error 500, forum modeul in ACP

New Member Joined: Mar 23, 2010 Posts: 11

hi guys, newb here so please be gentle!

sure i posted this here yesterday but seems to have disappeared!!

anyways, have recently installed, for the first time, RN2.40.00, everything so far has been sweet and gone without a hitch.

however i tried activating the forum module to test, and although it activates, i can't access the forum admin in ACP so can't add categories etc etc.

tried ruling out htaccess as i found mention to that here, it made no difference and there was something else that i tried but i can't now remember what for the life of me it was!!

any help on this would be appreciated.

Cheers
Chris.

registered · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:41 am

Are you using a theme not included in the RavenNuke distro? If so, switch to a default theme and see if it works.

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:18 pm

thanks for the speedy reply nuken, but that didn't make a blind bit of difference. for the record the theme i was using wasn't included with the install, but i changed theme and still the same error.

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:24 pm

as per my original post, remember now what the other thing i'd checked as the chmod values for files/folders but they all seemed ok 644/755

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

A 500 error is almost always because of a syntax error in your .htaccess file or your Apache configuration.

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:19 pm

thanks raven, the only thing i'd changed in htacess was the cgiauth bit for nukesentinel, basically copy and pasting into .htaccess

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:31 pm

Is your RN installation in your root web folder or a subfolder?

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:38 pm

on a subdimain on a bluehost account. i was wondering if i had the wrong 'location' but it seemed to be picked up by the system ok, it actually told me where the location 'normally' would be

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:43 pm

so i was buggering aroun with the file location for htaccess etc and now can't access admin.php for my site Sad

get error500 on that also

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:49 pm

ok so that crisis averted and i've turned off cgiauth

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:53 pm

Make sure that your .htaccess and .staccess are in the same folder as your RN installation. Then, make sure that your .staccess location in .htaccess is pointing to the correct .staccess path.

registered · Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:29 am

Raven wrote:

Then, make sure that your .staccess location in .htaccess is pointing to the correct .staccess path.

... and I believe that has to be an absolute path as well.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:36 am

thanks again for the replies guys, still not got anywhere with this but must admit i gave up cos it was doing my head in!!

had already tried absolute paths thinking that would help but nada! Sad

install is in root folder for my test install. the test domain is a subdomain of another site

tried absolute paths in .htaccess and making he file paths in sentinel absolute too (on save, it comes up in sentinel telling me the file's not found or incorrect chmod), but as soon as i give it an absolute path in .htaccess i can't access admin until i change it back to the 'recommended file path' in sentinel

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:37 pm

Send me, via PM, your:
* Site URL, adminid, password
* FTP URL, id, password
* NukeSentinel(tm) id, password

I will take a look at it this afternoon.

Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:30 am

Fixed

. It looks like you may have missed a step when you installed RN Wink

The forum admin panel is a separate application from the main admin application. As such it is not protected by NukeSentinel(tm). If you look at the Wiki -> http://rnwiki.ravennuke.com/wiki/RavenNuke2:Configuration there is this section that explains how to secure your Forum admin panel:

Quote:

Protecting Your Forums Admin Folder

There are numerous attempts from hackers to try and exploit the Forums admin scripts by calling them directly. It is recommended that you also protect the entire modules/Forums/admin folder with a similar approach to admin authentication.

If you are using "CGIAuth", rename the rn.htaccess file that is in modules/Forums/admin to .htaccess and then modify the line for AuthUserFile to match what you have within the .htaccess file that is in the root of your RavenNuke(tm) installation. This will also protect your Forums admin folder using the same NukeSentinel(tm) admin auth userid and password!

If you using "HTTPAuth", see the Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! thread in the RavenPHPScripts support forums.

The 500 error is because the file /modules/Forums/admin/.htaccess file is incomplete and you are expected to complete it. I have hilighted the last line (in red) which is the line that needed changing. Remember that earlier I said that a 500 error almost always is a syntax error in a .htaccess file?

Quote:

<Files .staccess>
deny from all
</Files>

<Limit GET POST PUT>
require valid-user
</Limit>
AuthName "Restricted Forum Area"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile <<change this line to match what is in the root .htaccess file>>

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:57 am

Cheers Raven, working a treat now, as i said to you, i was sure it'd be something stupid lol!!

the bit is i'd followed an install guide wiki type thing, can't remember where i got it, and i do remember that bit about rn.htaccess. have a feeling i'd changed the name and not updated the contents!!!!

oh well, thanks again Very Happy

feel a donation is in order Wink

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:24 pm