Directories unwriteable in fedora 33 but not on Raspberry pi

[joecurtis]

I am creating two new instances of Joomla 3.9.23 running under nginx and php-fpm on a raspberry pi 3B2+ under raspbian (basically debian) and a zotac zbox under fedora 33 using guidance found in the Tecmint article 'How to Connect NGINX to PHP-FPM Using UNIX or TCP/IP Socket'.

On the raspberry pi, nginx loads with the user and group 'www-data'. I set the owner and group in PHP (www.conf) to that, as well as making them the owner and group of all directories and files recursively in the web server base directory. Joomla the shows all directories in system information > file permissions as writeable.

On the Zotac Zbox, nginx loads with the user and group of nginx. I followed the same procedure as above but on this machine Joomla shows Joomla the shows all directories in system information > file permissions as unwriteable. I tried swapping owner and group to root, www-data and my username without success. I also tried apache as I had noticed that the owner of the php session was that but again without success.

If anyone can shed any light on why joomla files are not writeable in fedora I would be most grateful. FPA attached which shows 'Joomla should run without any problems'!

[01-Dec-2020 16:11:58 UTC] PHP Warning: simplexml_load_file(): I/O warning : failed to load external entity "https://update.joomla.org/core/list.xml" in /var/www/html/fpa-en.php on line 3094

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.9.23-Stable (Amani) 24-November-2020
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 13.1.0-Stable (Curiosity) 24-Apr-2013
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Read-Only (755) |
Configuration Options :: Offline: false | SEF: true | SEF Suffix: false | SEF ReWrite: false | .htaccess/web.config: No | GZip: false | Cache: false | CacheTime: 15 | CacheHandler: file | CachePlatformPrefix: false | FTP Layer: false | Proxy: N/A | LiveSite: | Session lifetime: 15 | Session handler: database | Shared sessions: false | SSL: N/A | Error Reporting: default | Site Debug: false | Language Debug: false | Default Access: 1 | Unicode Slugs: false | dbConnection Type: mysqli | PHP Supports J! 3.9.23: Yes | Database Supports J! 3.9.23: Yes | Database Credentials Present: Yes |

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 5.9.10-200.fc33.x86_64 | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: nginx/1.18.0 | Encoding: gzip, deflate | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 213.04 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 7.4.12 | PHP API: fpm-fcgi | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: | Error Reporting: 22527 | Log Errors To: /var/log/php-fpm/www-error.log | Last Known Error: 01st December 2020 16:14:29. | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 60M | Max. POST Size: 60M | Max. Input Time: 60 | Max. Execution Time: 30 | Memory Limit: 128M

Database Configuration :: Version: 5.5.5-10.4.17-MariaDB (Client:mysqlnd 7.4.12) | Database Size: 4.16 MiB | #of Tables with config prefix:  78 | #of other Tables:  0 | User Privileges : GRANT PROXY

PHP Extensions :: Core (7.4.12) | date (7.4.12) | libxml (7.4.12) | openssl (7.4.12) | pcre (7.4.12) | zlib (7.4.12) | filter (7.4.12) | hash (7.4.12) | Reflection (7.4.12) | SPL (7.4.12) | session (7.4.12) | standard (7.4.12) | cgi-fcgi (7.4.12) | bz2 (7.4.12) | calendar (7.4.12) | ctype (7.4.12) | curl (7.4.12) | dom (20031129) | mbstring (7.4.12) | fileinfo (7.4.12) | ftp (7.4.12) | gd (7.4.12) | gettext (7.4.12) | iconv (7.4.12) | json (7.4.12) | exif (7.4.12) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 7.4.12) | PDO (7.4.12) | Phar (7.4.12) | SimpleXML (7.4.12) | sockets (7.4.12) | sodium (7.4.12) | sqlite3 (7.4.12) | tokenizer (7.4.12) | xml (7.4.12) | xmlwriter (7.4.12) | xsl (7.4.12) | mysqli (7.4.12) | pdo_mysql (7.4.12) | pdo_sqlite (7.4.12) | xmlreader (7.4.12) | Zend OPcache (7.4.12) | Zend Engine (3.4.0) |
Potential Missing Extensions :: zip |

Switch User Environment :: PHP CGI: No | Server SU: No | PHP SU: No | Potential Ownership Issues: Yes

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) | administrator/logs/ (755) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) ::

Database statistics :: Uptime: 81666 | Threads: 7 | Questions: 2901 | Slow queries: 0 | Opens: 141 | Flush tables: 1 | Open tables: 88 | Queries per second avg: 0.035 |

Components :: Site ::
Core :: com_mailto (3.0.0) 1 | com_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Components :: Admin ::
Core :: com_plugins (3.0.0) 1 | com_postinstall (3.2.0) 1 | com_modules (3.0.0) 1 | com_associations (3.7.0) 1 | com_cpanel (3.0.0) 1 | com_messages (3.0.0) 1 | com_config (3.0.0) 1 | com_admin (3.0.0) 1 | com_finder (3.0.0) 1 | com_ajax (3.2.0) 1 | com_media (3.0.0) 1 | com_redirect (3.0.0) 1 | com_banners (3.0.0) 1 | com_cache (3.0.0) 1 | com_fields (3.7.0) 1 | com_users (3.0.0) 1 | com_content (3.0.0) 1 | com_actionlogs (3.9.0) 1 | com_contenthistory (3.2.0) 1 | com_joomlaupdate (3.6.2) 1 | com_languages (3.0.0) 1 | com_templates (3.0.0) 1 | com_checkin (3.0.0) 1 | com_search (3.0.0) 1 | com_installer (3.0.0) 1 | com_privacy (3.9.0) 1 | com_tags (3.1.0) 1 | com_categories (3.0.0) 1 | com_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | com_menus (3.0.0) 1 | com_login (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Modules :: Site ::
Core :: mod_whosonline (3.0.0) 1 | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 | mod_feed (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_random_image (3.0.0) 1 | mod_footer (3.0.0) 1 | mod_search (3.0.0) 1 | mod_custom (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) 1 | mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) 1 | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_stats (3.0.0) 1 | mod_login (3.0.0) 1 | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) 1 | mod_articles_news (3.0.0) 1 | mod_related_items (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) 1 | mod_languages (3.5.0) 1 | mod_banners (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) 1 | mod_menu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) 1 | mod_finder (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Modules :: Admin ::
Core :: mod_submenu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_toolbar (3.0.0) 1 | mod_feed (3.0.0) 1 | mod_version (3.0.0) 1 | mod_quickicon (3.0.0) 1 | mod_logged (3.0.0) 1 | mod_status (3.0.0) 1 | mod_title (3.0.0) 1 | mod_custom (3.0.0) 1 | mod_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_privacy_dashboard (3.9.0) 1 | mod_login (3.0.0) 1 | mod_latestactions (3.9.0) 1 | mod_multilangstatus (3.0.0) 1 | mod_stats_admin (3.0.0) 1 | mod_sampledata (3.8.0) 1 | mod_menu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_popular (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Libraries ::
Core ::
3rd Party::

Plugins ::
Core :: plg_privacy_message (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_user (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_consents (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_actionlogs (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_content (3.9.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_extensionupdate (3.0.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_privacycheck (3.9.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_phpversioncheck (3.7.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) 1 | plg_user_terms (3.9.0) 0 | plg_user_contactcreator (3.0.0) 0 | plg_user_profile (3.0.0) 0 | plg_user_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_installer_packageinstaller (3.6.0) 1 | PLG_INSTALLER_FOLDERINSTALLER (3.6.0) 1 | PLG_INSTALLER_URLINSTALLER (3.6.0) 1 | plg_fields_checkboxes (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_imagelist (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_repeatable (3.9.0) 1 | plg_fields_integer (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_usergrouplist (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_text (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_user (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_textarea (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_color (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_editor (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_url (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_calendar (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_radio (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_sql (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_list (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_media (3.7.0) 1 | plg_extension_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_categories (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_contacts (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_tags (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_content (3.0.0) 1 | plg_authentication_ldap (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_cookie (3.0.0) 1 | plg_authentication_gmail (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_menu (3.7.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_pagebreak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_image (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_fields (3.7.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_module (3.5.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_article (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_readmore (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_categories (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_contacts (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_tags (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_content (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_pagenavigation (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_confirmconsent (3.9.0) 0 | plg_content_pagebreak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_fields (3.7.0) 1 | plg_content_vote (3.0.0) 0 | plg_content_finder (3.0.0) 0 | plg_content_loadmodule (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_emailcloak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | PLG_ACTIONLOG_JOOMLA (3.9.0) 1 | plg_captcha_recaptcha (3.4.0) 0 | plg_captcha_recaptcha_invisible (3. 0 | plg_system_updatenotification (3.5.0) 1 | plg_system_remember (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_log (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_redirect (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_p3p (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_sessiongc (3.8.6) 1 | plg_system_sef (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_fields (3.7.0) 1 | plg_system_privacyconsent (3.9.0) 0 | plg_system_languagecode (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_cache (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_highlight (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_logrotation (3.9.0) 1 | plg_system_debug (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_languagefilter (3.0.0) 0 | PLG_SYSTEM_ACTIONLOGS (3.9.0) 1 | plg_system_stats (3.5.0) 1 | plg_system_logout (3.0.0) 1 | plg_twofactorauth_totp (3.2.0) 0 | plg_twofactorauth_yubikey (3.2.0) 0 |
3rd Party:: plg_editors_codemirror (5.56.0) 1 | plg_editors_tinymce (4.5.12) 1 |

Templates :: Site :: beez3 (3.1.0) 1 | protostar (1.0) 1 |
Templates :: Admin :: hathor (3.0.0) 1 | isis (1.0) 1 |

[Per Yngve Berg]

Your php-fpm setup is not correct.

1) Create a new Linux User to use for the site. ( "mysite" for this example)

2) Put the site in the user's Home Folder

3) In the fpm.conf:

[mysite]
User = mysite
listen = 127.0.0.1:9001 (Use a separate port for each site)

When nginx (running as nginx) is accessing php through the port 9001, it will run as user mysite.

[joecurtis]

Thank you for your interest Per. I have established that the problem lies with selinux which is enabled by default with fedora. If I disable it then my original set up using nginx as user/group has all the joomla directories writeable.