[Racheli]

Hi,
I installed the open journal script and got as far as the "create a new user account" screen. after entering my details and clicking the button, I get a "HTTP 500 - Internal server error" page. How do I fix it ?! Please help.
Thanks!

[splash]

Hi Racheli,

I don't have an answer for you about the server, but I did want to say I visited your website, and I like it a lot. Great design and content ideas. Good job!

I noticed that the URL on your profile page had an addtional http:// , so that when you click on it, you come to a page not found error page. Just wanted you to know.

I bookmarked your site as there is a lot to see. Thanks for sharing!

splash

[Racheli]

Thanks! It's so great to receive such nice feedback

where is the broken link you found?

[DocJohn]

The best way to troubleshoot errors like this is to have a look at your Web server's error log. If you don't know how to do this or where it is located, please ask your Web server's administrator or a system support person to give you that information (it's different on most systems). If I knew the error message it was complaining about, I might be of further assistance to you...

John

[splash]

It's on the profile page for these forums. If you go to Edit Profile at the top and then edit personal information, you'll see that http:// is hard coded.

And you're very welcome!

splash

[Racheli]

oh, thanks for driving my attention to that. fixed it

[Racheli]

could it be that the script files aren't chmoded like they should be? how should i chmod the oj.cgi, oj.cfg and auth.pl ?

[jrconnor]

I'm getting the same server error, but my Apache server (P-Pro, 64 mb, Apache 1.3.20) gives me a "Out of memory- oj.cgi killed" error and then spits out "Premature end of script headers" error into my error log. Is open journal memory-intensive, or is this a disguised chmod/auth error? Any ideas would be helpful.

[DocJohn]

It's a disguised other kind of error, probably related to permissions but difficult to diagnose remotely...

By default, I can safely say that a lot of time a person's cgi-bin directory is world-writeable either, and so you may have to chmod the cgi-bin dir itself to 775 or 777 to get the script to work. One way to check if this particular permission is a problem is to look within the cgi-bin/ojauth directory. After a person logs in, there should be a file in there. If there's not, the program isn't able to write to that dir.

When the program comes across any type of permissions problem, it is supposed to spit out an HTML header and show you the problem it's having. If it's not doing that, then try adding this line just below the require statements:

$| = 1;

Make sure the script points to where perl is on your server too (usually /usr/bin/perl or /usr/local/bin/perl). Those are all of my most obvious suggestions.

John

[Racheli]

the ojauth dir is chmoded to 777 and the cgi-bin dir is chmoded to 775. I have no problem running other cgi scripts, so I don't think that's the issue.
There isn't any file in ojauth . . . but it doesn't seem to be a permission problem. the perl path is ok. is there anything else that might cause a HTTP 500 - Internal server error ?

[DocJohn]

Yes, try adding the full path name to the two lines near the top of the oj.cgi file where it says:

require "oj.cfg";
require "auth.pl";

Make those:

require "/home/mydir/cgi-bin/oj.cfg";
require "/home/mydir/cgi-bin/auth.pl";

and that should fix it. Also, if you continue to get permission error messages, you may have to chmod 777 on your cgi-bin parent directory and the html parent directory as well. This has been elaborated on in the install section of the oj.cgi file, and on the OJ homepage.

[Racheli]

is chmoding the cgi-bin directory to 777 safe?!

[DocJohn]

Chmoding any directory is safe assuming that parent directory permissions are set correctly for your user account. Usually, I assume that they are because most ISPs set them that way.

Any program that uses dynamic content you create and save on your Web page requires the ability to read and write to files and directories it needs to. OJ is no different in this manner.

[Racheli]

I installed the new version, and did the "touch databse" thing that was written in another post here in the board, and everything is fine now