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Data root directory not writable

anonymous profile picture
Account deleted
Posts: 5

29 September 2010, 10:02

I hope the all-too-familiar subject will not discourage advice ... Needless to say, I've scoured the forum and meditated long and hard on the installation instructions.

I have installed Mahara 1.3 on one of my sites hosted by Bluehost. I followed the installation instructions thus

  • created a postgres db using the cPanel wizard,
  • added the db details to the config.php (dbname, user and pass),
  • created maharadata directory outside the Mahara docs directory,
  • set permissions to 0777 recursive for the maharadata directory, and 
  • added the dataroot path to config.php

When I then proceed to the site, I get

Mahara: Site unavailable

Your defined data root directory, /home/public_html/lingualucida/maharadata/, is not writable. This means that neither session data, user files nor anything else that needs to be uploaded can be saved on your server. Please make the directory if it does not exist, or give ownership of the directory to the web server user if it does.

I suspect the dataroot path is the source of the problem. I've tried various other paths but without success.It may be worth mentioning that I have not configured Apache, figuring that it was not necessary (I've never had to configure it previously for other stuff, e.g. moodle).

Suggestions?

anonymous profile picture
Account deleted
Posts: 5

One step forward

29 September 2010, 14:00

Pending better, wiser repsonses, I've pushed on with trying to solve the installation issue. When I extended the dataroot path another two levels back, I then got a different message:

Mahara: Site unavailable

Mahara could not connect to the application database.

* If you are using Mahara, please wait a minute and try again
* If you are the administrator, please check your database settings and make sure your database is available

The error received was:
postgres7 error: [-1: Database connection failed] in CONNECT(localhost, 'D0gg3d', '****', mahara1)

Still, this is progress, right?

anonymous profile picture
Account deleted
Posts: 5

Issue resolved

29 September 2010, 14:50

I had not entered the full db name and db username. When I created the db, I chose the dbname to be "mahara1" and the username to be "lomu" (example). However, when the db was created, the prefix "allblac1_" (example) is added to the names, and this full version is what is required in the mahara config.php.

Thanks for allowing me the space to air my mind (it's a vast and empty space) Wink

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