[Solved] Can't get past Welcome to Foswiki page

I'm trying to install Foswiki 2.1.6 on Ubuntu 16.04.4.
I have read over the instructions and tutorials carefully.
I cannot seem to get past the "Welcome to Foswiki" page. I know I'm missing something (probably small).
Might anyone know what I can look at?
Thanks!

Apache2, Perl and all dependencies have been met.

Thanks! ~Dan

-- DanKern - 18 Apr 2018

How did you build your Apache configuration? The Welcome to Foswiki static index.html page has a number of possible links to the foswiki software, but it really depends on how you built your apache configuration.

If you used the ApacheConfigGenerator page, then it depends on what you entered in the URL information section, and what you chose for Short URLs. If you took the defaults, (URL /foswiki and Short URLs enabled) then your url into Foswiki should be something like http:yoursite.com/foswiki or explicitly http:yoursite.com/foswiki/bin/view

If you are getting into the view script and getting errors, please report back with more details about what's happening.

-- GeorgeClark - 18 Apr 2018

Hi George. Thanks for the reply!

I did use the ApacheConfigGenerator script. I am using /var/www/foswiki with Short URL's enabled. I dropped foswiki.conf into /etc/apache2/conf-available, ran the a2en scripts, then in /sites-available changed the path to /var/www/foswiki. All Perl dependencies (except half a dozen optional ones) have been installed.

I'm not receiving any errors.

I am, however, using an IP address instead of a domain name. Could there be a problem there?

-- DanKern - 18 Apr 2018

Forgot to mention that /foswiki ownership and group were both changed to www-data and I ran tools/fix_file_permissions.sh inside the folder.

Also, I can access all the subfolders, but cannot launch anything from the paths directly. ie. running /foswiki/bin/view returns "The requested URL /foswiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome was not found on this server."

Thanks!

-- DanKern - 18 Apr 2018

No problem using IP addresses vs domains. either should work fine.

Could you upload your foswiki.conf apache configuration to this topic as an attachment so that we can review it? Whey you say I am using /var/www/foswiki with Short URL's enabled are you saying that you set the URL Path to /var/www/foswiki That's the file system path, not the URL path. It's best to set URL Path to either the default /foswiki or if you are not sharing other web applications on that host, set it to just the / slash.

-- GeorgeClark - 18 Apr 2018

File uploaded. Thank you.

You are correct. System path is set to /var/www/foswiki I am using just the slash for the short URL.

-- DanKern - 18 Apr 2018

In the attached configuration, the two lines:

ScriptAlias /foswiki/bin "${foswikiroot}/bin"
... and
Alias /foswiki "${foswikiroot}/bin/view"

I'd expect your normal view URL to be: http:your.ip.add.ress/foswiki/

http:your.ip.add.ress/foswiki/bin/view Should redirect to the shorter URL...
http:your.ip.add.ress/foswiki should execute the view script based the Alias statement
http:your.ip.add.ress/foswiki/Main/WebHome same - execute the view script for the default landing page.

If these are not executing, try running the view script from the command line.

cd /var/www/foswiki
sudo -u www-data ./bin/view

If the script is working, this should generate a lot of HTML output. To easily see any STDERR messages, you could redirect STDOUT to /dev/null - sudo -u www-data ./bin/view > /dev/null

You could also check to make sure the pub directory is reachable: http://your.ip.add.ress/foswiki/pub/System/ProjectLogos/foswiki-badge.png should show a foswiki logo and text.

Also check your apache access and error logs, and the foswiki/working/logs/error.log to see if any issues are being reported. If all the dependencies are met, this really should "just work", not that that hasn't been heard before.

-- GeorgeClark - 18 Apr 2018

Oh, and you can double check dependencies by running: sudo -u www-data tools/dependencies

-- GeorgeClark - 18 Apr 2018

1. running the view script from the command line This worked. I could see all the HTML stuff. 2. no STDERR messages with sudo -u www-data ./bin/view > /dev/null There were 4 identical warnings at the bottom /var/www/foswiki/data/.htpasswd DOES NOT EXIST 3.No apache errors in error.log 4. Lots of 404 errors in access.log *5. Cannot acccess .../foswiki/pub/System/ProjectLogos/foswiki-badge.png with the browser. *6. running sudo -u www-data tools/dependencies does reveal one odd thing: Use of uninitialized value $set in concatenation (.) or string at /var/www/foswiki/lib/Foswiki/Macros/PERLDEPENDENCYREPORT.pm line 228. Then: Optional dependencies not installed are: Archive::Zip Convert::PEM Crypt::Eksblowfish::Bcrypt Crypt::S/MIME Crypt::X509 DBD::SQLite Mozilla::CA Win32::Console

...but no other errors.

-- DanKern - 18 Apr 2018

Just a thought... I wouldn't be adverse to a fresh start. Is there a LInux OS you recommend for Foswiki? Thanks! ~Dan

-- DanKern - 19 Apr 2018

No, fresh start is not needed. Ubuntu 16.04 is what I run on my sites, and what we run for foswiki.org. "Cannot acccess .../foswiki/pub/System/ProjectLogos/foswiki-badge.png with the browser." is concerning. The optional dependencies are not a concern. Those are fine. The uninitialized variable is probably because foswiki is not configured yet. I'll look over your config again. I must be missing something.

-- GeorgeClark - 19 Apr 2018

Ah... I think I know possibly what's going on. Are you really accessing foswiki by IP Address: http://x.x.x.x/ or do you have a local host configued mapping x.x.x.x as "wilmore". The apache statement ServerName willmore causes apache to select the applicable virtual host by matching the hostame in the request with the ServerName for the correct virtual host configuration. If this is the only virtualhost definition, then you should probably remove the <virtualhost> statement and use foswiki.conf without a virtualhost block.

-- GeorgeClark - 19 Apr 2018

GeorgeClark, you just found a needle in a haystack! So good. So, so, good. I'm not sure which is more rewarding: having a working foswiki? or witnessing you solve the problem. Thank you for helping me. I knew it had to be something small - something I had done wrong. Thank you! ~Dan

-- DanKern - 19 Apr 2018