[solved] Your session.save_path is "", therefore not writable

[steveorg]

Hi,

I get the following yellow warning on install:

Checking if session.save_path is writable
Your session.save_path is "". Not having this as writable may make logins to the Admin Panel not work. You may want to look into making this path writable if you have trouble logging into the Admin Panel. This test may fail if safe_mode is enabled (see below).

I have confirmed that safe_mode is disabled. These threads cover a similar problem:
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... l#msg93994
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 059.0.html

The solution that the threads suggest is to enable FASTCGI, which I asked my host to do. They complied by enabling cgi.force_redirect, which they say is a comparable setting. In case it's any use, here's my phpinfo.

Code: Select all

PHP Version 5.2.5

System 	Linux pass77.dizinc.com 2.6.9-55.0.12.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Nov 2 12:38:56 EDT 2007 x86_64
Build Date 	Mar 13 2008 15:23:29
Configure Command 	'./configure' '--disable-pdo' '--enable-bcmath' '--enable-calendar' '--enable-dbase' '--enable-exif' '--enable-force-cgi-redirect' '--enable-ftp' '--enable-gd-native-ttf' '--enable-libxml' '--enable-magic-quotes' '--enable-mbstring' '--enable-soap' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-wddx' '--prefix=/usr' '--with-curl=/opt/curlssl/' '--with-curlwrappers' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-gd' '--with-gettext' '--with-imap=/opt/php_with_imap_client/' '--with-imap-ssl=/usr' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-kerberos' '--with-libdir=lib64' '--with-libexpat-dir=/usr' '--with-libxml-dir=/opt/xml2' '--with-libxml-dir=/opt/xml2/' '--with-mcrypt=/opt/libmcrypt/' '--with-mhash=/opt/mhash/' '--with-mime-magic' '--with-mysql=/usr' '--with-mysql-sock=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--with-openssl-dir=/usr' '--with-pic' '--with-png-dir=/usr' '--with-pspell' '--with-tidy=/opt/tidy/' '--with-ttf' '--with-xmlrpc' '--with-xpm-dir=/usr/X11R6' '--with-xsl=/opt/xslt/' '--with-zlib' '--with-zlib-dir=/usr'
Server API 	CGI
Virtual Directory Support 	disabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path 	/usr/lib
Loaded Configuration File 	/usr/local/lib/php.ini
PHP API 	20041225
PHP Extension 	20060613
Zend Extension 	220060519
Debug Build 	no
Thread Safety 	disabled
Zend Memory Manager 	enabled
IPv6 Support 	enabled
Registered PHP Streams 	php, file, data, tftp, ftp, telnet, dict, ldap, http, https, ftps, compress.zlib
Registered Stream Socket Transports 	tcp, udp, unix, udg, ssl, sslv3, sslv2, tls
Registered Stream Filters 	string.rot13, string.toupper, string.tolower, string.strip_tags, convert.*, consumed, convert.iconv.*, zlib.*

I can track down other settings if needed, but I don't understand what most of it means. Does anyone have any idea where to go from here?

Thanks,
Steve

[steveorg]

Well, no responses, but then again it turns out that I didn't need one. I completely removed CMS Made Simple and reinstalled it. I had the same session save warning, but unlike the first time, I proceeded with the rest of the installation. I have no problem logging in to the admin account.  I suspect that it always worked. In other words, this has been much to do about nothing. Being too careful has come back to bite me in the butt.

Before I put a [Solved] in the title, I'd like to try to get some feedback as to why I have the session save warning, yet I am still able to login as the admin. Do you think that this may cause login problems in the future?

BTW as an aside - The installation instructions are nicely done. Kudos to the writer(s).

Steve

[Pierre M.]

Hello,

here is some poor feedback, as I'm not a PHP guru.
If it was not safe mode pain, may be it was on the (fast)CGI side.
It seems very hosting provider specific. Hopefully it works

Have fun with CMSms !

Pierre M.

[drew]

steve,

I had similar session_path warnings during installation. When ignored, as in your case, everything seemed to work. But this still annoyed me. After trying several re-installs, I dug into the install scripts and found that session variables were actually lost after a call to redirect() within the top level install script. This was demonstrated with a test script based in the installation scripts.

It seemed to be a problem with PHP on my server. By chance, I tried enabling PHP FASTCGI mode and all session warnings in test code (and cmsmc install) went away. It feels much better knowing that cmsms and PHP is now handling sessions properly.

reference: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 059.0.html

Good luck.