[SOLVED] Some PHP pages don't work.

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 03:39 AM

Hi,

I have a server running Debian stable with Apache and PHP5.

I have a Perl web application running perfectly, but when I try and set up a PHP web application (a booking system in this case) the index.php does not display (blank page). This has happened on both PHP systems that I have tried (CRBS and ERBS).

A simple PHP test page works. I have tried "chowning" the contents with www-data and "chmoding" it with 777 and that does not make any difference.

Any ideas? Thanks.

bathory · 11-10-2009, 04:18 AM

Hi

Turn "display_errors" to On in php.ini to see if you find something. Don't forget to set it back to Off when done.

Regards

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 04:34 AM

Thanks for this suggestion. I've checked (see below) and it is already on.

cat /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini | grep display_errors

; instead (see below). Keeping display_errors enabled on a production web site
; possible values for display_errors:
;display_errors = "stderr"
display_errors = On
; Even when display_errors is on, errors that occur during PHP's startup

michaelk · 11-10-2009, 04:47 AM

Have you checked the apache logs?

evo2 · 11-10-2009, 04:50 AM

index.php files do not display?

For example if you have a file at /var/www/foo/index.php and you open you browser at "http://localhost/foo/" you don't see the file?

What if you piont your browser at: "http://localhost/foo/index.php"?

If the above describes your situation then it looks like you need to add "index.php" to the list of "DirectoryIndex" in your /etc/apache/httpd.conf

Or, maybe I'm completely on the wrong track...

Evo2.

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 04:51 AM

Yes I checked to see if anything had been written to a log with the following command:

ls -l /var/log/ | grep 11-10 (today's date)

Nothing to do with Apache/PHP is shown and nothing at the time of the problem.

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 04:53 AM

evo2,
Thanks but no that's not the problem. Even specifying the index.php in the URL does not help. With a test index.php page (with a simple PHP echo or similar) works fine.

evo2 · 11-10-2009, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsteel

Yes I checked to see if anything had been written to a log with the following command:

ls -l /var/log/ | grep 11-10 (today's date)

Nothing to do with Apache/PHP is shown and nothing at the time of the problem.

I think Debian has dedicated apache logs in /var/log/apache2/, which your grep above would miss.

Evo2.

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 05:10 AM

Ah yes, thanks.

Nothing in the error log, but in the access log I have the following (doesn't look helpful to me):

*MY IP* - - [10/Nov/2009:11:10:06 +0000] "GET /bookings/index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 20 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/20080528 Epiphany/2.22"
*MY IP* - - [10/Nov/2009:11:10:08 +0000] "GET /bookings/index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 20 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/20080528 Epiphany/2.22"

evo2 · 11-10-2009, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsteel

Ah yes, thanks.

Nothing in the error log, but in the access log I have the following (doesn't look helpful to me):

*MY IP* - - [10/Nov/2009:11:10:06 +0000] "GET /bookings/index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 20 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/20080528 Epiphany/2.22"
*MY IP* - - [10/Nov/2009:11:10:08 +0000] "GET /bookings/index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 20 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/20080528 Epiphany/2.22"

Looks like the page is being served up ok to me. Maybe it's a problem with your browser. Have you tried something other than epiphany?

Evo2.

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 05:22 AM

Yes, Firefox (Iceweasel) on Debian and IE8 on Windows XP.

bathory · 11-10-2009, 05:41 AM

Quote:

*MY IP* - - [10/Nov/2009:11:10:06 +0000] "GET /bookings/index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 20 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/20080528 Epiphany/2.22"

I don't think that the page size is just 20 bits long.
Take a look at the beginning of index.php to see if it starts with "<?php" or just "<?"
In the second case use "short_open_tag = on" in php.ini and see if it works. Of course you have to restart apache after changing php.ini.

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 06:23 AM

Both PHP web applications use <?php at the beginning of their index.php pages.

short_open_tag is already set to "on":

cat /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini | grep open_tag
short_open_tag = On

jsteel · 11-10-2009, 06:46 AM

If I add an "echo 'testing';" after the <?php in the index.php that is not working, the word "testing" is displayed on the page. If I put it at the bottom it is not displayed. There must be something in these pages that is stopping the page from loading. Could it be something to do with MySQL?

bathory · 11-10-2009, 07:00 AM

Could be a mysql connection problem among other things, but without the errors output it's difficult to say.
Use the following in php.ini and see if you get any output:

Code:

display_errors = On
display_startup_errors = On
error_reporting = E_ALL