Your config.php file does not appear to have the proper file permissions. Please set the file permissions to 666

#1 / Apr 28, 2011 1:56pm

SC CTSI at USC

7 posts

I am trying to install ExpressionEngine (licensed full version) on a new CentOS 5.5 Server.

I’ve installed apache, php, mysql, etc.

When running the installation wizard, I cannot get past the first step. Receiving the error

“Your config.php file does not appear to have the proper file permissions. Please set the file permissions to 666 (or the equivalent write permissions for your server) on the following file: expressionengine/config/config.php”

I have 777 permissions on the config.php and database.php file. I even went as far to chmod 777 -R the entire /opt/ee/ directory which is the DocumentRoot for the apache vhost for my installation.

What am I missing here???

phpinfo here: http://ctsi-sandbox03.labctsi.org/info.php

result of `ls -lah /opt/ee/system/expressionengine/config`:

[root@ctsi-sandbox03 ee]# ls -lah /opt/ee/system/expressionengine/config
total 216K
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root 4.0K Apr 28 02:34 .
drwxrwxrwx 24 root root 4.0K Apr 28 02:34 ..
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3.1K Apr 28 02:34 autoload.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  12K Apr 28 02:34 captcha.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 5.2K Apr 28 02:34 colors.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Apr 28 02:34 config.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.6K Apr 28 02:34 constants.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 7.3K Apr 28 02:34 countries.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Apr 28 02:34 database.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.2K Apr 28 02:34 doctypes.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.7K Apr 28 02:34 foreign_chars.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  536 Apr 28 02:34 form_validation.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3.2K Apr 28 02:34 glossary.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  508 Apr 28 02:34 hooks.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 4.8K Apr 28 02:34 html_buttons.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  114 Apr 28 02:34 index.html
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 4.3K Apr 28 02:34 languages.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 7.1K Apr 28 02:34 mimes.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  575 Apr 28 02:34 profiler.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.8K Apr 28 02:34 routes.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.1K Apr 28 02:34 session.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3.3K Apr 28 02:34 smileys.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.3K Apr 28 02:34 stopwords.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 5.5K Apr 28 02:34 user_agents.php

my very simple apache vhost:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName ee-test.labctsi.org
ServerAdmin .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
DocumentRoot /opt/ee/
</VirtualHost>

ps aux | grep httpd:

[root@ctsi-sandbox03 ee]# ps aux | grep httpd
root     22731  0.0  0.5 257748 12240 ?        Ss   02:34   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   22733  0.0  0.6 261768 13000 ?        S    02:34   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   22734  0.0  0.6 261792 13528 ?        S    02:34   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   22737  0.0  0.6 261784 13004 ?        S    02:35   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
root     22836  0.0  0.0  61172   788 pts/1    R+   02:52   0:00 grep httpd

Please note, I’ve also tried:

chown -R apache:apache /opt/ee

And ofcourse restarting apache several times while changing permissions, etc.

#2 / Apr 28, 2011 2:09pm

Robfletcher
149 posts

umm, you said you set it to 777, i think it should be chmod 666 on the config.php file.

Ultimately, what you need to do is make the config.php writeable.

#3 / Apr 28, 2011 2:14pm

SC CTSI at USC

7 posts

umm, you said you set it to 777, i think it should be chmod 666 on the config.php file.

Ultimately, what you need to do is make the config.php writeable.

Do you know what the difference between chmod 666 and chmod 777 is?

Chmod 777 makes it as writable, open, and unsecure as possible. It essentially eliminates permissions from being a problem. Chmod 777 (rwxrwxrwx) includes all the permissions of the 666 (rw-rw-rw-) and also adds the execute bit.

Anyways, yes, I tried with 666 as well and got the same result:

[root@ctsi-sandbox03 config]# ls -lah
total 216K
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root 4.0K Apr 28 02:34 .
drwxrwxrwx 24 root root 4.0K Apr 28 02:34 ..
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3.1K Apr 28 02:34 autoload.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  12K Apr 28 02:34 captcha.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 5.2K Apr 28 02:34 colors.php
-rw-rw-rw-  1 root root    0 Apr 28 02:34 config.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.6K Apr 28 02:34 constants.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 7.3K Apr 28 02:34 countries.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Apr 28 02:34 database.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.2K Apr 28 02:34 doctypes.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.7K Apr 28 02:34 foreign_chars.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  536 Apr 28 02:34 form_validation.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3.2K Apr 28 02:34 glossary.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  508 Apr 28 02:34 hooks.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 4.8K Apr 28 02:34 html_buttons.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  114 Apr 28 02:34 index.html
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 4.3K Apr 28 02:34 languages.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 7.1K Apr 28 02:34 mimes.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  575 Apr 28 02:34 profiler.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.8K Apr 28 02:34 routes.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.1K Apr 28 02:34 session.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3.3K Apr 28 02:34 smileys.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.3K Apr 28 02:34 stopwords.php
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 5.5K Apr 28 02:34 user_agents.php

#4 / Apr 28, 2011 2:17pm

Robfletcher
149 posts

yes i know the difference between 777 and 666, 777 makes the file read, write, executable. 666 is just read/write. I wasn’t sure if it made a difference, but based on the error you were getting, it was specifically asking to have that file set at 666.

Not sure why you would have that problem if its set to 666.
#5 / Apr 29, 2011 5:02am
John Henry Donovan
12339 posts
Diangy Systems,

Both these files will need permissions of 666.
```
/system/expressionengine/config/config.php
    /system/expressionengine/config/database.php
```
Looking at your latest reply it only look like you have it set for one
#6 / May 03, 2011 8:13pm
SC CTSI at USC
7 posts
Diangy Systems,

Both these files will need permissions of 666.
/system/expressionengine/config/config.php /system/expressionengine/config/database.php
Looking at your latest reply it only look like you have it set for one
I have tried setting both of those to 666 and restarting the apache with no luck, still getting:
Your config.php file does not appear to have the proper file permissions. Please set the file permissions to 666 (or the equivalent write permissions for your server) on the following file: expressionengine/config/config.php
#7 / May 04, 2011 1:45pm

Kevin Smith
4784 posts

Hey Diangy Systems—

The installer does a round of checks before getting started to make sure everything is configured properly for install, and it’s getting hung up on the part of the pre-flight where it checks to see if config.php is writable. PHP is telling the installer that the file isn’t writable, so it looks like a server configuration issue.

Off the top of my head, I would first make sure PHP is running as the user who is the owner of EE’s files.

Server configuration assistance isn’t really something we’re equipped to help with here. I would definitely recommend working with your server administrator on this, and a crowd-sourced community help site like Server Fault might be able to give you a lead as well.

Kevin

Thread

SC CTSI at USC

Robfletcher

SC CTSI at USC

Robfletcher

John Henry Donovan

SC CTSI at USC

Kevin Smith

Username

Password

Thread