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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#8555 Detected errors prohibit intended operation

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
This is a public ticket

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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 06:38 CDT

Scotty87
Hello,

I recently switched over a few client sites from my old host (shared account) to another which I'm now a reseller (Each site has own Cpanel, etc). The move over was fairly straight forward (Extracted with Kickstart, install would not work so I manually edited the configuration files to point to right /home/path and DB information). I believe I saw this process as a suggestion to similar install problems on this forums.

The sites are generally working great - this is the only problem I've ran into. I saw the error:

Detected errors prohibit intended operation

Detected issues
Output directory unwritable
Temporary directory unwritable
Akeeba Backup Professional 3.0.1 (2010-07-22)

I checked the configuration file and I notice the paths (Output/TMP) were still point to the old server /home/[oldaccount]/public_html/[sitefolder]/... - I changed them to reflect the new server but it doesn't seem to effect anything.

I've tried reinstalling the component and still the same problem. I've set the permissions to 0777 but still nothing. I've even tried changing to different paths.

I've read up a lot of post with similar problems but none of the suggestions worked - I believe it's due to my specific circumstances.

Please Advise,
Scott

dlb
Scott,

I'm not sure where you're looking, the last time the configuration data was stored in a file was the end off the JoomlaPack 1.x series. :) It is in the database now. You're probably on the right track though. Go to the Akeeba Configuration screen and enter "[DEFAULT_OUTPUT]" in the Output path and "[SITEROOT]/tmp" in the temporary path, both without the quotes. That will probably fix it, if it doesn't it gives us a place to start looking at permissions.


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)

Scotty87
Thanks Dale,

I didn't mean to confuse "Configuration file" - I actually meant inside the components "Configuration" screen.

I had tried those "variable" settings and they didn't work - I tried again and still same problem. (I've even tried [SITETMP] for the sake of it]

I have a feeling it may have to do with file ownership or something but to be honest I'm not all that familiar with how Akeeba works behind the scene.

The /public_html/tmp has 0777 as permisison, I'm assuming that's normal?

/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup has 0755 (I've tried setting to 0777) but no changes.

dlb
When you have [DEFAULT_OUTPUT] in the Output path, can you use the Browse button to browse along the path? Once in a while, the server lies about where the site is, so Akeeba gets lost. That is a little bit far fetched, but you've already covered the easy answers.


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)

Scotty87
Yes I am able to browse and see the proper folders, select it and click "use" and it still has the errors.

dlb
Please double check the permission settings on /administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup. I know you already set them, but I want to make sure that the changes took. For now, set it to 777.


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)

Scotty87
It's set to 777 now. I both confirmed from FTP Surfer and the CPanel file manager and the error is still there.

Scotty87
Is it possible to have Nicholas look at this? This is the only component not working on about 4 sites I have moved. I have halted my move (About 10 more sites to go) until we figure this one out.

Please assist ASAP.

dlb
That was my last shot. :( If the file ownership isn't right, you can tell it to change to 777 but it really doesn't do it because that user doesn't have sufficient rights to change the permissions.

I'll flag this for Nicholas.


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)

Scotty87
Thanks for the help Dale!

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
There is a little known fact about 0777 permissions: they are not guaranteed to provide write access to anyone. As any UNIX expert can tell you, if their parent directory is not at least 0755, the 0777 permissions will do exactly nothing. Well, technically, you need the read and browse permissions set for the parent directory, which usually translates to 0755 permissions, but for the sake of sanity and simplification let's agree that 0755 for the parent is what we really need.

So, in order for the permissions to work you have to chmod 0755 the directories /public_html and most probably all directories through administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup. Then, you can chmod 0777 administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup (but not the .htaccess file in it, use 0644 permissions for that one). You can also chmod 0777 the tmp directory in your site's root, but I'd suggest copying the administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup/.htaccess in it to avoid potential exploits. This should be adequate.

BTW, I'd like to thank Beat from the Community Builder team for pointing out this little known fact about permissions.

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!

Scotty87
Thank you for taking time Nicholas to assist us in figuring out the problem.

public_html was set to 0750 and I changed it to 0755.

I can confirm that all other directories was already set to 0755 but for the sake of testing I reapplied those same permissions to each of these directories:
-administrator 0755
- - components 0755
- - - com_akeeba 0755
- - - - backup 0777 ( .htaccess 0644)

-tmp 0777

I still have the error displayed in Administrator (Did a CTRL-F5 to make sure data was recent)

I am open to allowing you access to one of the sites Cpanel/FTP and Joomla Administrator if it would be more convinient for you to investigate. I'm assuming this must have or will happen to certain other people and may be worth documenting. Please let me know through what channel I can provide you the information privately.

Thanks again Nicholas,
I will await your response.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Yes, if possible, it's best to send me a PM with Super Admin details to your site so that can I figure out why the folders appear as unwritable.

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!

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