Troubleshooting

This page is under development as part of the EPrints 3.4 manual. It may still contain content specific to earlier versions.

Trouble Shooting

This section covers some things which can go wrong and why. If you have a suggestion for this section, let us know!

It will grow as people suggest new problems and solutions. Check the http://www.eprints.org/ website for the latest version.

Installation of EPrints and Required Software

Apache Crashes with a segmentation fault

Possible cause: apache linked against "expat" library. If you did not install apache from source then it is possible it was linked against the "expat" library. The problem arrises that it is also linked against mod_perl and when we use the XML::Parser module, that is also linked against expat. 2 expat's in one apache make it seg-fault.

(Under SuSE Linux) Apache has problems compiling the mod rewrite module

With an error something like:

In file included from mod_rewrite.c:93:
mod_rewrite.h:133: ndbm.h: No such file or directory

Possible cause: Missing the ndbm library which is required (for some reason).

Solution: It comes as part of gdbm which is free. If working from a package you need gdbm-devel to get the header files (.h files).

(under debian sarge with apache2) Apache::const can't be located correctly when executing ./configure.

Solution: execute

export PERLLIB=/usr/lib/perl5/Apache2/

in a sh environment before ./configure.

Setting Up and Configuring a New Archive

System gives a "500 Internal Error" when viewing advanced search or submitting a document

Possible cause: No Subjects, Bug in code.

Solution: Run generate_subjects

If this fails: Look at your apache error log for clues. If reporting a bug, include the errors from the apache error log (often, but now always, found at /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log)

General

Solution: Build apache following the detailed instructions in the "requried software" section of the documentation.

Changes to the configuration didn't appear on the website

Possible cause: Several.

Solution: Rebuild everything by re-running (for the archive in question) generate_static, generate_views, generate_apacheconf then stop and start apache. generate_abstracts can take a long time, so don't run it unless you want to update the abstracts themselves.

Browse View page gives a "404 not found" error or fails to update.

Possible Cause: You didn't run the script which makes them!

Solution: Run generate_views, and ideally set it up to run automatically: see "Browse Views" in the installation section.

Apache takes a really long time to start (over a minute) and so do the command line scripts.

Possible Cause: EPrints loads several XML files at start up, and for some reason this requires a DNS lookup if DNS lookup is unavailable then it has to timeout.

Solution: Make sure that the machine can perform DNS look-ups.

The same page is repeatedly returned when submitting forms under Apache 2/mod_perl 2.0.0RC4

Ensure you have an up to date version of CGI (3.08+).

A Note on SELinux

Secure Linux (SELinux?) adds an additional security layer above that of Unix's U/G/O. By default RedHat installations prevent Apache from accessing files outside of /var/www/html and /tmp (and user's home directories?).

If you run your EPrints Apache server as user eprints this isn't an issue, however if you run Apache as apache you will need to run:

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /opt/eprints2/

To allow the apache process to access the eprints files (in addition to any Unix permission changes necessary).

If you don't do this, you will not be able to start Apache after you have modified it to include the eprints Apache configuration files; it will give you error messages saying that it was unable to create certain files.

(Ref. http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000148.html)