Installation & Upgrade Troubleshooting FAQ

This is the Installation and Upgrade Troubleshooting FAQ

How do I troubleshoot installation issues and errors?

• Access mt-check.cgi to be sure that all necessary and as many optional Perl modules are installed.
• Check the system requirements to ensure that your system meets the minimum requirements for the version of Movable Type being installed.
• Search the forums
• Contact Six Apart or Purchase Our Technical Support Service

Where is the cgi-bin directory?

The cgi-bin directory is a folder where cgi scripts can be executed. It may be called “CGI-BIN”, “cgi”, or something like this. It will be a sibling to the web root directory where the homepage of the website goes. The web root directory may be named “www”, “html”, “publich_html”, or something like this.

Read more about the cgi-bin on the File System page.

If you’re unsure, ask your web hosting provider.

Why do I see a file starting with “!/usr/bin/perl” when I acces the application?

You are viewing the source of the cgi Perl files. Either you haven’t placed these scripts in the cgi-bin directory, or cgi files are not allowed on by your web host. Contact your web host to determine the exact cause.

File Permissions

Servers are set up in many differnet configurations. Servers with shared hosting are often more restricted in the permissions so that users do not access files of other users but dedicated servers (or virtual dedicated server) often have less permission restrictions as there are less users on them.

The elevator description on the concept of file permissions: Every user on a server has a unique username and belongs to one or more groups. Each file and directory on the server is owned by a user and a group. Additionally each file and directory has specific permissions for the owner, group, and everyone. Each of these groups is can be allowed to read, write, or execute the file or directory. Learn more about file system permissions and Octal Notation (eg. 755 or 644) on wikipedia or search for “unix file permissions”.

More info about the file system structure and directories used by Movable Type

Files and Directories Published by Movable Type

The Movable Type application is typically run by the web server user, such as “apache”. This user creates the files and directories that make up the published websites. In order to create files and directories, this user must have the necessary permissions for the directories to which files and directories can be modified.

Tip: Apache suEXEC can be configured to allow the apache user to execute files as the unix user who owns the installation.

Application Directory and Scripts

The application directory ($MT_HOME) and all subdirectories except the Static Support Directory $MT_HOME/mt-static/support and the Themes Directory $MT_HOME/themes (introduced in MT5)) should only be 755.

Note: To allow the Configuration Wizard to write the mt-config.cgi file to the application directory, the directory must be writable by the web sever user. However because writing this file woud be the only reason that the application directory should be writable, it is recommended that the configuration file be created manually on the server or created locally and uploaded into the application directory via FTP.

The application scripts (files ending in .cgi) in the application directory should be 755.

All other files should be 644.

Note: All application scripts and directories are bundled with the proper permissions. When transferring these files via FTP sometimes the permissions of the application scripts can be changed.

Static Support Directory

Movable Type places userpics and other files in this directory. It must be writable by the web server user:

• 777 (or -rwxrwxrwx) if the web server user is not in the group.
• 775 (or -rwxrwxr-x) if the web server user is in the group.
• 755 (or -rwxr-xr-x) if the web server user is the owner of the directory.

Themes Directory

Requires the same configuration as the Static Support Directory.

Site Root

If Movable Type will be publishing directly to the web root directory then this directory must be writable by the web server user.

Requires the same configuration as the Static Support Directory.

Changing File and Directory Permissions

Using the Command Line to Update Permissions

This command will set permissions correctly for all scripts ending in “.cgi” via command line (first cd to the $MT_HOME directory):

$ cd path/to/mt/
$ chmod 755 *.cgi

This command will set permissions correctly for the Static Support Directory via command line (first cd to the $MT_STATIC):

$ cd path/to/mt-static/
$ chmod 777 support

Note: Replace “777” with “775” based upon how the server is setup.

Using an FTP Client to Update Permissions

There are many FTP Client applications, each works a little differently but the process similar between each of them.

When viewing a list of the files on the server, right-click (or control-click) on a file or directory and select “File Permissions” or “Get Info” and a window will open with the ability to change permissions on the file. Change the permissions and if necessary, click “Apply”.

The window may look something like this for changing permissions:

I get “500 Error - Internal Server Error” when accessing Movable Type

This error appears in your Web browser when the Movable Type installation wizard (or any Perl script) fails to execute. Check the following:

• Use your FTP program to display the extracted Movable Type files on your local computer and the files on your Web server. Make sure that all of the files were copied.
• Check that your FTP program is set up to copy files in ASCII mode. If not, set it to use ASCII mode and re-copy the Movable Type files.
• Make sure that all of the .cgi files in the mt directory (within your server’s cgi-bin directory) have read and execute permission.
• Check that the version of Perl on your server is 5.004_4 or higher. If not, download and install a newer version.

• Open the mt.cgi file and check that the path to Perl is correct for your server on the first line of the script. If not, you need to either correct this line in each of the Movable Type .cgi files or (if you have privileges to do so) make a symbolic link that maps the actual Perl directory to the one named in the Movable Type .cgi files. In a shell, enter:

  ln -s actual-path-to-perl path-in-MT-cgi-files
  

  where “actual-path-to-perl” is the path to the directory where Perl is installed on your server and “path-in-MT-cgi-files” is the directory where the Movable Type files are looking for Perl.

• If your hosting provider is GoDaddy, you will have to edit the path in each of the files. GoDaddy’s hosting software resets the cgi-bin directory.

• If you are using a Windows server, check that you correctly configured IIS to recognize .cgi files as Perl scripts. See the instructions in Configuring IIS to Use ActivePerl.

The mt-static Directory Is Not Found or Inaccessible

The Static Directory ( named mt-static, referred to as $MT_STATIC) contains files that must be stored outside the cgi-bin directory.

If you put the mt-static directory in your server’s Web root, you can enter /mt-static as the path.

If mt-static is in a different location, enter the path to the location of the mt-static directory in the following format: http://domain-name/path/mt-static where “domain-name” is the domain name of your Web server and path is the full path to the directory in which you stored mt-static.

Test Connection to Database Fails

If the installation wizard tests the database and fails to connect, check the following and then re-try:

• Make sure you entered the basic settings correctly on the Database Configuration page.
• If your database is configured to use a nonstandard port or socket, click Show Advanced Configuration Options on the Database Configuration page and enter the appropriate settings.
• Check that the user you created to allow Movable Type access to the database has full privileges to create and modify tables in the database. For instructions, see Creating the Movable Type Database. System Administrators are often reluctant to allow this level of access, and might not give it if you do not ask for it specifically.

Permission Denied When Writing mt-config.cgi File

The Web server must have write access to the mt directory. See file permissions above.

On most UNIX/Linux systems there is a group to which the Web server user belongs. Typically it is named apache or www, but may be a custom name.

Learn how the Web server user is set up for your system and make sure that it has write access to the mt directory.

Images and Styles Are Missing

If you are able to run Movable Type, but images, styles, and behavior (javascript) appear to be missing, Movable Type is not able to access the mt-static directory.

there was probably a problem in upgrading from a previous version. Movable Type is using an outdated mt-static directory.

1. Determine where you installed the mt-static directory for the current release or re-install it from the distribution files. See Select and Configure an Installation Directory.
2. Edit the Movable Type configuration file to eunsure the StaticWebPath directive had the correct path to the mt-static directory.
3. Save the mt-config.cgi file and access Movable Type.