500 Error on new install

[Blackton]

I just installed Joomla locally in Linux Mint, pointed my DNS to my home IP, set port forwarding to forward to my home server, but when I try to open the site, it gives a 500 error. I've spent hours trying to figure this out. Several of the posts suggest enabling debugging in some "configuration.php" file, which they say should be in the root folder, but my root folder has no such file. Somewhere it said this will not be copied until after initializing or something (I guess through first opening the page, which I can't do due to the 500 error, so I seem to be in a catch 22 if this is the case).

There is a configuration.php-dist (not configuration.php like the forums say) inside of the installation folder (not root folder like the forums say), and I tried setting that debug flag in there manually, but this doesn't help. I've also tried messing around with the owner and permissions on the Joomla folder, but it seems to be all be set correctly (owner is "www-data" and permissions are "create/delete" for owner, and "access files" for group and other). Any thoughts on why I can't get my site to work or what I can try next? Thanks!

[Per Yngve Berg]

Please use the Forum Post Assistant. See Red Box above.

Can your Web Server serve any Page?

Use the local address of your server and not the public one.

[ceford]

Something to read: https://jdocmanual.org/en/jdocmanual?ar ... g-on-linux

Can you confirm Apache is working? Usually you use localhost rather than an IP address. The items in the installation folder get copied to the site root during installation so changing anything there is not going to do any good and may make matters worse during installation.

[Blackton]

When I do "systemctl status apache2," it says "active (running)." Is that what you mean?

[ceford]

No. I mean point your browser at http://localhost/ and you should see the default Ubuntu page, assuming you are using a browser on the same computer where Mint is installed. Did you see that during the Apache installation process?

There is no point debugging until the installation has worked. The Forum Post Assistant can give you valuable information to help you figure out what is wrong.

[Blackton]

Well I think I saw a default page at first, but I've redone things and tried so many different things now that I can't be sure if that was a previous iteration or what. Is there a way to go back to that installation step to make sure? Or maybe this will tell you: when I go to localhost in the browser now, it shows me a directory tree with my project root folder showing, and under that it says Apache/2.4.58 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80...

It's just that when I click on that root folder at localhost, it takes me to that red 500 error screen. I also get to that red 500 screen through the DNS route to my site.

[ceford]

Seeing the directory tree is good progress. Did you install phpMyAdmin and does it work?

[Blackton]

So my first attempt had a long list of dependencies, but that failed with a bunch of error messages about "couldn't find package php8.1" All the failed packages had php8.1 in them, so I figured this was outdated or something. Then I found new instructions that just had me install apache2, mysql-server, and I got the latest Joomla full package off the site. That was all I installed, so if there was something more I needed, none of the instructions I followed mentioned it.

So are you saying that I should need phpMyAdmin for it to work? Are there any other dependencies I should need as well while I'm at it? Thanks!

[ceford]

phpMyAdmin is not needed for Joomla but it is widely to manage MySQL/MariaDb databases. If it works after installing Apache, MySQL and PHP then you know a normal Joomla installation should work too.

[Blackton]

So if I can see that Apache screen at localhost (with the link to my project folder), I assume that tells me that Apache is working properly. So how can I tell that MySQL and PHP are working properly? Will phpMyAdmin tell me that, or I do I need some other package or something? I don't want to install anything extraneous that might complicate or confuse things.

[ceford]

Installing phpMyAdmin takes 10 seconds! If you don't use that, what will you use to manage your databases?

[Blackton]

Oh, and BTW, I did try the FPA, but when I loaded the page, it said, "As a security measure, this copy of FPA has been self-deleted due to the time it has been present on the server." I had literally just downloaded it, unzipped it, moved it into my project folder, and set the permissions, about a minute before.

[Blackton]

Installing phpMyAdmin takes 10 seconds! If you don't use that, what will you use to manage your databases?

I just want to get it actually working first. Can I wait until I have it working properly before installing additional tools? I don't mean it will be complicated to install, but that adding in additional working parts could make debugging more complicated.

[ceford]

What do you mean by it in

I just want to get it actually working first.

?

So far we know that Apache is working. Have you confirmed that MySQL is working? Have you confirmed that PHP is working? You can use command line tools to test each of these.

Having the FPA working is a good alternative to phpMyAdmin. But the message you got tells us something is wrong.

[Blackton]

Do you have any recommendations for command line tools?

Also, although it is not showing up in my terminal history for some reason (i.e. by typing the "history" command), when I scroll back up through the terminal output, I see that I *had* previously run "sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql" which completed without any errors as far as I can see.

[Blackton]

I did try to put in a new copy of the PFA file into my project folder, but it just deletes it again when I try to access it. I looked this up, and it said it is only supposed to delete that after five days, so I don't understand why mine is getting deleted immediately.

[toivo]

I did try to put in a new copy of the PFA file into my project folder, but it just deletes it again when I try to access it.

The topic FPA does not work should help. The FPA instructions mention the following, which may also apply to FTP: "WinSCP Users - uncheck/disable "Preserve Timestamp" in the session options to avoid auto-delete issues."

[ceford]

Do you have any recommendations for command line tools?

Also, although it is not showing up in my terminal history for some reason (i.e. by typing the "history" command), when I scroll back up through the terminal output, I see that I *had* previously run "sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql" which completed without any errors as far as I can see.

You can type php -v in a terminal window to see which version of PHP is installed. We can presume php is installed or the command to run php fpa-en.php would have returned a not found error.

We still don't know if MySQL is installed. Using Mint you should use the GUI to install MySQL and phpMyAdmin. It will select dependencies to install too.

Did you read this: https://jdocmanual.org/en/jdocmanual?ar ... g-on-linux

[Blackton]

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 5.2.4-Stable (Uthabiti) 18-February-2025
Joomla! Configured :: Not Found

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 6.8.0-53-generic | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: Apache/2.4.58 (Ubuntu) | Encoding: gzip, deflate, br, zstd | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 431.74 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 8.3.6 | PHP API: apache2handler | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: 0 | Error Reporting: 22527 | Log Errors To: | Last Known Error: | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 2M | Max. POST Size: 8M | Max. Input Time: 60 | Max. Execution Time: 30 | Memory Limit: 128M

Database Configuration :: Database Credentials incomplete or not available Nothing to display.
Missing credentials detected: Connection Type missing | Database Name missing |MySQL Host missing | Table Prefix missing | Database Username missing | Database Password missing |User Privileges : Unknown

PHP Extensions :: Core (8.3.6) | date (8.3.6) | libxml (8.3.6) | openssl (8.3.6) | pcre (8.3.6) | zlib (8.3.6) | filter (8.3.6) | hash (8.3.6) | json (8.3.6) | random (8.3.6) | Reflection (8.3.6) | SPL (8.3.6) | session (8.3.6) | standard (8.3.6) | sodium (8.3.6) | apache2handler (8.3.6) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 8.3.6) | PDO (8.3.6) | xml (8.3.6) | bcmath (8.3.6) | calendar (8.3.6) | ctype (8.3.6) | curl (8.3.6) | dom (20031129) | mbstring (8.3.6) | FFI (8.3.6) | fileinfo (8.3.6) | ftp (8.3.6) | gd (8.3.6) | gettext (8.3.6) | iconv (8.3.6) | intl (8.3.6) | exif (8.3.6) | mysqli (8.3.6) | pdo_mysql (8.3.6) | Phar (8.3.6) | posix (8.3.6) | readline (8.3.6) | shmop (8.3.6) | SimpleXML (8.3.6) | soap (8.3.6) | sockets (8.3.6) | sysvmsg (8.3.6) | sysvsem (8.3.6) | sysvshm (8.3.6) | tokenizer (8.3.6) | xmlreader (8.3.6) | xmlwriter (8.3.6) | xsl (8.3.6) | zip (1.22.3) | Zend OPcache (8.3.6) | Zend Engine (4.3.6) |
Potential Missing Extensions ::

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

Apache Modules :: core | mod_so | mod_watchdog | http_core | mod_log_config | mod_logio | mod_version | mod_unixd | mod_access_compat | mod_alias | mod_auth_basic | mod_authn_core | mod_authn_file | mod_authz_core | mod_authz_host | mod_authz_user | mod_autoindex | mod_deflate | mod_dir | mod_env | mod_filter | mod_mime | prefork | mod_negotiation | mod_php | mod_reqtimeout | mod_rewrite | mod_setenvif | mod_status | Apache/2.4.58 (Ubuntu) |
Potential Missing Modules :: mod_expires | mod_ssl |

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) | api/ (755) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) ::

Components :: Site ::
Core ::
3rd Party::

Components :: Admin ::
Core :: com_newsfeeds (4.0.0) ? | com_cpanel (4.0.0) ? | com_admin (4.0.0) ? | com_wrapper (4.0.0) ? | com_scheduler (4.1.0) ? | com_config (4.0.0) ? | com_cache (4.0.0) ? | com_installer (4.0.0) ? | com_guidedtours (4.3.0) ? | com_users (4.0.0) ? | com_fields (4.0.0) ? | com_banners (4.0.0) ? | com_associations (4.0.0) ? | com_ajax (4.0.0) ? | com_login (4.0.0) ? | com_privacy (3.9.0) ? | com_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | com_messages (4.0.0) ? | com_tags (4.0.0) ? | com_menus (4.0.0) ? | com_modules (4.0.0) ? | com_checkin (4.0.0) ? | com_content (4.0.0) ? | com_categories (4.0.0) ? | com_workflow (4.0.0) ? | com_plugins (4.0.0) ? | com_mails (4.0.0) ? | com_finder (4.0.0) ? | com_templates (4.0.0) ? | com_contenthistory (4.0.0) ? | com_postinstall (4.0.0) ? | com_redirect (4.0.0) ? | com_joomlaupdate (4.0.3) ? | com_media (3.0.0) ? | com_languages (4.0.0) ? |
3rd Party::

Modules :: Site ::
Core :: mod_articles_news (3.0.0) ? | mod_footer (3.0.0) ? | mod_random_image (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) ? | MOD_ARTICLES (5.2.0) ? | mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) ? | mod_languages (3.5.0) ? | mod_custom (3.0.0) ? | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) ? | mod_menu (3.0.0) ? | mod_feed (3.0.0) ? | mod_banners (3.0.0) ? | mod_finder (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) ? | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) ? | mod_whosonline (3.0.0) ? | mod_stats (3.0.0) ? | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) ? | mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) ? | mod_login (3.0.0) ? | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) ? | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) ? | mod_related_items (3.0.0) ? |
3rd Party::

Modules :: Admin ::
Core :: mod_user (4.0.0) ? | mod_logged (3.0.0) ? | mod_post_installation_messages (4.0.0) ? | mod_latest (3.0.0) ? | mod_multilangstatus (3.0.0) ? | mod_version (3.0.0) ? | mod_latestactions (3.9.0) ? | mod_custom (3.0.0) ? | mod_stats_admin (3.0.0) ? | mod_menu (3.0.0) ? | mod_feed (3.0.0) ? | mod_sampledata (3.8.0) ? | mod_messages (4.0.0) ? | mod_privacy_dashboard (3.9.0) ? | mod_popular (3.0.0) ? | mod_title (3.0.0) ? | mod_toolbar (3.0.0) ? | mod_privacy_status (4.0.0) ? | mod_quickicon (3.0.0) ? | mod_frontend (4.0.0) ? | mod_guidedtours (4.3.0) ? | mod_login (3.0.0) ? | mod_submenu (3.0.0) ? | mod_loginsupport (4.0.0) ? |
3rd Party::

Libraries ::
Core ::
3rd Party::

Plugins ::
Core :: plg_authentication_ldap (3.0.0) ? | plg_authentication_cookie (3.0.0) ? | plg_authentication_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_task_privacyconsent (5.0.0) ? | plg_task_sessiongc (5.0.0) ? | plg_task_deleteactionlogs (5.0.0) ? | plg_task_requests (4.1) ? | plg_task_rotatelogs (5.0.0) ? | plg_task_site_status (4.1) ? | plg_task_globalcheckin (5.0.0) ? | plg_task_updatenotification (5.0.0) ? | plg_task_check_files (4.1) ? | plg_workflow_publishing (4.0.0) ? | plg_workflow_notification (4.0.0) ? | plg_workflow_featuring (4.0.0) ? | plg_api-authentication_basic (4.0.0) ? | plg_api-authentication_token (4.0.0) ? | plg_quickicon_extensionupdate (3.0.0) ? | plg_quickicon_downloadkey (4.0.0) ? | plg_quickicon_overridecheck (4.0.0) ? | plg_quickicon_phpversioncheck (3.7.0) ? | plg_quickicon_privacycheck (3.9.0) ? | plg_quickicon_eos (4.4.0) ? | plg_quickicon_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) ? | plg_sampledata_multilang (4.0.0) ? | plg_content_emailcloak (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_pagenavigation (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_confirmconsent (3.9.0) ? | plg_content_finder (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_loadmodule (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_pagebreak (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_content_vote (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_module (3.5.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_article (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_menu (3.7.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_pagebreak (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_image (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_readmore (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_filesystem_local (4.0.0) ? | plg_system_stats (3.5.0) ? | plg_system_debug (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_redirect (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_logout (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_accessibility (4.0.0) ? | plg_system_languagefilter (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_task_notification (4.1) ? | plg_system_privacyconsent (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_webauthn (4.0.0) ? | plg_system_schedulerunner (4.1) ? | plg_system_cache (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_languagecode (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_remember (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_schemaorg (5.0.0) ? | plg_system_sef (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_httpheaders (4.0.0) ? | plg_system_log (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_jooa11y (4.2.0) ? | plg_system_shortcut (4.2.0) ? | plg_system_skipto (4.0.0) ? | plg_system_highlight (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_system_guidedtours (4.3.0) ? | plg_actionlog_joomla (3.9.0) ? | plg_finder_tags (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_categories (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_content (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_contacts (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_newsfeeds (3.0.0) ? | plg_installer_packageinstaller (3.6.0) ? | plg_installer_webinstaller (4.0.0) ? | plg_installer_folderinstaller (3.6.0) ? | plg_installer_urlinstaller (3.6.0) ? | plg_installer_override (4.0.0) ? | plg_multifactorauth_webauthn (4.2.0) ? | plg_multifactorauth_totp (3.2.0) ? | plg_multifactorauth_yubikey (3.2.0) ? | plg_multifactorauth_fixed (4.2.0) ? | plg_multifactorauth_email (4.2.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_book (5.0.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_jobposting (5.0.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_article (5.1.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_recipe (5.0.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_person (5.0.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_custom (5.1.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_blogposting (5.0.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_organization (5.0.0) ? | plg_schemaorg_event (5.0.0) ? | plg_behaviour_compat (5.0.0) ? | plg_behaviour_taggable (4.0.0) ? | plg_behaviour_versionable (4.0.0) ? | plg_media-action_resize (4.0.0) ? | plg_media-action_crop (4.0.0) ? | plg_media-action_rotate (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_redirect (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_templates (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_tags (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_config (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_content (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_installer (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_media (4.1.0) ? | plg_webservices_banners (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_languages (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_newsfeeds (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_plugins (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_privacy (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_modules (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_messages (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_users (4.0.0) ? | plg_webservices_menus (4.0.0) ? | plg_privacy_consents (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_content (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_message (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_user (3.9.0) ? | plg_fields_text (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_list (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_usergrouplist (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_checkboxes (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_editor (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_calendar (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_media (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_url (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_textarea (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_imagelist (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_subform (4.0.0) ? | plg_fields_integer (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_radio (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_user (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_color (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_sql (3.7.0) ? | plg_extension_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_extension_namespacemap (4.0.0) ? | plg_extension_finder (4.0.0) ? | plg_user_terms (3.9.0) ? | plg_user_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_user_contactcreator (3.0.0) ? | plg_user_profile (3.0.0) ? | plg_user_token (3.9.0) ? |
3rd Party:: plg_editors_tinymce (6.8.4) ? | plg_editors_codemirror (6.0.0) ? |

Templates :: Site :: cassiopeia (1.0) ? |
Templates :: Admin :: atum (1.0) ? |

[Blackton]

It's showing a bunch of database related deficiencies, although I did follow the steps in the tutorial to create the database, create the user, etc. So I'm not sure what still needs to be done there. Is there a config that needs to be modified with some database info or something?

[Blackton]

BTW, I got all those dependencies to install by just removing the "8.1" off the back of all of the package names.

[ceford]

You need to edit your php configuration file and set Max. Upload Size: to 64M, Max. POST Size: to 64M and Memory Limit: to 256M.

Did you create a database and database user? All of the database information in the FPA comes from the configuration.php file but that is not created until you install Joomla.

[Blackton]

Yes, the database and user were created before, but it may have been prior to the install, since those instructions didn't seem to include the Joomla install. So do I need to manually add them to the configuration.php? Where would that be located? I still don't see anything like that in the root folder, although the "installation" folder still has that configuration.php-dist, but I don't think that's it.

[Blackton]

I'm looking back over the instructions that you sent above, which I've been trying to follow, but I'm not even sure where the Joomla install actually takes place. It has sections about installing Apache, PHP, and finally the db, all of which I had done already, but I don't see where it ever gets to actually installing Joomla, unless I'm missing it somehow. So maybe it's not really installed? Based on other instructions that I had previously been following, I had unzipped the Joomla folder and set permissions on it, which I assume is what is meant by installing, but maybe there is a step I am missing in there that I didn't see?

[toivo]

This section in the Joomla manual shows how to do the actual installation of Joomla after the server environment is available: https://jdocmanual.org/en/jdocmanual?ar ... ing-joomla

[Blackton]

Good news, it seems to be working now! I think all I had to do was actually install it, which those Linux instructions didn't include in the steps! I've starting working through how to use it and have added a few pages to the site. However, I can't find anywhere that explains how to change the main heading at the top of the page. I also want to learn how to change the menu to a more modern style, like a top-bar menu. Is there somewhere to go for more information on things like this. I've looked through the index of articles but can't find anything about these two things. Again, thank you for your help, and I'm so happy to have the beginnings of a site up and running now!

[toivo]

Good to hear that the installation worked all right!

I can't find anywhere that explains how to change the main heading at the top of the page. I also want to learn how to change the menu to a more modern style, like a top-bar menu.

Please ask each question in a new topic in the appropriate subforum, for example General Questions/New to Joomla! 5.x, Templates for Joomla! 5.x or Extensions for Joomla! 5.x. Attach the URL of the website or the page and screenshots, which could clarify the issue or question.