Moving a site to new server

[egmund]

Devtools give me same nonfunctioning manager screen.
No log entries.

I have slightly changed the domain name, but that should not be a problem - corrected in setup file

‘Funny’ thing is: the site is running fine https://transport-centralen.dk

[egmund]

Is there maybe a way to install a fresh copy and the move over ‘stuff’ from the other site?
Would that work?

[egmund]

• or something in the database I should check?

[halftrainedharry]

I did take a look at your site and the behaviour is weird.

Normally when you start the setup with calling setup/ (or setup/index.php?action=language), the first step is to select the language.
A click on “Next” then processes the selection and calls setup/index.php?action=welcome (with the “action” parameter = “welcome”). This request should return another template with the content “Welcome to the MODX installation program. …”.

On your system however, setup/index.php?action=welcome is called correctly after clicking the next “Button”, but somehow the content of the page still shows the language selection template.
I have no idea why. I have never seen this behavior before.

Did you try clearing the cache directory core/cache?
Maybe there is some caching somewhere (outside of MODX) that prevents the site from updating the template?

[egmund]

Thank you for getting back to me.
The cache was cleared before moving site and the ‘cache’ folder deleted as well.
It is indeed very strange.

[halftrainedharry]

During setup, the smarty templates for the page are stored in the cache.
In the folder core/cache/setup/smarty, is there a file that ends with .file.welcome.tpl.php?

[egmund]

These are the files in that folder:
a08a051f80af6561e287835d9f4ad2bb2b11d12d_0.file.language.tpl.php
abe4690053f28f648ca7ead19e5a1082364695a5_0.file.footer.tpl.php
c1587b2758618354cb4545d055540a4ab232eef1_0.file.header.tpl.php

[halftrainedharry]

Does the file setup/controllers/welcome.php exist?

Do you have any special rules in the .htaccess file in the root folder, that may interfere?
It seems that somehow the request parameter “action” ( ?action=welcome) can’t be read by the code.

[egmund]

Yes, that file is there.
Here is the .htaccess:

# pages via Apache with mod_rewrite to use this functionality, and you must
# change the file name from ht.access to .htaccess.
#
# Make sure RewriteBase points to the directory where you installed MODX.
# E.g., "/modx" if your installation is in a "modx" subdirectory.
#
# You may choose to make your URLs non-case-sensitive by adding a NC directive
# to your rule: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA,NC]

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /


# Prevent rewrite the .well-known directory used by LetsEncrypt by rules below of this rule
RewriteRule "^\.well-known/" - [L]


# Prevent dot directories (hidden directories like .git) to be exposed to the public
# Except for the .well-known directory used by LetsEncrypt a.o
RewriteRule "/\.|^\.(?!well-known/)" - [F]


# Rewrite www.example.com -> example.com -- used with SEO Strict URLs plugin
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.(.*)$ [NC]
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%1/$1 [R=301,L]
#
# or for the opposite example.com -> www.example.com use the following
# DO NOT USE BOTH
#
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (.+)$
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.%1/$1 [R=301,L] .


# Force rewrite to https for every host
#RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on [OR]
#RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443
#RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]


# Redirect the manager to a specific domain - don't rename the ht.access file
# in the manager folder to use this this rule
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^example\.com$ [NC]
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/manager [NC]
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]


# The Friendly URLs part
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]


# For servers that support output compression, you should pick up a bit of
# speed by un-commenting the following lines.

#php_flag zlib.output_compression On
#php_value zlib.output_compression_level 5

# php -- BEGIN cPanel-generated handler, do not edit
# Set the “ea-php74” package as the default “PHP” programming language.
<IfModule mime_module>
  AddHandler application/x-httpd-ea-php74___lsphp .php .php7 .phtml
</IfModule>
# php -- END cPanel-generated handler, do not edit`´`

[halftrainedharry]

When entering code (or the content of the .htaccess file in this case), please use three backticks at the start and the end, so it doesn’t get formatted as Markdown.

```// a line with 3 backticks at the beginning
// the content of the .htaccess file
```// a line with 3 backticks at the end

---

When you add the line

echo !empty($this->install->action) ? 'ACTION = ' . $this->install->action : 'ACTION NOT DEFINED';

here in the code

modxcms/revolution/blob/3f887dc6494fe32d3b2a52da20ec76a63bc8fb7d/setup/includes/request/modinstallrequest.class.php#L73

and then request setup/index.php?action=welcome, what gets output on screen (at the top)?

[egmund]

I get
ACTION NOT DEFINED

[egmund]

It must be something on the server.
I set up a sub-domain https://mx.transport-centralen.dk/
clean install of ModX
Get the same error.

UPDATE:
No, probably not. tried the ‘softaculous way’. It got installed, but the manager does not work.
I tried another CMS, BackdropCMS - works as advertised
My conclusion: There is something in ModX Revo that interferes.

Weird thing: I have several other Mod installs on the same server - different accounts - and they work just fine.

[egmund]

Is this relevant - from cPanel errorlog:

2023-11-26 05:54:01.080776 [INFO] [3906636] [T0] [85.203.137.110:39606:HTTP2-15#APVH_mx.transport-centralen.dk:443] Auto Index is disabled for [/home/transportcentral/mx.transport-centralen.dk/], access denied                    ```

[halftrainedharry]

@egmund

ACTION NOT DEFINED

The “action” parameter is read (from $_REQUEST) and set here in the code:

modxcms/revolution/blob/3f887dc6494fe32d3b2a52da20ec76a63bc8fb7d/setup/includes/modinstall.class.php#L55-L56

Why is it empty? That doesn’t make sense.

You could try debugging it further by adding more echo lines like

echo isset ($_REQUEST['action']) ? '$_REQUEST["action"] = ' . $_REQUEST['action'] : '$_REQUEST["action"] NOT SET';

and checking the output.

[egmund]

Thank you Harry, But I am not sure I would bother at this time - if I could even figure it out. The business, Transport Centralen, is to be sold off next month, and we do have working site - just without manager.

[egmund]

New devlopment. I got this now:

Make sure your PHP session configuration is valid and working.

What PHP settings should I look for?

[halftrainedharry]

Maybe this helps:

Error : Make sure your PHP session configuration is valid and working

I will add my feedback for this error message from my recent experience moving a client to a new GoDaddy shared server. It was a problem updating to the latest 3.0.3 MODX version. And since it is a shared server, all I had to work with was my cPanel access and file manager. I found that for me, the “Make sure your PHP session configuration is valid and working.” error was due to two things. First, the ‘session.auto_start’ directive was set to Off for my local value. Second, even with that set t…

[egmund]

Thank you very much for that. I will try.
What would the standard session.save_path be for 2.8.6 (the )?

[egmund]

Did not make any difference.
save_path was set to public_html/

[egmund]

I have now tried to install the latest v. 3 of ModX in a new sub-domain. https://m3.transport-centralen.dk
Same thing: It hangs on the language selector.

I see no difference in the setup for this account and there is no errors anywhere.
php is 8.1