Hey thanks so much again.
I put it into smarty debug and got the rootpath I expected:
/Volumes/XRAID01/Users/<mysite>/Sites
and it matches the mainfile.php

Going to the modules (I only have a few), I noticed that I can go into the preferences pages for each of them, but no where else, any other selection or a click on the module icon yields:

/Volumes/XRAID01/Users/morethanoil/Sites in a blank page (so no Smarty Debug popup) when I go back into main page the smarty popup gives the same rootpath, but as I don't think it got into the modules that's not suprising.

A search on all the files for another define statement on rootpath didn't give any but the mainfile.php. EXCEPT mainfile.dist.php which looks the same as mainfile.php except the rootpath and virtual path are undefined - the code looks like this:

Quote:

On my site I do have another mainfile.php under a bogus name and not under my /Sites root so that shouldn't effect anything (it's a fresh install/upload for testing with a different prefix not used yet)

Could mainfile.dist.php be causing the error? It has the same if statement - what's it there for?

... thanks again
Zaph

Having had a similar issue with teh Protector module, which is now in OK, I now find that every other module I install & activate reports a good installation but if I select the module in Administration I get the path check error:

XOOPS path check: Script is not inside XOOPS_ROOT_PATH and cannot run.

I know that this error reports from mainfile PHP (not anywhere else I presume), and I've examined the 'if' statement and I don't know why. Any module does it (except Protector).

I know the modules are in OK (in some sense) as I am able to see them in blocks and the topics box (for example) for News, appears on toppage. I just cannot go and do anything to the module like permissions as I get the above error.

Any ideas??

Thanks.
Zaph

I posted a detailed response to this over an hour ago... it took me about that long to complie... but it hasn't appeared. How long should one wait for posts to appear? This, effectively is a test to see if I have to redo it all.

ie, if this posts then the other post is in the ether.

ARGGH - another issue - My posts don't get in - I get a message saying Thank you for your post: Already submitted. (Perhaps it's a timeout on login??)

Luckily this time I SAVED my post in text file (I'm editing this one) - here it is:

OK #OOPS# it. I post a lengthy detailed response to all the replies and it doesn't post. If my template crash is >1/1000 and my prior XoopsInfo/Protector problems during install were similar then my post evapourates I should probably be placing a bet on something...

But here goes another hour:

First up, thank-you all for such a vigourous response. I am encouraged enough to persist with XOOPS and trust that I have just had bad fortune so far. To clarify some points in response:

1. The theme was from www.omnetwork.net and called OM7, you have to put up with registeriung and lots of pop-ups to get it. It downloads with two folders: om7 and res, both of which had theme.html files with correct permissions at my site (755). I have the files and can email tem to anyone who wants them.

2. I couldn't set up a local test site because XAMPP only supports Intel Macs (not PPC Macs) since it switched from v5 to v6. I have an idea though to create a 'QA' site at my host by having a mirror file structure under another title which I switch-out under the root for testing changes. My 'QA' site would have a different database prefix to keep it from interfering - do you think this can work?

3. I don't know how to follow this suggestion: Quote: - any instructions on how to do this anywhere?

4. Quote: I tried that after the blank screen and got a 'you are not authorised message that redirected me to a blank screen. all other 'back-end attempts yielded either a blank screen or a redirect... UNTIL I changed the [offending theme name] to [dummyname], and the 'default' theme name to [offending theme name], cleared templates_c (except index file) and retried. THEN I got the opening XOOPS page BUT only with Header and footer - no side menu to access Admin etc. And in templates_c two new files with [offending theme name] in the title appeared.

5. My choice of words in the first post may have been a bit emotive, but the other instance I found in support (see my first post) was a longstanding production site that similarly blanked out after a theme change. I was concerned about putting 1000s of hours into building a site which could crash on a theme change. From your comments it seems this is either exceptional, or it is module related (how is anyone's guess) but rarely happens.

6. FYI I downloaded vanilla 2.0.16, with protector and a couple of mods only. My host is on the very latest apache, MySQL etc. (Stephouse.net)

7. Quote:
Not that I know of, I just selected a new default theme in te Admin>Preferences>General area --- BUT I also highlighted (selected) all eight themes I had on site in the USer theme selection area (which is a couple below Default I think (I can't get there now).

In summary. My faith in the vitality is restored, I am VERY appreciative of the responses and, though I still think it's strange that few 2006/2007 themes come up in searches, I'll stick to safe ones and trust I don't hit any more wierdness. I also hope to contribute back somehow down the line.

Any comments on the above ideas are most welcome on the thread or direct to me.

Best
Zaph

Hello,

I am concerned about the vitality of XOOPS and the relationship to Themes - last night I got locked out of XOOPS entirely just trying a simple theme. (see below to see how I dealt with it).

I also notice that there are VERY few themes after 2005, unlike say WordPress (which is not a CMS, which is why I'm here).

Three important questions:
1. Why aren't newcomers made aware that themes can knacker the whole system? (No mention in documentation)
2. With all Xoops' thorough security (via Protector etc.) how come a simple theme change can be so catastophic!?
3. What is the reason for so few (2006-7) themes anywhere? IS it because in XOOPS one should avoid Themes??

So back to last night - after a protracted install of 6 days I finally got to try some themes which I found on the web. The second theme threw me out of XOOPS and gave me a blank screen - no way in at all. I followed the suggestions at this post Quote:
and the XOOPS default theme re-appeared but without any admin access. Templates-c regenerated two files with the offending theme's identifier in it.

As I'm just getting started I reinstalled the whole system without any themes but the default, but it didn't work - the memory of the theme remained in the database.

So I have reinstalled from scratch, I have the Install wizard ready to go and I intend to create a new database prefix.

BUT - I'm worried now, will the whole thing collapse as soon as I try to make my theme interesting?? Should I stick with 'morphogenesis'? Some may not think that
Quote:

But it's a hell of a coincidence if it wasn't the theme that caused it. The theme was Jul06nA36GIdg_res - I believe it was from Omniworks and is #07

Protector problem Resolved!
(still have error on XoopsInfo)

Protector is now installed. The problem was indeed with the XOOPS_ROOT_PATH inside mainfile.php...
- The code for XOOPS_ROOT_PATH was right.
- The root was right, as reiterated by the use of a php file with "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" inside.
- The permissions & security were all OK and proved not to be the problem
- The folders (or directories) were all correctly positioned.

The problem was that, in preparing for the XOOPS_TRUST_PATH by cutting and pasting 4 lines of code, the word ROOT had been replaced by TRUST except in one line... so XOOPS_ROOT_PATH was being defined under a dfiferent directory!

OOPS indeed.

Consequently, knowing now that the mainfile gets invoked each time, it makes sense that the error message from the end of the if statement appears.

My apologies for missing this error, as one of you has said, sticking it out has taught me something about XOOPS & how it works.

Thanks for all your help. I will now investigate why XoopsInfo still gives the same error message. I'll try a reinstall first.

go to admin -> xoopsinfo, click "PHP Info" tab and scroll down a little to "Configuration - PHP Core". Find the "open_basedir" value and see if it is set. Is it same as your XOOPS root?

This may be telling me something... Under Sysinfo there is no PHP Info tab. There are 7 Info tabs starting with XOOPS Info, then Server Info etc...

But in any case when I select any of them I get

XOOPS path check: Script is not inside XOOPS_ROOT_PATH and cannot run.

Does this mean anything to anyone? It doesn't make sense to me as the Phpsysinfo folder is there at the fist level under my root at the same level as modules folder per skenow's screenshot. So how can it not be inside XOOPS_ROOT_PATH? Does it think that the script itself is not there? All the downloaded files of Phpsysinfo are there (11 starting with ChangeLog and ending with templates, alphabetically). ???

And any thoughts on my previous 3 questions - can I get Protector in another way? Do without it? etc. GIJOE are you out there?

Thanks all
Z

Quick update - I am now able to add modules EXCEPT protector just fine - SO this is a Protector install issue. I have uninstalled and re-read the process 3 times and read different instructions (there are some fixes needed).

Questions:
1. Protector is said to be a 'must' - if I can't install it what are my options?
2. Is there any other way to force it to activate (it is there)?
3. If it's essential then why isn't it part of the 'core'?

And

Should I start a new thread now that the problem has been parsed down to the Protector install? Or is there a way to link threads?

Thanks to all who helped so far (and those who read but couldn't assist).

Hoping to get to content this weekend!!

Zaph

Some progress!!!

I undid everything to do with the Protector and Xoopsinfo mods (including redownloading the zips) and then tried just Xoopsinfo - HEY PRESTO it was there in the Modules Admin and is now activated.

HOWEVER Protector still will not show up.

I have meticulously followed the instructions in Protector V3.02 module documentation: Which says:

Installation
Installation of the module does not follow the standard procedure as a few files must be modified. Additional modifications are necessary to fully implement the security improvements recommended by the module. These are covered in the Security Advisory section below, but for the moment, lets just get it installed.

1. Unzip the compressed archive and you will find two directories inside:
/XOOPS_TRUST_PATH
/HTML
2. Upload the contents of HTML into the root folder of your website. Basically you want the folder HTML/modules/protector to end up in your_site_root/modules/protector.
3. Create a new folder outside of your website root to serve as your 'trust path'. You can call the folder anything you like, but I'll use 'my_trust_path' in this example. If your website root is called public_html, the directory structure would probably look something like this:

/home
/my_account
/public_html [this is the website root, your site is in here somewhere]
/my_trust_path [lies outside the website root]

4. Upload the contents of the XOOPS_TRUST_PATH folder into my_trust_path (or whatever you have called it).
5. Change the permissions of my_trust_path/modules/protector/configs to make it writable (777, but on some servers you may be able to write with a more restrictive setting).
6. Edit mainfile.php, which is in your website root folder. You need to define XOOPS_TRUST_PATH as a new constant here by adding a new line. The value should be the physical path to the trust path folder, eg:

define('XOOPS_TRUST_PATH', '/home/my_user_account/public_html/my_trust_path');

Add the line near the other constant definitions near the top of the file (for example, under XOOPS_ROOT_PATH). If you don't know what the physical path to your trust path folder is, you can see the directory structure in the definition for the XOOPS_ROOT_PATH constant.
Go to administration => system => modules and install the module.

THIS IS WHERE I AM STUCK - which means I cannot complete the rest of the instruction - or can I??

(
8. You need to add two more lines to mainfile.php as per the red lines in the code example below. You will find it close to the bottom of the file. Important: Do not do this until after you have installed the module or it will not work.

include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/precheck.inc.php';
if ( !isset( $xoopsOption['nocommon'] ) && XOOPS_ROOT_PATH != '' )
{
include XOOPS_ROOT_PATH."/include/common.php";
}
include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/postcheck.inc.php';

9. Installation should now be complete. Don't forget to change the permissions on mainfile.php back to read only (444), as this file contains the password to your database account!
)

PS: All my files and permissions are organised and set as per suggestions from you all. Any new ideas?

Thanks
Zaph

Hi stephan
These are all new downloads on an advanced host that runs :, WP, Joomla etc on apache etc latest. But this is the first Xoops.

I am carefully following instructions from here:http://www.xoopswiki.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=Starting_a_New_XOOPS_Site and individual user guides from modules.

So I'm on Xoops2.0.16 and retrieved the latest module downloads only from Frameworks, Backup, Xoopsinfo newbb and protector.

I will completely remove Xoopsinfo and Protector now again, and try to get one of them up (the others load fine). I do not get any error messages even with debug on, just no icon to enable me to 'activate' the mods (PS any other way of doing it??)

Will let you know what happens next.
Thanks
Zaph

Hello Friends, thanks for your help so far.

I ensured all the permissions were 777 and deleted the adminmenu.php and set debug on.

Still the same situation.

In the module admin screen there are two mods loaded, one at the bottom (ready to go) and two missing (not anywhere on the screen but the folders are there on the system, as is frameworks. All have been redownloaded and re FTP'd.

The only error showing in debug at that screen is:
Notice: Constant _DB_POSLINE_DESC already defined in file /modules/backup/language/english/modinfo.php line 24

At this point I'm clueless as to what to try.

Best
Zaph