Do you not understand?

Adam Howard

Well-known member
This is not about hosting and more about communication (so it is not being posted in the hosting thread).

So I'm not going to name the host. But I will say they are well-known and based in America (unless they are outsourcing). And I've opened up a few simple tickets of concern.

But I'm running into 1 small issue. It seems as though they do not understand what I am saying or what the issues are. As if we're both speaking another language or something. On the off-chance that I'm not being clear......

Please can anyone tell me if this makes any sense to you?

Ticket 1
cPanel failed to install

So I tried to install a simple perl module through cPanel

cPanel > Software / Services > Perl Module > Show available perl modules

The one I'm wanting is imagick PECL extension

Testing connection speed...(using fast method)...Done
Ping:0 (ticks) Testing connection speed to cpan.belfry.net using pureperl...(cached .. 63000.00 bytes/s)...Done
Ping:0 (ticks) Testing connection speed to cpan.erlbaum.net using pureperl...(cached .. 63000.00 bytes/s)...Done
Ping:1 (ticks) Testing connection speed to cpan-du.viaverio.com using pureperl...(cached .. 31000.00 bytes/s)...Done
Ping:0 (ticks) Testing connection speed to mirror.datapipe.net using pureperl...(cached .. 30150.00 bytes/s)...Done
Ping:1 (ticks) Testing connection speed to cpan.pair.com using pureperl...(cached .. 28750.00 bytes/s)...Done
Five usable mirrors located
Ping:0 (ticks) Testing connection speed to 208.43.108.66 using pureperl...(using cached speed)...Done
Ping:0 (ticks) Testing connection speed to 216.38.56.98 using pureperl...(using cached speed)...Done
Ping:0 (ticks) Testing connection speed to 74.200.65.162 using pureperl...(using cached speed)...Done
Three usable fallback mirrors located
Mirror Check passed for cpan.belfry.net (/index.html)
Checking C compiler....Could not locate an executable "gcc" binary....Done
** Unrecoverable Error **
The C compiler is not functional and auto repair failed.
Perl module installs require a working C compiler.
Please repair the C compiler and try again.
After reading that... Do you understand my issue? Is it confusing or am I not being clear enough about the problem?

This isn't the only ticket where I think I've been clear, but my host's support team seems not to understand. :confused:
 
I've been wrestling with several hosts this week myself, the vast majority just has seriously incompetent technical support.

It doesn't help that they all seem to just skim over your issue and select their response from their "template responses" dropdown menu (least that's what I imagine they're doing).

I just started using ServInt today and am so far incredibly impressed by their service. You pay a bit more but you get your moneys worth! Tickets are professionally resolved within the hour. I had several occasions already where it was answered and resolved within 5 minutes of submitting the ticket. Of course it's far too early for me to really be able to vouch for them but so far I'm utterly impressed.
 
Check permissions for /tmp (and that it's not full). If that doesn't work, then your host has probably disabled compiler access (which is most likely the case).
 
I think when my contract is up... I'll be seeking an unmanaged host. I picked a well-known managed host because of my limited time to tweak things (at the time when I was shopping around). So next years... It most likely will be something unmanaged.

The current host did tell me that I could install such things via cPanel, but of course they said many other things too. :rolleyes:

But back on the subject..... I'm assuming my message to them was clear, right? Easy to understand.
 
I think when my contract is up... I'll be seeking an unmanaged host. I picked a well-known managed host because of my limited time to tweak things (at the time when I was shopping around). So next years... It most likely will be something unmanaged.

Try NimbusHosting in the UK. I found them to be very reliable and helpful :)
 
I've been wrestling with several hosts this week myself, the vast majority just has seriously incompetent technical support.

same here, my long time host recently started using offshore techs who are nothing more then glorified idiots who faked a degree somehow, googling sh*t produces better results then them.
 
What you're doing here doesn't make sense to me.

You want the Imagick installed from PECL. PECL is a repository for PHP extensions - such as Imagick.

Why would you try to do anything with Perl modules here?
Because the host is managed and I'm limited to only installing what cPanel allows from the control panel. And last I knew, cPanel had that in the perl modules ..... Odd, eh?
 
Yeah, that wouldn't make any sense. It may be worth checking out this part of the cPanel manual:

http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/11_30/WHMDocs/PhpPecl#PHP Pecl Installer

Btw, the error you posted above leads me to believe that your host hasn't installed a compiler. Per se that is not a bad thing - anyone security-minded would think twice before leaving a compiler on a server unless it's really needed. (of course, if your hoster offers something like cPanel to his clients, then they should make sure that the features offered by cPanel also work as described.)

There's no reason to remove the compiler. It's a dated practice, and is just making things more difficult than they need to be. If they can get in, they can get their tools in as well, so removing your compile tool chain, emacs and such junk doesn't add much to your overall security. You should be more concerned with what services you are running -- anything that connects to the outside world is a much bigger potential vulnerability. If you're wanting to keep your developers honest, then sure remove it, but I'd argue that's focusing on the wrong thing as well.

The error message is misleading (as are most). The most likely scenario is that they have disabled compiler access for cPanel accounts (common). This can be checked via "WHM > Compiler Access". Or, they don't have the correct permissions set for /tmp (or it's full or not mounted correctly).
 
just from the last lines of that error and a quick search, this may be helpful for you
http://forums.cpanel.net/f5/problem-installing-perl-modules-220742.html
Yep that about covers it... The managed host will not let me install some things.

I really should have stuck to an unmanaged host without a control panel. But when shopping around... I was very short on time constrains to go about managing things myself (as I normally do). I suspect once my contract is up, I'll be going back to unmanaged.

For now, I'm stuck with GD which is good.... But I wanted those animated avatars.

(Have ever told anyone how much I hate Red Hat / Cent OS / Cloud Linux ?)
 
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