Trouble getting Modules working (Error 500)

I’m using Gibbon via a shared hosting provider, installed through Softaculous.

There are a few modules I’ve installed because I was interested in getting them working. I’ve installed Reporting, Data Admin, Query Builder, and Policies.

When trying to use the modules, I am getting an error 500 each time. With Data Admin, it happens when I try to download the sample files. With Reporting it happens when I try to sdfuse the Generate PDF function, but checking my server error log I’m also getting errors when using admin_design.php, which make sense as it did not appear to be saving my changes there. With Query Builder it happens as soon as I try to execute a query. With Policies it happens as soon as I try to use the submit button.

Based on reading through here, I looked at permissions settings. All folders (Modules and all folders contained within it) were 0755, but files within folders were 0644. I don’t know if this is normal, but I figure it can’t hurt to include it.

Here are the errors I’m getting from the easiest to find log function (I replaced the IP, database directory, and sever address):
[Tue Sep 04 02:02:35.185366 2018] [:error] [pid 3013079:tid 140699483756288] [client IP:61761] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Query Builder” is writeable by group
[Tue Sep 04 02:02:33.558410 2018] [:error] [pid 3016950:tid 140699452286720] [client IP:61759] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Query Builder” is writeable by group
[Tue Sep 04 01:32:05.657042 2018] [:error] [pid 3013079:tid 140699294938880] [client IP:61279] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Query Builder” is writeable by group, referer: https://serveraddress/index.php?q=%2Fmodules%2FQuery+Builder%2Fqueries_add.php&search=&sidebar=false
[Tue Sep 04 01:29:40.892419 2018] [:error] [pid 2999549:tid 140699336898304] [client IP:61208] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Reporting” is writeable by group, referer: https://serveraddress/index.php?q=/modules/Reporting/pdf.php&studentID=&reportID=1&schoolYearID=024&yearGroupID=006&rollGroupID=00001&classID=
[Tue Sep 04 01:29:34.627236 2018] [:error] [pid 2994120:tid 140699504736000] [client IP:61202] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Reporting” is writeable by group, referer: https://serveraddress/index.php?q=/modules/Reporting/pdf.php&studentID=&reportID=1&schoolYearID=024&yearGroupID=006&rollGroupID=00001&classID=
[Tue Sep 04 01:29:01.296563 2018] [:error] [pid 2999549:tid 140699494246144] [client IP:61201] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Reporting” is writeable by group, referer: https://serveraddress/index.php?q=/modules/Reporting/admin_design.php
[Tue Sep 04 01:29:01.124877 2018] [:error] [pid 3013079:tid 140699410327296] [client IP:61200] SoftException in Application.cpp:631: Directory “/home/db/serveraddress/modules/Reporting” is writeable by group, referer: https://serveraddress/index.php?q=/modules/Reporting/admin_design.php
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Hi Ernest!

Sounds like you’ve already taken the most logical steps to narrowing down this error :+1: It does seem to be server config related, based on your description.

A couple other steps that may help:

  • Check the System Admin > System Check page to see if there are any PHP extensions missing
  • Perhaps run the chmod an extra time with -R, the error message seems to indicate a group permission which shouldn’t be set when using 0755/0644 (SuPHP related? https://softaculous.com/docs/SuPHP_Settings)
  • Are there any other errors showing up in the log?

Let us know what you find out.

I finally had a chance to follow up. I couldn’t run chmod (my Softaculous looks different from that one, and doesn’t have settings). However I could open my host’s File Manager and manually (ugh) go through the relevant modules and set permissions to 755 anywhere they were not.

It seems to have fixed it!

Glad to hear you got it working! Changing it all manually doesn’t sound fun :sweat_smile:

I mean, I could do the entire contents of a folder at once, but not recursively.