Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Saturday, 25 September 2010 07:58 CDT

mmstudio

Im trying to restore site on another host - Im already sucessfully transfered several sites using akeeba but with one I have a prob.
when I run installer I got following errors:
Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: open(/tmp/sess_06bb787bbebaa8228fce161d2261c1ac, O_RDWR) failed: Permission denied (13) in /home/user/public_html/installation/includes/storage.php on line 208

Warning: Unknown: open(/tmp/sess_06bb787bbebaa8228fce161d2261c1ac, O_RDWR) failed: Permission denied (13) in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Unknown: Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (/tmp) in Unknown on line 0

Saturday, 25 September 2010 08:00 CDT

mmstudio

I thought there is problem with permission on "tmp" directory but directory seems to have right permissions (0755). The only difference I didm with this site is that I uploaded backup file via ftp (coreftp) while on other sites I used upload feature of cpanel file manager. Can somebody help me out ?

Saturday, 25 September 2010 21:59 CDT

nicholas

Correct hunch, wrong directory. The error message was referring to the /tmp (notice the leading slash), the system-wide temporary directory. Here's what is going on: PHP needs a directory to store session data. Your host has assigned /tmp to be that directory. They have also made this directory unwritable, so there is no way PHP can start a session. You have the following workarounds:
1. Give the installation directory (not its contents, just the directory) 0777 permissions. Do not run Kickstart again after changing the permissions!!!!! Launch the installation again by visiting http://www.yoursite.com/installation/index.php.

2. Create the following .htaccess file on your site's root:

php_value session.save_path "tmp"

Do not run Kickstart again after creating this file!! Launch the installation again by visiting http://www.yoursite.com/installation/index.php. If it throws a white page or an Internal Server Error 500 your host is not compatible with this workaround and you have to remove the .htaccess file.

3. The final solution is to contact your host and ask them to assign a writable PHP session save path to your account, then run the restoration again.

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!

Sunday, 26 September 2010 07:02 CDT

mmstudio

Hello Nicholas,

Thanks for reply - I tried your methods 1 and 2 but none of them is working so Im currentcly communictaing with hostgator on this issue.

What is strange is following:

Im using hostgator reseller account. Now Im basicly moving my sites from hostgator shared accounts to my new reseller account using akeeba pro. The strange thing is that some of my sites are restored without any problems but some throwing reported error - created accounts on reseller acount supposed to by identical so Im wondering why on some restore is okay on some Im getting errors if account I created on reseeller acc. are all exactly same - created with whm accelerator ...

Sunday, 26 September 2010 07:48 CDT

mmstudio

hosthator support advised me to try use " /home/user/tmp " instead of "tmp" but I dunno where i change that path in akeeba installer ?
Also its really strange that some sites Im restoring under same hostgator reseller account are restored without any probs, while some throwing that error. Are u sure problem cant be something else ? like bad backup or something like that .. ?

Sunday, 26 September 2010 08:54 CDT

mmstudio

UPDATE: finally found error messages appear only in IE8. WHen tried with firefox no problems...and site sucessfully restored... strange

Sunday, 26 September 2010 10:20 CDT

mmstudio

UPDATE: problem for whatever reason disappeared and I was able to restore site, but now Im restoring another one and exact same problem :-( ... HG support needs to clarify if you are sure problem cant cause akeeba backup itself ?

Sunday, 26 September 2010 10:30 CDT

nicholas

I'll tell you how ABI works when you launch it:
1. If your installation directory is writeable, it uses it to store its temporary data. If not...
2. ...it tries to get your PHP's session save path and tries to see if it is writeable. If PHP reports it writeable, it will try to use PHP sessions.
3. If none of these works, it throws a warning message

The error can't happen in ABI's code, as the session write path is - of course!! - defined by the host. I mean, hello? Scripts are not allowed to touch it? Tech support should know about that detail. They should also know that the only way to change the session save path is - as I said in my last reply - using the .htaccess file. My suggestion? Use the .htaccess file trick I mentioned in my last post.

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!

Monday, 27 September 2010 05:14 CDT

mmstudio

Finally after whole night working on issue I finally found where is a problem. The thing is I have been restoring 10 sites each after other. The thing is browser cache have to be cleaned before I go to other site to restore otherwise if browser cache not cleaned I got that error I reported. Now after I sucessfully restore site I clean browser cache and then move to restore other site and have no problems. Hope this help everybody with same problem...

Monday, 27 September 2010 06:01 CDT

nicholas

OK, that's a weird one :S I am glad you found this solution. It's something I have certainly not tried and wouldn't anticipate it.

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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