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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#12395 Kickstart failed / now "Output directory unwritable" on original site

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 04:43 CDT

lausianne
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? No
Have I searched the tickets before posting? yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? sure
Joomla! version: 2.5.1
PHP version: 5.2.17
MySQL version: 5.0.77
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you)
Akeeba Backup version: 3.5.0

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach a ZIP file containing your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue. If the file is over 2Mb, please upload it on your server and post a link to it.

Description of my issue:


Hi Nicholas,

I'm currently trying to copy a site from within a subdirectory to the root folder.
I created a backup, then downloaded the recent version of Kickstart Pro (3.5.1), uploaded Kickstart and the backup file to the root directory and ran Kickstart. I got stuck at the DB restoration page. No error message, but clicking "forward" I was always sent back to the restoration page. Eventually I deleted the installation directory. Then Kickstart went on to the "go to frontend/backend" page, and the site seemed to work, but had some errors, and eventually I found that it was still accessing the old DB (I *did* enter the new DB data).
The only thing I did different than the many times I used Kickstart before, was choosing mysqli instead of mysql, because that's what is selected in Joomla.

Anyway, I thought I'd start from scratch, and do a new backup. But backup now fails: "Output directory unwritable" - I did not change anything on the original site. So sth. must have changed by Kickstart. I checked folder permissions and folder location (now set to [DEFAULT_OUTPUT]) and cannot find a problem, all 755.

What now?
Thank you!

Regards, Ralf.

lausianne
Now I tried to run kickstart 3.4.1, and get this error:
Could not open .../httpdocs/index.php for writing.
Deleting index.php, the next file cannot be overwritten etc.

So apparently I need to have some access right changed on the server. Which settings are needed? (And why did it work before (when I used backup/kickstart to copy the same site from one subdirectory (on the same hosting) to another))?

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
I believe you have to take a look at these two troubleshooting pages, in this order:
- https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/kscantextract.html
- https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/abidatabase.html

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

lausianne
I read and tried what's written in the first doc, directory and ftp checks fine, but still "Could not upload installation/README.html".
I rang the host, does not see a problem. Only using 1GB out of 10. No issue with access rights.

Next, I'm trying the manual upload ...

lausianne
Still, why doesn't backup work anymore on the original site ...
I guessed memory full, but host says no. (Also said he'll ring me again later ...)

lausianne
For the backup, I now changed the directory from the usual one to /tmp, and had to set it to 777, but now it works.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
So, you seem to have permissions issues. Regarding the restoration, did you try the FTP mode?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

lausianne
Yes, tried FTP: "I read and tried what's written in the first doc, directory and ftp checks fine, but still "Could not upload installation/README.html"."

(and now I'm uploading manually to the directory that I "cannot write to", with filezilla.)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
OK, I missed that one in the constant stream of replies. Yes, it's definitely a permissions issue. You have to ask your host to change the ownership of all files and folders to the FTP user and then you can use Kickstart's FTP mode. Right now some of your files are owned by the FTP user, some are owned by the web server user and all combined mean that you can't write to all files with either method (direct or FTP) until you fix the onwsership/permissions.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

lausianne
wait, I now changed the ftp directory to the subdirectoy, and it extracts ...

lausianne
The installer now gives me a warning:

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: open(/tmp/sess_j3cpv133spd849kenjaatk3b03, O_RDWR) failed: Permission denied (13) in /home/httpd/vhosts/domain.ch/httpdocs/test/installation/includes/storage.php on line 221

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Please do not flood our ticket system. Do what you have to do and only post back when you need a reply from me. For the last half an hour I am on this page, typing a reply to you, then a new message arrives, then I delete it and start a new one, then a new message arrives... Sorry, I can't provide support like that. With all those constant messages I have lost track.

Ask your host to see what the heck is going on with your permissions. After you get a reply from your host, open a new ticket where you'll summarize what's going on and what you want me to help you with. This ticket is now closed.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• 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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