Hi,

All of the sudden my message board and control panel can't be accessed and show lengthy error messages. I hadn't made any changes and this just happened out of the blue.

When I go to the control panel login screen I get the following error message:

Can't open '/home/pointe/public_html/ubb/cache-ZW6RM756/lock/global.cgi'. Permission was denied - please ask the administrator to check the permissions on that file/directory. The exact error returned by the operating system is: Permission denied
at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/cp.cgi line 169 main::__ANON__() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/Modules/UBBCGI/Carp.pm line 150 UBBCGI::Carp::fatalsToBrowser() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/Modules/UBBCGI/Carp.pm line 86 UBBCGI::Carp::die() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib.cgi line 2769 UBB::CommonElements::process_bang() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_filehandle.cgi line 267 UBB::FileHandle::_open() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_filehandle.cgi line 308 UBB::FileHandle::_open_lock() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_filehandle.cgi line 58 UBB::FileHandle::new() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_filehandler.cgi line 57 UBB::FileHandler::new() called at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/cp.cgi line 198

When I go to the message board, I get these error messages:

Software error:
Global symbol "%Config" requires explicit package name at Modules///Time/Local.pm line 33. BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at Modules///Time/Local.pm line 45.

For help, please send mail to the webmaster (webmaster@pointemagazine.com), giving this error message and the time and date of the error.

Software error:
[Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: Global symbol "%Config" requires explicit package name at Modules///Time/Local.pm line 33. [Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at Modules///Time/Local.pm line 45. Compilation failed in require at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_time.cgi line 5.

For help, please send mail to the webmaster (webmaster@pointemagazine.com), giving this error message and the time and date of the error.

Software error:
[Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: [Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: Global symbol "%Config" requires explicit package name at Modules///Time/Local.pm line 33. [Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: [Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at Modules///Time/Local.pm line 45. [Wed Feb 11 17:19:28 2004] ultimatebb.cgi: Compilation failed in require at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_time.cgi line 5. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /home/pointe/public_html/cgi-local/ubbcgi/ubb_lib_time.cgi line 5.

For help, please send mail to the webmaster (webmaster@pointemagazine.com), giving this error message and the time and date of the error.

Anyone have a clue what might be going on and how to fix it?

Thanks!

-Rob

Please contact your web hosting provider. Most of those errors sound like they've recently changed the version of Perl installed on the server in some way...

Thanks Charles.

I just found out why this is happening. In order to install our shopping cart software, they had to turn off Suexec. I quickly turned it back on and the board was working. Unfortunately, there's I have to keep it off in order to use the shopping cart. Is there a workaround? Also, we have several other sites on the same server running UBB that were not affected. Any idea why this one board would have a problem and not the others?

Thanks!

How are you enabling/disabling it? through .htaccesS? If through .htaccess it's only effecting YOUR hosting space, not the other domains on server (otherwise you could mess up some other sites).

It's affecting the entire server. Some of the scripts on the other domains have also been affected by it.

Well once again, previous question, how are you disabling it...

It was disabled through a link in WHM - the server control panel

Odd, as an employee of a webhosting company I'd never give a customer access to a system to disable options that would effect other users server wide...

I run all of the sites on the server. That's how I know that it's not afffecting other UBBs on the other sites.

I don't see how: 1) you can ever toggle suexec without recompiling Apache, 2) toggling suexec would cause these error to occur, and 3) how having suexec on would ever prevent another package from working in the first place.

The errors you provided are, very simply, impossible. I hate it when the impossible occurs.

My recommendation at this time would be to simply keep suexec enabled, and then to complain very loudly at the vendor of the shopping cart...

Hey, Al preformed the impossible...

Thanks for all of the advice Charles and Gizmo.

Ya know, the last thing I wanted to happen was the impossible. Why does the impossible always happen to me? (cue violins) Unfortunately, the shopping cart vendor has stated that it simply won't work with suexec (or any cgi wrap program). And it took over a week to get the shopping cart working, and I don't want to mess with it now that it's working. (Solving UBB problems is always easier and quicker than solving shopping cart problems.)

Would re-installing UBB fix the problem? Would doing something else fix it?

You could try making a new install of Classic, sure. It may actually work. (If it does, I'll eat my hat...)

I have a great cowboy hat for you charles... I have an obsession with them ... Sad thing is, I hate cowboy hats!

Hey Charles,

Would you like mustard or salsa with that hat? Of course if you're gonna be chowing on one of Gizmo's cowboy hats, you'd probably prefer barbeque sauce, no?

If it isn't obvious, the re-install worked.

Bon apetit!

-Rob

Haha, I have an especially old cowboy hat; it was made in the 50's... It's been in a dark corner for about 4 years... It was under a bed for about 9 lol... yummy!

Yum, HAT! *sigh*

Well, Rob, I am glad that the test install works.

Next up... very carefully, on the main (broken) board, delete the UBB scripts (but not the vars_ files), the entire Modules directory, and the noncgi/Templates directory, then replace them all with stock copies from the zip.

The delete step is very important.

Does that bring the main board back to life?

Yeh, delete is important due to some hosts not liking to replace files :/... I found that out on dctalksolo.com :'(...

The board had come back to life before my last post. Sorry I wasn't clear, I reisntalled everything (except the vars files) and all was back in bizness.

Thanks again for the help. I'll buy ya a beer to wash down that hat.

Durnit, looks like I spoke too soon. When new members try to register, this is the error they get:

Error
Sorry, UBB has encountered an unexpected, fatal error. This error is extremely abnormal. Please contact the board administration. The error text is:
...

Can't open 'CachePath/lock/profile_lock.cgi'.

Permission was denied - please ask the administrator to check the permissions on that file/directory.

The exact error returned by the operating system is:
Permission denied

I like the "extrememly abnormal" part. I searched everywhere but couldn't find 'CachePath/lock/profile_lock.cgi'

Any ideas?

Thanks.

-Rob

OK, mystery solved...I think. I found the file in question at cache-ZW6RM756 /lock/profile_lock.cgi, changed the permissions and registrations seem to be working. These cache files seemed to be the root of earlier problems. Is there a way to trash them and start fresh?

Thanks.

You should just have to chmod them correctly (i believe it's 777) and they should work.

You can also just nuke the entire Cache directory, though you'll want to do a metadata rebuild afterwards (as the cache directory contains the search indexes, for instance)

I do find it odd that profile_lock would fail like that... It should have been created with full permissions. Will check on that...

I've heard of the error a few times, I think I even got it once (off a fresh install), perhaps something hung?