Drupal page load stalls

cov · 01-18-2010, 12:22 PM

One of my users has an intermittent problem logging into my Drupal site.

Firefox says 'Loading' but nothing loads.

I have 2 drupal installations on my Debian Lenny box.

example.com/drupal
example.com/inenergy

They are specified under /etc/apache/apache.conf as:

Alias /inenergy /cdata/inenergy/
Alias /drupal /cdata/drupal/

The user cannot access either installation but can see example.com. Firefox merely says 'Loading' until it stops with the message 'Done'.

No other user has any problem. The user has tried other browsers and other ISP connections.

I'm stumped.

Can anyone suggest anything I could try?

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Might this be a .htaccess thing? I can sit next to my user on my laptop and I get in without any problem. There must be something in his setup that prevents him from seeing the Drupal php page.

sneakyimp · 01-18-2010, 05:16 PM

You may have PHP configured such that it does not report any error information. I've seen behavior where a bug in the code results in no output at all. Try checking phpinfo and see what the error settings are. You might want to change your PHP.ini so that it outputs error messages more verbosely.

I'm not sure why one person would have this problem and everyone else does not. Perhaps you could ask that user to delete their cookies related to your site and try again?

cov · 01-18-2010, 09:40 PM

Sneakyimp, thanks for the assistance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakyimp

You may have PHP configured such that it does not report any error information. I've seen behavior where a bug in the code results in no output at all. Try checking phpinfo and see what the error settings are. You might want to change your PHP.ini so that it outputs error messages more verbosely.

I'm not sure why one person would have this problem and everyone else does not. Perhaps you could ask that user to delete their cookies related to your site and try again?

It's really perplexing.

It's only one user, but he has two laptops and it happens with both of his machines. It must be a conflict with something he has installed on both machines. Nobody else is having this problem.

I have already deleted his cookies, but it makes no difference.

It's a bit of a bummer because the guy is quite senior and he's probably going to put the kybosh on the whole project.

Below is the relevant phpinfo stuff:

Code:

PHP Version 5.2.6-1+lenny4


System	Linux server 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Wed Nov 4 20:45:37 UTC 2009 i686
Build Date	Nov 22 2009 01:34:46
Server API	Apache 2.0 Handler

display_errors	On	On
display_startup_errors	Off	Off
error_append_string	no value	no value
error_log	no value	no value
error_prepend_string	no value	no value
error_reporting	6135	6135
html_errors	On	On
log_errors	Off	Off
log_errors_max_len	1024	1024
rack_errors	Off	Off

xmlrpc_error_number	0	0
xmlrpc_errors	Off	Off

I'm not really an expert on PHP; how would you suggest I change the PHP.ini?

cov · 01-19-2010, 01:43 AM

Ok, it must be something with my apache installation.

I have a file on my server which is not in the Drupal install.

the file is /var/www/test.php.

The user cannot load this file.

So I thought it might be something to do with the user's browser reading php files. However the user is able to read http://php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php fine, so it's not that.

Could my php installation be passing something that his OS doesn't like?

sneakyimp · 01-19-2010, 02:09 AM

PHP runs on the server. The fact he's able to access some page on php.net has nothing at all to do with your domain.

To me, the path /var/www/test.php looks like linux file path and *not* a URL. For instance, I can't put /var/www/test.php in my browser because it's not a proper url. You're going to need to be a bit clearer about what URL he is accessing and so on.

Also, having a web server serve files form /var/www/ is a bit unusual. are you sure it's not /var/www/html ?

cov · 01-19-2010, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakyimp

PHP runs on the server. The fact he's able to access some page on php.net has nothing at all to do with your domain.

No, but I thought that the problem might be on the client side and that he might have a problem accessing php files in general. (I am aware that this isn't likely and that the page is served as HTTP whatever the backend; I'm just clutching at straws here). I thought that there may be a header which trips up the client's browser and which may be common to PHP pages.

Quote:

To me, the path /var/www/test.php looks like linux file path and *not* a URL. For instance, I can't put /var/www/test.php in my browser because it's not a proper url. You're going to need to be a bit clearer about what URL he is accessing and so on.

Also, having a web server serve files form /var/www/ is a bit unusual. are you sure it's not /var/www/html ?

That's where apache finds it's root. It's the same on my Ubuntu Karmic box and on this Debian Lenny server.

The file is on the Linux file system as /var/www/test.php and is served up by Apache as inenergy.co.za/test.php

sneakyimp · 01-19-2010, 12:37 PM

I just visited http://inenergy.co.za/test.php and I also see a completely blank page -- no output at all. Interestingly, I profiled the page download using Firebug (a firefox plugin) and it says I'm getting a 404/not found error.

cov · 01-21-2010, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakyimp

I just visited http://inenergy.co.za/test.php and I also see a completely blank page -- no output at all. Interestingly, I profiled the page download using Firebug (a firefox plugin) and it says I'm getting a 404/not found error.

Sorry, wrong URL:

inenergy.dvrdns.org/test.php

I have intermittent internet access at the moment; I haven't solved this yet, I'm just having difficulty getting online (third world problem, I'm afraid)

sneakyimp · 01-21-2010, 12:23 PM

Yep I can see that file just fine (inenergy.dvrdns.org/test.php). You probably shouldn't have that information up there if you value the security of your site.

You might want to try using TeamViewer so you can connect to your friend's machine and see what his problem is. You both download it and he gives you a code and you can access his machine and control it. That might give you some more info on what the problem is.

cov · 01-21-2010, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakyimp

Yep I can see that file just fine (inenergy.dvrdns.org/test.php). You probably shouldn't have that information up there if you value the security of your site

Yes, that's why I posted the wrong URL. However, I badly need this solved, so it's a risk I had to take. I thought that you might spot a defect in my PHP installation. The file is gone now.

Quote:

.
You might want to try using TeamViewer so you can connect to your friend's machine and see what his problem is. You both download it and he gives you a code and you can access his machine and control it. That might give you some more info on what the problem is.

Is that like VNC?

sneakyimp · 01-22-2010, 12:20 AM

Not familiar with VNC. Just go to http://teamviwer.com and have him/her go there too. you can have him visit your site and maybe see what's going wrong.

might also be a good idea to watch the apache access log while he visits to see if his request is actually getting through or what:

Code:

tail -f /path/to/access.log

note that this will spit out a lot of information if your server is busy. if it is, you might find out what IP he's connecting from and try something like this:

Code:

// change 11.22.33.44 to the ip of your visitor
tail -f /path/to/access.log | grep 11.22.33.44

cov · 01-22-2010, 02:18 AM

Hi Sneakyimp,

AFAICS, Teamviewer is windows only (I know I'm on windows ATM, but it's a borrowed machine because of Internet connectivity issues)

The server isn't on a high load as it's a proposal I'm putting forward (which very likely won't be adopted if I can't sort out these issues)

I've had a look at the /var/log/apache/access.log previously and I can't really find anything untoward.

I'll have another look when I know the user has logged in (or attempted to do so).

sneakyimp · 01-22-2010, 02:28 PM

The trick is to watch the access log as your man tries to connect. If you see no entry for his connection attempt, then he cannot reach your site at all and haven't even spoken to apache to request the file. In that case, he may be behind a firewall. You, obviously, are not as I can see your server from Los Angeles -- the other side of the world from Durban pretty much.

Jim Bengtson · 01-22-2010, 03:00 PM

Quote:

It's only one user, but he has two laptops and it happens with both of his machines. It must be a conflict with something he has installed on both machines. Nobody else is having this problem.

First thing, can he even access the server? Have him ping the server by servername and by IP address...it's possible that a firewall setting (perhaps on his laptops, or on the network node he's on) prevents him from even seeing the server.

If he can ping the server, put a simple HTML page ("Hello World") on that server and see if he can open it with his browser.

If he can see the server and open the simple HTML file, put a simple PHP file ("Hello World") at the same location as the HTML file he opened, and see if he can open the PHP file.

If he can access the server, the HTML file, and the PHP file, then it's something in your Drupal configuration.

If he can access the server and the HTML file, but not the PHP file, then it's something in how your server is serving PHP (because you've said he can access a PHP file on a different server).

If he can ping the server by IP address but not by name, then it's a DNS issue.

If he can't ping the server by IP address then it's a network issue.

sneakyimp · 01-22-2010, 03:03 PM

That's some very good advice.