tags (3.1.0) | com_modules (3.0.0) | com_languages (3.0.0) | com_checkin (3.0.0) | com_content (3.0.0) | com_cpanel (3.0.0) | com_banners (3.0.0) | com_categories (3.0.0) | com_templates (3.0.0) | com_admin (3.0.0) | com_postinstall (3.2.0) | com_cache (3.0.0) | com_login (3.0.0) | com_media (3.0.0) | com_search (3.0.0) | com_menus (3.0.0) | com_messages (3.0.0) | com_installer (3.0.0) | com_config (3.0.0) | com_plugins (3.0.0) |

Modules :: SITE :: mod_whosonline (3.0.0) | mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) | mod_footer (3.0.0) | mod_stats (3.0.0) | mod_custom (3.0.0) | mod_search (3.0.0) | mod_banners (3.0.0) | mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) | mod_languages (3.5.0) | mod_articles_news (3.0.0) | mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) | mod_login (3.0.0) | mod_finder (3.0.0) | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) | mod_related_items (3.0.0) | mod_feed (3.0.0) | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) | mod_random_image (3.0.0) | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) | mod_menu (3.0.0) |
Modules :: ADMIN :: mod_title (3.0.0) | mod_latest (3.0.0) | mod_toolbar (3.0.0) | mod_stats_admin (3.0.0) | mod_multilangstatus (3.0.0) | mod_popular (3.0.0) | mod_custom (3.0.0) | mod_quickicon (3.0.0) | mod_version (3.0.0) | mod_login (3.0.0) | mod_feed (3.0.0) | mod_submenu (3.0.0) | mod_status (3.0.0) | mod_logged (3.0.0) | mod_menu (3.0.0) |

Plugins :: SITE :: plg_authentication_gmail (3.0.0) | plg_authentication_ldap (3.0.0) | plg_authentication_cookie (3.0.0) | plg_authentication_joomla (3.0.0) | PLG_INSTALLER_URLINSTALLER (3.6.0) | plg_installer_packageinstaller (3.6.0) | PLG_INSTALLER_FOLDERINSTALLER (3.6.0) | plg_extension_joomla (3.0.0) | plg_quickicon_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) | plg_quickicon_extensionupdate (3.0.0) | plg_twofactorauth_totp (3.2.0) | plg_twofactorauth_yubikey (3.2.0) | plg_finder_contacts (3.0.0) | plg_finder_tags (3.0.0) | plg_finder_newsfeeds (3.0.0) | plg_finder_categories (3.0.0) | plg_finder_content (3.0.0) | plg_search_contacts (3.0.0) | plg_search_tags (3.0.0) | plg_search_newsfeeds (3.0.0) | plg_search_categories (3.0.0) | plg_search_content (3.0.0) | plg_user_contactcreator (3.0.0) | plg_user_profile (3.0.0) | plg_user_joomla (3.0.0) | plg_editors-xtd_readmore (3.0.0) | plg_editors-xtd_pagebreak (3.0.0) | plg_editors-xtd_module (3.5.0) | plg_editors-xtd_image (3.0.0) | plg_editors-xtd_article (3.0.0) | plg_editors_codemirror (5.17.0) | plg_editors_tinymce (4.4.0) | plg_system_updatenotification (3.5.0) | plg_system_languagefilter (3.0.0) | plg_system_sef (3.0.0) | plg_system_logout (3.0.0) | plg_system_cache (3.0.0) | plg_system_redirect (3.0.0) | plg_system_log (3.0.0) | plg_system_debug (3.0.0) | plg_system_p3p (3.0.0) | plg_system_remember (3.0.0) | plg_system_languagecode (3.0.0) | plg_system_highlight (3.0.0) | plg_system_stats (3.5.0) | plg_captcha_recaptcha (3.4.0) | plg_content_loadmodule (3.0.0) | plg_content_emailcloak (3.0.0) | plg_content_pagebreak (3.0.0) | plg_content_finder (3.0.0) | plg_content_pagenavigation (3.0.0) | plg_content_vote (3.0.0) | plg_content_joomla (3.0.0) |

Templates :: SITE :: beez3 (3.1.0) | protostar (1.0) |
Templates :: ADMIN :: isis (1.0) | hathor (3.0.0) |

[csthomas]

You have to change file permission for `cache` directory. Add write access for group or for others too.
The same for `administrator/cache`.

The other way is to disable cache handler in configuration.php file. Replace with empty string.

[leolam]

Why are you installing a version that is no longer supported and has problems (among them caching issues). The best thing to do is remove the installation since you just only installed core and install latest stable 3.6.2 where this issue has been resolved

The alternative is to create (if not exist) in the joomla root directory a folder named "cache" and in the administrator directory a folder also named "cache" and make both "cache" folders writable

Than this issue seems to be away but you will need to update to Joomla 3.6.2 with an update of com_joomlaupdate via the extension manager -->updates (first clean administrator cache in global configuration-->cache--> select administrator-->clean) and successively hit the update to joomla 3.6.2 button. Again com_joomlaupdate first!

So as you see this it is way more work and tricky instead of just removing that simple core installation either with or without template quickstart and reinstalling proper 3.6.2 where all is resolved already?

@csthomas:

he other way is to disable cache handler in configuration.php file. Replace with empty string

this is incorrect. it should be replaced with '0' (no caching) and is not a resolution for the issue but just disabling the symptoms...the problem won't be resolved and poster won't have any ability to do proper caching

Leo

[stutteringp0et]

I'm getting the same error, but I already have caching disabled.

[leolam]

I'm getting the same error, but I already have caching disabled.

But did you clean your administrator cache? Clean cache-->choose administrator (instead of site)

cache1.png

Leo

[EdS71]

I had the exact same error (Delete Installation failed and the cache error messages afterwards).

My installation was on a localhost in dir /var/www/html/sitename.

I figured out that not the permissions but the file owner might be the problem. This was first root, because I did copy jobs with sudo. When I changed to my users name, it still did not work, but repeating the installation generated some files with owner www-data. That seems to be the user for web access stuff. Now my solution was quite simple:

Before starting the joomla installation, so right after unpacking the Joomla-x.x.x.zip file, I changed the owner of all unpacked files:

sudo chown -hR www-data /var/www/html/sitename

Then I started the installation and everything was fine.

[L0ngN1t3]

I may be late to the game, but I ran into the same issue with the cache folders not being writeable despite the permissions. I finally realized the issue was due to SELinux blocking write access. This was probably due to the way I copied/installed the installation folder. I was able to test the theory by setting SELinux to permissive, tested access, then set it back to enforcing.

setenforce permissive
{tested access to Joomla and saw it working}
setenforce enforcing

I did a quick study on re-applying policies. Thanks to:
http://www.serverlab.ca/tutorials/linux ... b-servers/

Following his instructions, I was able to run these three lines and enable access.

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_cache_t "/var/www/html/cache(/.*)?"
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_cache_t "/var/www/html/administrator/cache(/.*)?"
restorecon -Rv /var/www/html/

Hope this helps someone.