500 internal server error only on index page?

[Subota232]

Site has been functioning well for months and then one day out of nowhere (nothing has been changed, neither installed both on our (client-side) and server-side by the hosting company) we get 500 Internal server error on our frontpage.

After couple minutes we found out that all the other pages and section on the joomla are working, except the main page.

We have checked file permissions, htaccess, configuration php and mysql on server and still nothing.

Anyone have any solutions how can we fix this problem?

[ircmaxell]

Contact your host. It's quite possible they changed something...

[Subota232]

The hosting is MediaTemple and they say that they have not changed anything. Joomla is working fine in other directories.

[dalkin]

Hi there,

I've just bug-tracked that problem and it turns out it was permissions on components and admin>components This was only in my case though so good luck with it. Try turning them to 755 - In my case it wouldn't load the administrator/index.php file

[designsedge]

If you are using the SobiLatest module, make sure of the permissions...I ran into this recently on a development vs. live system.

[bullettime]

I found something on this matter on powweb forums:

So, this error:

The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
The script had an error or it did not produce any output. If there was an error, you should be able to see it in the error log.

is produced by not configured CGI.

Then, first enable CGI, and in PHP.ini add your session path
Edit your php.ini

session path would be: Path to your Web document root (plus cgi-bin/tmp): /home/users/web/XXX/pow.XXXXXXXXXX/htdocs/cgi-bin/tmp

Then, wait until 6PM or 9 Am for the server to refresh.

Then you can proceed with your CMS, or Joomla installation.

[dannyboy5]

Having the same issue. Can you tell me where php.ini sits please? Sorry, total novice..

Thanks

[aldis01]

I have exactly the same error, administrator/index.php gives me a 500 internal server error but if I go to index.php?option=com_modules everything is fine but the menu don't work. any ideas?

[aldis01]

I solved it!
Apply 755 permissions on these files:

1. index.php
2. administrator/index.php and administrator/index2.php

that should work!

[simnav]

I solved it!
Apply 755 permissions on these files:

1. index.php
2. administrator/index.php and administrator/index2.php

that should work!

I suggest chmod 444 but if it is important for you to give execute permissions, use chmod 555. This is important from a security perspective (Refer Iframe injection).

[Heltkin]

I'm having this problem as well and nothing I do seems to help.

do the 755 permission changes need to time to take effect? if not, are there any other causes to this oddity?

I'm not running Joomla in the root folder of the site, in case that changes anything.

Thanks for any insight.

[bmeegan1]

My site went down this evening and I got this dreaded error message:

" internal server error"

which as it turns out was only on the index.php page.

so first things first, don't panic and search google/joomla resources for some help.
I came across this topic and it was so helpful, look for a file permissions issue.

I ftp'd in and straight away could see my index.php file permissions was set to 000 (zero).
I tried to change it to 755 through ftp and was not permitted, got this error:

index.php chmod failed: Operation not permitted

I decided to log a support ticket with my ISP, only to login to my account and be greeted by a ticket opened by them to ME saying that my site (index.php) was causing some very high utilization on a shared server, so to protect all shared websites they took me offline by setting the index.php files to zero permissions.

I'm letting people here to know to be on the look out for their site causing high util.
my site has been stable for over 1 year and only today I ran an updated backup, so I'm not sure if the backup software caused the spike or just having too many scripts on the home page pushed me over my threshold.
As we speak, my site is still down over 5 hours now and my ISP's call center have gone home for the evening.Hopefull this thread will help you restor service quickly if you get this error.

thanks,

[dazzur]

For me - I think it may be to do with the admin template?

Reading in this forum I found a suggestion that by adding index.php?option=com_modules that you could get to the modules screen - which seemed to work.

I then tried to go to the Control Panel but got a WSOD (White Screen Of Death).

I then GUESSED that it might be something to do with the admin / backend template. Luckily a few months prior I had installed an alternative backend template so set that to be the default and it seemed to now have fixed my problem?

Am still testing this out - but am trying to understand if this is the fix, what is wrong with Khepri and how it got busted (I tried putting it back to default - and got same WSOD).

Anybody got any ideas?

[technomatters]

I have same problem. Sites getting 500 internal server error many times. Is it because of not maintain the installation and folder permissions properly?

Server has no problem. Many sites working fine. Some sites opening very slowly? Is there any reason for this and any suggestions to make the site load fast.

Regards
Venkat

[sudantha]

I fixed this problem . it happend only in index.php becouse some thing wrong with a module

for me it was FPSS (Front page slide show) i disabled it and ran..

now works perfectly !

[FXexe]

This was moved to a new topic. Thank you.

[Benno_M_1984]

where is the new topic?

[FXexe]

Sorry, here it is:
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=268&t=576011

[pac_indahood]

I found the problem!

You must edit file permission to 755

1. index.php
2. administrator/index.php and administrator/index2.php
3. administrator
4. template
5. template/(your template)
6. template/(your template)/css
7. template/(your template)/css/template.css
8. template/(your template)/css/template.css.php

Seems internal error (php) don't like 777 permision

I consulted with error log from server to see what he don't like
(SoftException in Application.cpp:601: Directory "/home/site/public_html/templates" is writeable by group, referer: http://www.site.com/)

Thanks aldis01!

[runarl]

Hello people!

I have a similar problem. My index.php is blank for a couple of days. I haven't edited in months, and still this happens :/

I tried to change htaccess.txt to .htaccess, but then I got "internal server error" on both index.php and administrator so I changed it back.

I really dont know what to do to fix this. Any ideas?

This is my site: http://tiny url.com/5tl34ld and it's running version 1.0.12.

[FXexe]

I found the problem!

You must edit file permission to 755

1. index.php
2. administrator/index.php and administrator/index2.php
3. administrator
4. template
5. template/(your template)
6. template/(your template)/css
7. template/(your template)/css/template.css
8. template/(your template)/css/template.css.php

Seems internal error (php) don't like 777 permision

I consulted with error log from server to see what he don't like
(SoftException in Application.cpp:601: Directory "/home/site/public_html/templates" is writeable by group, referer: http://www.site.com/)

Thanks aldis01!

Thank you but it doesn't work. Nothing what was suggested here works. The site has life of its own. It changes as it's pleased. It worked fine before when it was all in html. Once I ported it to Joomla platform, problems begun. I'm getting to a conclusion that Joomla is made by developers for developers. No offense, but even when I'm getting help, it sounds like people are talking to themselves. I understand nobody has time explaining every term, and educating others. But simplicity of communication makes it all here. It may make perfect sense to a Joomla pro, but be just a noise for a beginner. People without serious php and programming knowledge should stay away and never touch Joomla. It is not designed for average users, IMHO.

[jameseymail]

I solved it!
Apply 755 permissions on these files:

1. index.php
2. administrator/index.php and administrator/index2.php

that should work!

I suggest chmod 444 but if it is important for you to give execute permissions, use chmod 555. This is important from a security perspective (Refer Iframe injection).

The above worked perfectly for me, it was fronted that was returning the 500. thanks so much.

properly thought that was 40hrs of project time down the pan!

Huzzah xx

[cornextn]

Hi!
I'm running out of ideas on how to solve this problem! The entire site works perfectly incl. the administrator index.php
However after trying everything in this thread, my index.php still generates a HTTP 500 Internal server Error.... does anybody have any other suggestions?
All permissions have been changed, .htaccess file checked.... still the whole site runs correctly except for the frontpage?

[jameseymail]

Hi!
I'm running out of ideas on how to solve this problem! The entire site works perfectly incl. the administrator index.php
However after trying everything in this thread, my index.php still generates a HTTP 500 Internal server Error.... does anybody have any other suggestions?
All permissions have been changed, .htaccess file checked.... still the whole site runs correctly except for the frontpage?

where did you amend the permissions? doing so within your FTP client (ie Filezilla) wont neccesarily make the changes you require. you will probably to amend them on each folder within your Hosted Control Panel.

xxx

[josazee]

I fixed this problem . it happend only in index.php becouse some thing wrong with a module

for me it was FPSS (Front page slide show) i disabled it and ran..

now works perfectly !

correct! but my own module was rokgallery!

[greeshma]

I also have the same issue on my site backend when editing or saving some articles, modules etc...Finally i solved it...
Add these lines to /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_secuirity.conf on your server

<IfModule mod_security2.c>
SecRuleEngine Off
</IfModule>

save it...and restart apache...it works fine for me.
Adding these lines disable mod_secuirity engine off.I don't know if it causes secuirity problems in future..
Tnx all...

[budiperkasa]

I found the problem!

You must edit file permission to 755

1. index.php
2. administrator/index.php and administrator/index2.php
3. administrator
4. template
5. template/(your template)
6. template/(your template)/css
7. template/(your template)/css/template.css
8. template/(your template)/css/template.css.php

Seems internal error (php) don't like 777 permision

I consulted with error log from server to see what he don't like
(SoftException in Application.cpp:601: Directory "/home/site/public_html/templates" is writeable by group, referer: http://www.site.com/)

Thanks aldis01!

Thank you but it doesn't work. Nothing what was suggested here works. The site has life of its own. It changes as it's pleased. It worked fine before when it was all in html. Once I ported it to Joomla platform, problems begun. I'm getting to a conclusion that Joomla is made by developers for developers. No offense, but even when I'm getting help, it sounds like people are talking to themselves. I understand nobody has time explaining every term, and educating others. But simplicity of communication makes it all here. It may make perfect sense to a Joomla pro, but be just a noise for a beginner. People without serious php and programming knowledge should stay away and never touch Joomla. It is not designed for average users, IMHO.

Hi FXexe, what did you mean "People without serious php and programming knowledge should stay away and never touch Joomla" ? in my country people with minimum programming knowledge still using Joomla, Joomla has big fan and a lot of extensions are available is pretty easy to use, download, install and read the manual. What just you need is only spirit to learn and able to do something with trial and error. Learn by doing, they said.

[Laura_Gomez]

Changing the ./component directory permissions to 755, did the trick for me. Thanks dalkin!

[kulot]

I am having this problem for about two days now, the first error came yesterday at 6:00PM and experienced again today at the same time GMT +4.

I am using IIS 8 to run my joomla website. After restarting the the application from IIS it works fine. But I want this error to go and will not experience again.

[djegraphic]

I ran into this problem. I was uploading a few .jpegs into K2. Realized it was actually the way i named a file, accidentally put a >>>'<<< , removed it. Everything worked.