Is 15.0.x expected to work on Apache 2.0 or is 2.4 a hard requirement for installation?

Sumaleth · February 23, 2019, 3:03pm

Hello. I handle the NextCloud installer for Installatron (an auto-installer tool: https://installatron.com) and I’m having trouble getting 15.x to install on some servers.

I see “Apache 2.4” mentioned in the requirements and suspect this is the cause of the problem, so I just wondered; how vital is that requirement? Would you expect it to work on Apache 2.0 or will it only work on Apache 2.4?

And if only 2.4: how do you determine whether it will work on non-Apache systems?

…
The symptoms I’ve having, regardless of whether I use Installatron or install it manually, is that it produces a ‘500 Internal Server Error’ during the install process on this URL:

http://domain.com/nextcloud324533/index.php

If I install it manually I see this on the first page of the installer UI:

And this appears in the domain’s http access log:

	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:05 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2 HTTP/1.1" 301 523 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:05 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/ HTTP/1.1" 500 1875 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:06 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/vendor/select2/select2.css?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 3648 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:06 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/vendor/jquery-ui/themes/base/jquery-ui.css?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 6525 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:06 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/css/guest.css?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 5968 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:06 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/oc-dialogs.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 9590 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:06 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/jquery.ocdialog.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 2255 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/l10n.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 3117 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/octemplate.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1966 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/eventsource.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 2254 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/public/appconfig.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1561 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:06 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/js.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 19408 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/public/comments.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1448 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/public/whatsnew.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1748 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/oc-requesttoken.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 733 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/config.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1243 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/apps.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1774 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/mimetypelist.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1749 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/mimetype.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1915 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/oc-backbone.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 769 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/select2-toggleselect.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1183 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/placeholder.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 2648 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/jquery.avatar.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 2199 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/search/js/search.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1985 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/jquery.contactsmenu.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1558 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/search/js/searchprovider.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 4199 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/files/fileinfo.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 1447 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/jquery-ui-fixes.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 773 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/files/client.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 6161 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/contactsmenu_templates.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 2029 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/js/contactsmenu.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 3659 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/img/logo/logo.svg?v=1 HTTP/1.1" 200 738 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/fonts/Nunito-Regular.woff2 HTTP/1.1" 200 20098 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/fonts/Nunito-Bold.woff2 HTTP/1.1" 200 20246 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/img/background.png?v=2 HTTP/1.1" 200 103196 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:07 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/vendor/core.js?v=ba222ded25d957b900c03bef914333cd HTTP/1.1" 200 282772 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:09 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/img/favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 200 1229 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"
	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:55:09 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc2/core/img/favicon-touch.png HTTP/1.1" 200 3374 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"

(nothing in the error log)

If I visit that page now I see this appear in the domain’s http access log:

	111.111.111.11 - - [23/Feb/2019:09:13:22 -0500] "GET /_archives/nc1/index.php/csrftoken HTTP/1.1" 500 1877 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0"

(again, nothing in the error log)

I’ve tried with 15.0.2 and 15.0.4.

…
This server does use Apache 2.0 so that’s why I suspect it. Another server I tried uses FPM/FastCGI and that worked without a problem so I’m not sure what to test for to know if it’ll work.

Or perhaps you can see another reason for the problem in what I’ve pasted? Love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks.
Rowan @ Installatron

j-ed · February 23, 2019, 4:05pm

I’m currently using Nextcloud 15.0.4 on an Apache2 v2.4.37 web server with the PHP7-FPM (7.2.14) module. I can confirm that it has also worked like a charm with PHP v5.6/7.0/7.2.14. You should enable debug logging in Nextcloud and check the Nextcloud log for further details

tflidd · February 23, 2019, 5:50pm

It’s unusual to have an internal server error without logs in the error log. Either logging is to much reduced or there are other reasons that the log is not written.

Is Apache 2.0 still supported? On a new setup, I wouldn’t start with old software. Regarding the webserver, there is a documented configuration for nginx, some people use lighttpd (which is not supported from the Nextcloud team). Advantage of Apache 2.4 or nginx, it is used by many people and followed by the Nextcloud team, so as soon there are problems, there will probably some help very soon (and testing probably catches many issues before).

Sumaleth · February 24, 2019, 2:37am

If I understand NextCloud correctly, debug logging (via config.php) is only an option after you’ve installed the app? I’m getting the 500 error on the first page of the manual installer UI so there’s no config yet.

As an experiment I tried renaming config.sample.php to config.php and setting logging to ‘0’ for debug. And I set the ‘datadirectory’ value to something meaningful as well.

It gives a different error now:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator if this error reappears multiple times, please include the technical details below in your report.
More details can be found in the webserver log.

But I suspect that’s more to do with all of the other default values still in config. Its trying to start up the app rather than start up the installer.

No logging added to the data/ directory anyway. Thanks for the idea though.

Sumaleth · February 24, 2019, 2:42am

I’ll look into lowering the error logging threshold, see what comes of that.

Regarding Apache 2.0; Installatron is used on just about every combination of internet software and hardware you could imagine and we try to keep a set of test servers that span that range. But we don’t collect stats and with NextCloud’s minimum requirements set quite “high level” it’s possible that we wouldn’t see any Apache 2.0 servers trying to use NextCloud.

We don’t have a core test for the type of server but we could add one here if I can’t find anything else to explain the problem.

Thanks.

Sumaleth · February 24, 2019, 2:48am

Perhaps it’s worth explaining how I’m trying to manually install it because I’m trying to replicate the way that Installatron would install it, which is to say that I don’t have access to anything like snap, apt-get, or yum, and I can’t edit server config files.

I have the app’s archive and the user’s directory structure, and I can edit any of the files I’m installing if need be. So;

check the prerequisites (https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/15/admin_manual/installation/source_installation.html#prerequisites-for-manual-installation)
extract the archive into the install directory (we can ignore the top-level “nextcloud” dir)
everything is already owned by the user and writeable by apache
create a ‘data’ dir (and chmod it 777 for good luck)
load http://domain/dir/ into my web browser

tflidd · February 24, 2019, 10:39am

Your installation routine looks ok. Not sure about the Apache 2.0/2.4 differences, perhaps you want to look into the .htaccess stuff where they configure a few things and that has changed between the apache versions.

Another thing could be the php module in apache. And of course security tools (SELinux, AppArmor, …).