Installation succeeded, but can't log in

[thecoloredsky]

It took a while to figure out the installation but it eventually processed correctly. Just to let everyone know, dreamhost wants people to use the hostname as mysql.example.com instead of localhost. I saw the list of database entries created and received no errors. I then got to the admin user creation screen, set the user and password with no problem. I got to the very end and deleted the install directly as instructed.

When I try to log into admin it doesn't accept my username and password. There are no error messages, just resets the screen after it appears to connect. So thinking that I might have mistyped the password in the installation, I asked the system to send me a reminder email to reset my password. It's been over 30 minutes and nothing in my inbox.

My site: http://www.survivaldeals.net

Could it be that PHP isn't working or something? I can't understand why I can't log into the admin area. Thanks guys, I'm really excited to get this site going but I keep running into snags.

[thecoloredsky]

While I was waiting for a reply, I logged into mysql and checked out the user list. My user id was listed but the password was all hashed out, like a series of letters and numbers sort of like encrypted (64 characters maybe?). So I manually changed it to what I want, saved, and went back to log into admin and still won't work. I also changed my php version to 5.3.5 from 5.2.1.7 in cPanel (waited 10 minutes), made no difference as well.

So, it seems like all the database entries were created, my user admin was created (although with a strange password), and I still can't log in. I'm not a guru at this and running out of ideas :(

[Jason]

The password is never, ever, ever stored in plain text, as this would create security problems. That said, you are on the right path. Update the password field with MD5('<yourpasswordhere>'). That will turn your password into a series of letter and numbers, and you can try to log in again. It might have just been a typo when you were first setting up the system.

If that still doesn't work, delete all of the tables from the database and try again.

Hope this helps :)

[thecoloredsky]

The password is never, ever, ever stored in plain text, as this would create security problems. That said, you are on the right path. Update the password field with MD5('<yourpasswordhere>'). That will turn your password into a series of letter and numbers, and you can try to log in again. It might have just been a typo when you were first setting up the system.

If that still doesn't work, delete all of the tables from the database and try again.

Hope this helps :)

Thanks for your reply.

So, I re-installed everything from scratch. I created a new database with a different name and ran the installation. Every passed with flying colors, no issues. Tables created successfully, PHP test worked, created my login user and pass, but it does the same thing. When I click the log in button, I can see at the bottom of my browser that for a second it does something then it pauses, then reloads the blank login screen again. No error messages or anything.

Here's the copy/paste of my system settings at the bottom of the page>... sounds like something really stupid and simple but I have no idea what to do next.


Database queries: 11 | Page load time: 0.2s | Memory usage: 4.33 MB | PHP v.5.3.5 | MySQL v.5.1.53-log | Hotaru CMS v.1.4.2
.

[thecoloredsky]

should I create a test login so you guys can see for yourself? I think I could manually add it to the database in the backend (I think).

[PuckRobin]

Look at the log directory of your account using FTP. If you see something like "premature end of..." message in error.log file you can be sure that the script is killed by hosting provider, so it cannot finish login process. Dreamhost does this if you are using too much RAM reserved for you.

[thecoloredsky]

Look at the log directory of your account using FTP. If you see something like "premature end of..." message in error.log file you can be sure that the script is killed by hosting provider, so it cannot finish login process. Dreamhost does this if you are using too much RAM reserved for you.

nothing is in my error.log file. I have an access.log file with some entries but nothing important looking.

[PuckRobin]

Your main page directly gives "page not found" error. This is nothing to do with admin login. It is possible that your htaccess settings are wrong.

[thecoloredsky]

Your main page directly gives "page not found" error. This is nothing to do with admin login. It is possible that your htaccess settings are wrong.

my htaccess_default file has this at the top:


#############################
##### EDIT THIS SECTION #####
#############################

Options +Indexes +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

## Change to /folder if Hotaru is in a subfolder
RewriteBase /

## Redirect www.example.com to example.com. Add ## if you don't need the redirect.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

You think something in there needs to be changed? I appreciate your help with this.

[PuckRobin]

You say this is "htaccess_default" file. what about ".htaccess" file? Don't you have it?

[thecoloredsky]

You say this is "htaccess_default" file. what about ".htaccess" file? Don't you have it?

It's not located in the root directory, from what I see. So I renamed "htaccess_default" to ".htaccess" and now nothing pops up on my site. I'm not sure if this is a step in the right or wrong direction! If anybody has any further ideas I'll be around later after work to troubleshoot some more. I appreciate the help so far, can't wait to get this going!

[thecoloredsky]

I found this in cPanel:



Do you want the www in your URL?
Leave it alone: Both http://www.survivaldeals.net/ and http://survivaldeals.net/ will work.
Add WWW: Make http://survivaldeals.net/ redirect to http://www.survivaldeals.net/
*Remove WWW: Make http://www.survivaldeals.net/ redirect to http://survivaldeals.net/


Okay... so I changed the cPanel setting to the last one. Now, I went back to my site and it says Page Not Found. I went to login, typed in my admin username and pass and voila! It appears to let me log into my backend admin panel. I wish I wasn't at work so I could try this at home, but things look promising. But why is my root homepage showing Page Not Found? My guess is I have to activate some plugins or something.

[PuckRobin]

Probably because your BASE_URL setting in hotaru_settings.php does not match your actual situation and you don't have a valid .htaccess file. You need to have that file.

To make things simple, leave cpanel setting as it is and use default htaccess file (renaming it of course)

[thecoloredsky]

Puck, thank you for helping me. I'm hesitant to acknowledge my site is working, but it actually appears to be! Thank you again for narrowing down my troubleshooting.

What was strange is that I never received a ".htaccess" file in installation. By renaming it and leaving everything inside as default, it seems to be working right now. If everything works out, I plan to hopefully add to the hotaru community at some point in the future. I think we can close this thread as "resolved" until I come up with more issues :)

Goodbye pligg, hello hotaru!