Support

Site Restoration

#21278 On restore Administrator works frontend is 404

Posted in ‘Site restoration’
This is a public ticket

Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Environment Information

PHP version
n/a
CMS Type
Other
CMS Version
n/a
Backup Tool Version
n/a
Kickstart version
n/a

Latest post by sdin on Friday, 24 October 2014 08:20 CDT

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 13:39 CDT

sdin
 Hi Akeeba,

I am attempting to restore a live site to a locally hosted server. Both linux servers. The local host is a fresh box. I installed XAMPP first and then kickstart.

Kickstart appears to have worked . I am able to access the administrator interface BUT I am unable to access the frontend. I point safari at http://localhost/Squire/index.php and then I get the following "404 page not found". The Page you are looking for doesn't exist or an other error occurred.
Go back, or go to Squire Technologies' home page."


If I click on " Squire Technologies' home page" I am directed to http://localhost/xampp/

I have tried configuring live_site in configuration.php but hasn't solved the issue.

I look forward to hearing from you

rgds

Simon

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 13:51 CDT

dlb
Simon,

Try disabling SEF in Joomla!'s Global Settings. If you can see the front page after that, then the problem is that mod_rewrite is not enabled in your XAMPP setup.

Another thing to check is the RewriteBase setting in your .htaccess file. If that is not correct it will give you 404 errors everywhere.


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)

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 15:36 CDT

sdin
Hi Dale,

Thanks for your quick reply.

Unfortunately turning off SEF's in Joomla didn't have any effect - still same 404 error.

Neither did changing ReWriteBase - I set this to RewriteBase /Squire

live_site is set to $live_site = 'http://localhost/Squire';

Are these correct .

Look forward to hearing from you.

Rgds

Simon

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 16:35 CDT

dlb
You're no fun! You are taking away all the easy answers! :-)

If you are using Admin Tools' .htaccess Maker to create your .htaccess file, the site URL is hard coded in the .htaccess file. This is something that would normally need to be updated when you change servers. Just update the URLs at the bottom of the .htaccess Maker setup screen and re-generate the .htaccess file.

What happens when you are redirected to http://localhost/xampp/? What do you see? I'm wondering if there is a permissions problem in your document root.


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)

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 03:59 CDT

sdin
Hi Dale,

Yes I had a feeling this problem was going to be a tricky one !

I have changed the directories in htaccess Maker as you suggested - I have attached a screen shot for you to review. Unfortunately this did not solve the problem .

When there is the redirect to http://nnn.nnn.n.n/xampp/ it takes me to the home page of the xampp local web application - I have attached a second screenshot for you to take a look at.

When I type the URL in the browser window I get the small xampp logo to the left of the logo up until this point http://nnn.nnn.n.nnn/Squire - once I put in http://nnn.n.n.nnn/Squire/administrator it changes to the Joomla logo.

Hope that is enough information - look forward to getting your feedback.

Rgds

Simon

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 09:41 CDT

dlb
On your .htaccess Maker screen shot, the base directory should be /Squire.

That is going to write /Squire as the RewriteBase directive.

Something is causing it to look in / instead of /Squire. From our "is it plugged in?" department - you're on Linux, so the settings are case sensitive. I have a pretty strong impression that you know that already, but...


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)

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 10:31 CDT

sdin
Hi Dale,

Have changed the RewriteBase setting to /Squire and checked it in the .htaccess file as well. Unfortunately still gettin. the 404 . I also put an echo message in the /Squire/index.php and that is being displayed along with the 404.

Weird got me completely stumped.

Look forward to your feedback.

Rgds

Simon

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:45 CDT

nicholas
I just spotted something. You said that you restored the site on a Linux server but you are accessing it with Safari. Safari is only available on Mac OS X. I guess that you are trying to access your Linux server from your Mac. However, you are using "localhost". "localhost" means "this computer I am using right now". Therefore when you enter http://localhost/Squite in Safari's address bar on your Mac, Safari is trying to open the /Squire directory in the web server running on your Mac. Moreover, since $live_site is set to a localhost URL the only computer which will ever be able to browse this site without 404 errors is the Linux server where XAMPP is installed.

What you need to do is change both the $live_site (better leave it blank) and try to access your server by IP or domain name, e.g. http://123.234.123.234/Squire or http://www.yourdomainname.com/Squire.

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!

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 15:01 CDT

sdin
Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for your email.

Sorry there seems to be some confusion - I am trying to access the server with an actual IP address - i.e.I enter the URL http://123.123.1.123/Squire in Safari from my Mac . I understand what localhost means as I have also successfully restored other websites to my laptop and used localhost ( and 127.0.0.1 ) as part of the URL address in this scenario.

As you suggested I have reset live_site to $live_site = ''; and attempted to access the site using URL http://123.123.1.123/Squire - but it still gives error 404.

What I don't understand is that I am able to access the backend with http://123.123.1.123/Squire/administrator but not the frontend with http://123.123.1.123/Squire

If there are any files / screenshots etc you would like me to send you to help solve this issue please let me know.

I look forward to your response.

Rgds

Simon

Thursday, 23 October 2014 01:29 CDT

nicholas
Do you have a SEF or SEO extension installed on your site? Please try clearing their caches or, if this doesn't help, disable them.

Make sure there is no .htaccess file in XAMPP's main directory. If there is, rename it. Please remember that .htaccess is a dot-file (its name starts with a dot) ergo hidden. You will need to connect to the server with ssh and do something like ls -l /path/to/xampp/.htaccess to see if there's such a file.

If this still doesn't work, please remove the .htaccess file from your site's root and the "administrator" directory. Now log in to your site's administrator and go to Components, Admin Tools, .htaccess Maker. Scroll all the way down and change the host and directory. The host would be your IP address (e.g. 123.123.1.123) WITHOUT the protocol (http:// or https://) prefix or the directory. The Directory in your case is /Squire including the leading slash and capitalised letters. Then click on Save and Create .htaccess file.

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!

Thursday, 23 October 2014 11:32 CDT

sdin
Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for your email. As per your instructions I have tried the following :-

1. I do not have any Extensions for SEF or SEO . I have disabled SEF through Global Configuration - it did not make any difference.

2. I cleared caches by Joomla Admin -> System -> Clear Cache - no difference

3. There is no .htaccess file under xampp

4. I removed .htaccess from /Squire but there was no .htaccess in /Squire/administrator. I made the changes in .htaccess Maker as you described ( I attached a screen shot for you to see ) and saved them . Unfortunately this did not work.

I look forward to your feedback.

Rgds

Simon

Thursday, 23 October 2014 15:10 CDT

nicholas
At this point I suspect that you have a server misconfiguration. Unfortunately this is something we cannot help you with. Sorry.

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!

Friday, 24 October 2014 08:20 CDT

sdin
Hi Nicholas,

Yes thats fine I agree - there is something very quirky with the linux server I am using. I just did a restore to my laptop - and after a few minor changes in .htaccess and turning SEF off I have ugly functioning frontend and backend.

Thanks for your and Dales efforts anyway - if I find the solution on the linux box will let you know.

Rgds

Simon

Support Information

Working hours: We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm Cyprus timezone (EET / EEST). Support is provided by the same developers writing the software, all of which live in Europe. You can still file tickets outside of our working hours, but we cannot respond to them until we're back at the office.

Support policy: We would like to kindly inform you that when using our support you have already agreed to the Support Policy which is part of our Terms of Service. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us help you!