XF 1.5 Errors Upon Installing

[tjrgg]

So, I'm administering a forum that is running on Debian 3.2.68-1+deb7u2 x86_64 GNU/Linux. It's using the nginx web server.

The problem is that XenForo thinks that the permissions for the data directories are set to be unwritable. However, that is not the case, as the output below clearly shows. This is a fresh install of XenForo 1.5.3.

total 68
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin 1791 Dec  5 11:19 admindav.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin  415 Dec  5 11:19 admin.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin  359 Dec  5 11:19 css.php
drwxrwxrwx+ 2 admin admin 4096 Dec  5 11:19 data
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin 1134 Dec  5 11:19 deferred.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin  510 Dec  5 11:19 fb_channel.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin 1186 Dec  5 11:19 htaccess.txt
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin  416 Dec  5 11:19 index.php
drwxr-xr-x+ 4 admin admin 4096 Dec  5 11:20 install
drwxrwxrwx+ 3 admin admin 4096 Dec  5 12:17 internal_data
drwxr-xr-x+ 9 admin admin 4096 Dec  5 11:21 js
drwxr-xr-x+ 7 admin admin 4096 Dec  5 11:25 library
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin 1400 Dec  5 11:19 payment_callback.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin  361 Dec  5 11:19 proxy.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin 1025 Dec  5 11:19 rgba.php
-rw-r--r--+ 1 admin admin 1682 Dec  5 11:19 sitemap.php
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 admin admin 4096 Dec  5 12:12 styles

We're unable to figure out what the problem might be. We've restarted the webserver several times and even tried rebooting the machine. None of that mattered. I'm happy to provide more information to anyone that thinks it would help us determine what our issue is. I appreciate any support you guys offer. Thanks!

 

[Mike]

I would guess that this is SELinux? This is a (somewhat) common reason. It's not really XF saying that they can't be written to, but the OS filesystem calls telling us that it can't be written to.

Also note that there is a distinction between the directory itself and sub-directories not being writable and they have slightly different error messages.

 

[Robust]

I believe this was fixed by the info provided here, just as a note if anyone stumbles across this thread with the same issue: https://theadminzone.com/threads/errors-when-installing-xenforo.137605/#post-1026185