[SOLVED] Problems with users and modules after moving server

[jonocowdery]

Hi there,

I have migrated a CMSMS site over to a new web host. The files were FTP'd across and the DB was imported. CMSMS has also now been updated to the latest version. I'm having several problems though, and I'd love some help if possible.

I believe there might be something wrong with the permissions / ownership of files on the server, and / or with the database. When I log into phpMyAdmin I get a briefly displayed message saying the user is not authorised to access... (can't read the rest of the message, it's gone in fraction of a second).

CMSMS 1.11.11, PHP 5.4.32, PHP safe mode is off. Happy to give any other details or a link to the site - perhaps via PM as I'm not feeling confident of the security right now due to these issues?

Here are the specific issues I'm having with CMSMS.

1) If I create a new user in the backend, I'm never able to login at /admin . It always says "Username or password is incorrect". But neither are incorrect. I have tried the suggestions at http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopi ... =3&t=70703 but they didn't help.

2) When I view Current Users in the backend, the users that existed on the old installation are there. However they don't have an icon to click to make them active or inactive, or to delete the users.

3) Module Manager states "WARNING: Insufficient directory permissions to install modules. You may also be experiencing problems with PHP Safe mode. Please ensure that safe mode is disabled, and that file system permissions are sufficient."

The Status / Action of installed modules which are ready to update, is "Cannot Download".

4) Modules states "The modules folder (and/or the uploads folder) is not writable, if you would like to install modules by uploading an XML file you need ensure that these folders have full read/write/execute permissions (chmod 777). Safe mode may also be in effect."

I have experimented with setting 777 permissions, but it didn't help.

Many thanks for any help that may be offered. I appreciate the effort and work that goes into being a support volunteer on a forum. Thank you!

- Jono

[Dr.CSS]

You need to look at the system information page and make sure you don't have any yellow ! or red X, then you may need to post your system info here, copying off that page gives more info than the link at the top does...

[paulbaker]

FTP is a poor way of transferring a whole site. If you have access to a control panel try to upload a zip and explode it, or similar. Sometimes when I FTP I end up with 0 byte length files on the server, that could be causing your missing images.

Your other problems re the users not being there...has the domain DNS been updated? Is your new website still connecting with your old database perhaps? Be sure by putting the old site in maintenance mode and then changing the database password for it. Then you can be sure you can only be interacting with the new site and new database.

And try installing a plain vanilla CMSMS on your new host. This will probably throw more light on issues with the host being (un)suitable because it does lots of checks as you run through the process.

[jonocowdery]

Hi Dr.CSS and paulbaker, many thanks for your help.

@Dr.CSS, I checked the system information page. There are several ! but no X. However using that page I was able to fix the modules issue by fixing the uploads path. So thanks for getting me to look through it more closely.

The ! are as follows:

• * Is E_STRICT disabled in error_reporting (E_STRICT): E_STRICT is enabled in the error_reporting
• * Maximum Execution Time (max_execution_time): 30
• * Session Save Path (session_save_path): No check because open basedir active
• * PHP Open Basedir (open_basedir): /home/greenthoughts:/usr/lib/php:/usr/php4/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/usr/local/php4/lib/php:/tmp

What I glean from the CMSMS docs is that open basedir might be the culprit of my user issues?

@paulbaker, you are quite right regarding FTP. Actually I forgot - I did exactly that, uploaded a tar.gz and unzipped it on the server.

The Domain DNS has not been updated. New site is currently running at an address like http://ip.address/~greenthoughts. I was planning to change the DNS to the new server once the site was working. Do you think this could be causing problems? Maybe I should just go for the DNS change now?

I do believe the new site is communicating with the new dbase. If I make changes to backend settings on the new site, they aren't reflected on the old site.

I will try a plain CMSMS install on the new server as my next step pending feedback on the above? Particularly open basedir?

Thanks again,

- Jono

[jonocowdery]

Update: I ran a plain CMSMS install, and came up with basically the same errors as I posted above.

[paulbaker]

Open basedir is unsupported:
http://docs.cmsmadesimple.org/installat ... p-settings

You might be able to persuade your host to switch it off

Your other "!" lines are pretty trivial.

[jonocowdery]

Many thanks paulbaker... open basedir is now off, the warning has gone, and I can log in successfully. Thanks for the help!

Actually: Even after open basedir was off, I found that shortening the passwords down from 32 char was necessary to allow successful login. It may have been that rather than open basedir.