session.save_path not writeable

ottimoto

I installed CMSMS on the account hosted by a provider. During installation I received the following alert "Your session.save_path is "". Not having this as writable may make logins to the Admin Panel not work. You may want to look into making this path writable if you have trouble logging into Admin Panel".
So, after installation, the login does not work. I had a chat to the provider, but the only response I've got was "Ive had a chat with one of the 2nd levels and what he said is that now you have the php.ini file what you are going to want to do is turn on the mod rewrite function. Depending on what your trying to do specifically you will need to write your own script as this is not something that we can write for you".

I'm fairly new to php and don't get what the provider wants me to do. I can see the line "session.save_path = /tmp " in the php.ini file they supplied me, but what do I write into it?Also how will the new php.ini file overwrite the existing (not visible via ftp)?
I would like to have all my sites running with CMSMS.

Thanks very much
ottimoto

Kudose

Your provider is a n00b.

You could set session.save_path as a directory you have write access to.

For example, if your home directory is /home/ottimoto ... I would create a directory via FTP such as mysessions and give write access to it.

Then in php.ini, set session.save_path to /home/ottimoto/mysessions and upload it to /home/ottimoto/public_html or whatever you use for your document root.

Even if you cannot see the file, you can overwrite it. Many hosts hide all dot files and ini files such as php.ini and .htaccess

Hope that helps.

ottimoto

Thanks Kudose for your help, but it still won't work. I made a folder "lwsessions" via ftp with CHMOD 777. I changed the session.save_path to "/lwsessions". I checked with a test page (php.info()) and can see that the session.save_path is set now to "/lwsessions".
Still my login does not work. I'm absolutely sure that my username and password are correct (double checked in config.php).
Is there anything else I have to do?
I can't believe it's not working. Must be just a small thing, and the hoster is really not helpful.
Any suggestions?

Thanks
ottimoto

Kudose

You should supply your session save path with the absolute path to the directory.

If you are in a multiuser environment, I am sure your root is not /. Therefore you should set it to /home/username/lwsessions

ottimoto

Thanks for your help again, but still no luck.
I set the path as you advised to "/home/username/public_html/lwsessions", with the username being the real username, but it still does not work.
Is there anything else I have to turn on, or re-direct?
Many thanks
(desperate) otti

bradgrafelman

Do you even know if /home/<username>/public_html/lwsessions is even the right path? Check out $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] to find out where your web directory is.

Secondly, session data should definitely not be stored in a publicly-accessible place! Pretending the root of your website is /home/username/public_html/, the directory should be stored somewhere such as /home/username/lwsessions/.

Really, though, it sounds like you need to ditch the incompetent host you have and find at least a half-way decent one!

ottimoto

I clarified before I set the new path that it is correct. I have checked with DOCUMENT_ROOT and it shows that my path is correct.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with this provider (and I have a few other websites hosted with them). But I will ensure that I'm asking a few questions before I get the next site started with another hosting company, that they are a bit more helpful and knowledgeable.
For now, I started to hard code all I need in PHP myself. I created a database, session login page and database queries. Since it is only one page on thsi site which needs daily updating (text only) I get away with it.
Thanks again for your help, but it looks that I have got no chance to install CMSMS with this provider.
Ta
ottimoto