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#19046 Error message while installing

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Admin Tools version
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Latest post by on Friday, 04 April 2014 18:00 CDT

soag
I have a subscription since a few days. I have installed the admintools and akeebabackup. today I got a hint, that there is an update. I tried the update, but I get only:

***
-1 - Es ist ein Fehler aufgetreten
Kopieren <strong>fehlgeschlagen</strong>!
Zurück zum Kontrollzentrum
***

Now I can't install akeebabackup or admintools. I cleard already the tmp directory, and I uninstalled all existing akeeba extensions. I changed the permissions to 777... but nothing helps.

I tried this on different websites (different joomla versions, different webhosters...).

I need an idea please!

Thanks,
Christian.

dlb
First, a note for future reference: You normally do not want to uninstall Akeeba extensions. That will cause you to lose your settings in the extension. In the case of Backup, depending on how you have it set up, you may also lose all your stored backup archives.

If you download the files from our website, are you able to install or update them through the Joomla! Extension Manager?


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

soag
Hi!

Yes, everything is original from your Website. And no, also if I install it manually, I get the same error.

Strange thing: on previous days i had only the akeeba backup core, no problem. than I bought the subscription and installed the admintools. the last update of akkebabackup made some troubles but after uninstalling and installig everything worked. the update today makes the same problem, but uninstalling and installing doen't work anymore.

greetings,
christian.

dlb
Please disable the System - System Restore Point plugin. Are you able to install through the Extension Manager then?


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

soag
I tried at one website to uninstall admintools and akeebabakup over the extension manager. I tried a new installation over the extension manager. i get an error for admintools and an error for akeebabackup.

before the new installation, the plugin wasn't there, after the installation (also with the failure), the plugin is there but disabled.

Is there a way to do a complete manual uninstall for the admintools and akeebabackup?

Greetings,
Christian.

soag
I took now a clean 3.2.x system and made a backup with the old akeeba backup. I restored the whole thing to a local xampp, and I made the update. Worked perfectly!?

Then I tried this on the live system, and I crashed with the same error I always get...

I have no idea... :-(((

dlb
I asked Nicholas to take a look at this to see what he can suggest.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
You have a copy error. This means that Joomla! can't write to the directory where the extension's files are stored. In this case you need to enable the FTP layer on your site, as described in https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/abinstallation.html

Moreover, you need a writeable temp directory for Joomla! to handle uploaded files. Now, I am going to tell you something that will probably make you cringe, but bear with me. Start by creating a file named htaccess.txt with the following content:
order deny,allow

deny from all

and upload it in your site's tmp directory. IMPORTANT! Pay attention on what you're doing in this step. Do not upload the file in the root of your site!
Give the htaccess.txt file you just uploaded 0644 permissions.
Now rename it to .htaccess (the DOT in front of the name is important).
Go up one folder. Now give the tmp folder 0777 permissions. Please give these permissions only to the folder, not its contents.
You can now proceed with the update.

At this point I would recommend using a better host with a better grasp on security. If you don't understand why, please read the Security Information chapter in the Akeeba Backup User's Guide. As you see, having Apache run under a different user as the one who owns the files of your site leads to security issues. A good host will either be using virtualisation or a solution like FastCGI Process Manager (php-fpm) or suPHP to have the Apache process run under the same user as your files' owner, greatly improving the security.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

soag
Hi Nicholas!

Thank you for your help, but this is definitely not what I want. And my provider ist great, I would never change this guys.

I had one website which was always hacked, and I decided to try some hints from Joomla-Scerutiy-Sites. It looked great, and so I did it for all my Joomla sites. And I think, this was my mistake!!!

I tried the following:

1. I copied via ftp one of my Joomla installations to my local computer.
2. I delete the installation on the server.
3. I copied back from my local computer to the server.
4. I tried the update: IT WORKED!!!
5. I did again the hint from http://www.joomla-security.de/dateien-verzeichnisse/datei-a-verzeichnisrechte.html).
6. I tried the update SAME ERROR AS BEFORE!

So, I think the problem is this fucking security hint. I will try to find out more, but at this time, I would say it was my mistake, and the hint was a bit too strong.

I didn't have AkeebaTools before, so I used these permissions. But from now on, I will only use the function 'set permissions' from AkeebaTools.

Greetings,
Christian.

soag
Hi!

I could find out more:

1. I have no idea what happens when I use the 'fix permissions' under AdminTools. Is thre any information available?

2. The Problem was the chmod 0444 for the .htaccess and the css files? If I ignore this security hint, dann everything works fine.

3. Problem: most of the security sites tell us to do this with the .htaccess and css files. And I found a lot more hints (eg http://www.joomlaportal.de/tipps-tricks-und-kurzanleitungen/207505-fragen-und-antworten-zu-joomla-faq.html#3) which tells me to set some more file permissions.

What should I do now? What is the best way?

Thanks,
Christian.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
OK, hold it. You are applying a "security advice" without having the faintest clue of what it does. Please read the "Security information" chapter in Akeeba Backup User's Guide (yes, I know, I did say the Akeeba Backup's documentation). In there I have written a concise introduction on users, groups, ownership and permissions in UNIX/Linux systems for regular humans. Read it a couple of times (I've only seen one person getting it from the first read – it is a lot of information!) and you'll understand what these permissions do.

If you followed my suggestion, you now know what the problem is. Unwriteable files. You were asking Joomla! to write to unwriteable files. Now look at what I replied to you five days ago:
You have a copy error. This means that Joomla! can't write to the directory where the extension's files are stored.

Now you see that I was spot on :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

soag
Hello Nicholas!

Thanks for this hints. It's a good description: https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/akeeba-backup-documentation/security-info.html

But I still don't unterstand which permissions are the best for the WHOLE Joomla! site.

Greetings,
Christian.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Sorry, I missed your reply :(

The "best" settings are 755 for folders and 644 for files. However, this doesn't mean that your folders will be writeable by PHP. It all comes down to who owns the file, under which user PHP runs and the permissions.

Rule of thumb: always set folders to 755 and files to 644. If you can't install a software you will need to do two things.

1. Making your temporary directory writeable
Give the tmp directory 777 permissions. Since this is a security threat we have to mitigate the risk. It's really easy! Create a new file called htaccess.txt with Notepad and put the following contents into it:
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from none

Upload it to your site's tmp directory. Give it 644 or 444 permissions. Rename it to .htaccess (dot htaccess – the dot in front is important!).

2. Enable the FTP layer in Joomla!
Go to Global Configuration and set up the FTP options in Joomla!.

Please note that this information is readily available in https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/abinstallation.html

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

System Task
system
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