SSL Install not going well. Linux server, Apache directions? File names not matching.
 

Hi, I've never even looked at a Linux server until yesterday. I'm trying to get the SSL certificate to work. It has been installed, but for whatever reason, when you go to my site, you get an error implying that the certificate was a self-signed one. We have a GeoTrust certificate, and it is on the server, but something is not right.

I thought the SSL How to thread on this forum might help. It was interesting, but first of all, can someone explain to me why the instructions reference Apache, but its a Linux server (I told you I was a newbie!)? Secondly, does it matter that my httpd.conf file is not where the directions said it would be?

The issue I'm having is that the instructions Geotrust supplied, (I tried to supply the URL, but the forum won't let me because I haven't done 5 posts yet) tell me to put into the httpd.conf file these directives:

SSLCertificateFile /usr/loca/apache/conf/ssl.cert/server.crt (and a similar one for the KeyFile).

But, that is not where my .crt file is, it is on etc/htpd/conf/ssl.crt and it called main.crt .

So, I can reference that file instead, but it didn't make it work.

Also, the instructions say to restart my Apache server (why not Linux?) and gives a command that I'm sure makes sense in Apapche, /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl startssl , but has no correlation with what I see on my Linux server. So, I just logged out and rebooted. Nothing changed.

The first thing I noticed when I looked at the httpd.conf file was that all references to SSL were commented out. I thought removing those might do something, but it didn't.

Help? Please?

The instructions are for the default installation of apache. According to your settings, your config file is: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. (It's probably httpd and not htpd)
Just open it with a text editor and find the lines about the SSL certificate and key and change them accordingly (i.e. SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.cert/main.crt) Save it and then restart apache: apachectl restart (or better apachectl stop apachectl startssl)