I just installed Red Hat 9 this week....(it's sweet) but now I have run into some trouble. I'm trying to set up a webserver on my linux box and have been folowing the instructions of a Red Hat 9 book to do so. The problems is when I go to start up httpd under Service Configuration I get the folowing error after clicking start:

httpd failed. The error was: Starting httpd: [FAILED]

I thought maybe it was the way I had apache configured and I tried multiple ways of doing it. I'm using a residential dsl account from verizon and typing my IP address under the main tab for Server. I left available addresses to all addresses on port 80. Then under Virtual Hosts I put under Name my IP address again. Under document root directory I put the location of the html file. Host information I left to default virtual host and all requests on port 80. Then I save the setting and go to try and start httpd but it still won't start (same error msg). I noticed that when I boot it says that couldn't find localhost.localdomain or something like that and also IPtables invalid chain or something like that. I don't know if that has anything to do with it but I just thought I would give you as much info about my problem as possible. Excuse me for being naive when it comes to this stuff I'm new to Linux.

Thank You in advance,
Flipside

Welcome to LQ. Try this:
# Kill all httpd proccesses (just in case)
killall httpd
# Start httpd interactively with debug logging (post the output of this)
httpd -e DEBUG

Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 116 of /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf:
SSLCertificateFile: file '/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt' does not exist or
is empty

ok that is what I got so what does it mean?

Can't find your digital cert (required for SSL). If you have one, adjust the path in the conf file to match reality. If you don't, then read up on ssl configuration.

Cheers,

Skye

Ok I deleted and created the certificate and key as I found in another thread on this site. The individual that posted it was having the same exact problems as me. So I do it and then I do the /sbin/service httpd restart and it says failed...enter password....ok password accepted then failed again. Now that is when I'm root if I'm not I get the original msg that I was getting in the first place(see above). What am I doing wrong? I have rm'd the key and cert twice now and re-did it with the same results. I have been working on this for over 4 hrs now with nothing. It shouldn't be this hard should it? Anyway, please help I really need it.

Thank you ,
Flipside

http://www.aerocube.com/download.020729/qube-ssl.conf

If this link doesn't provide any clues, it may be helpful to give precise steps taken so far - httpd.conf, certs/keys, firewall, etc.

If you are still having problems then post the output from starting httpd in debug mode.

Thanks david_ross,

I'd the same prob.... well after following ya suggestion i was able to figure out the mistake [Typo],its now up n running.Thanks again

try this program to install apache php and mysql and phpmyadmin ..it provides a painless way to have a webserver .
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html