File Access

By far the most common issue with new installs on Unix based systems involves file access permissions. The recommended way of dealing with this is to set your entire custome directory structure as all-access (0777) just while you get things going. If everything else is working then you should follow the ccHost file access guidelines.

"There is an error rendering this page"

A common reason for this are template errors during development of skins and other user interface testing. If you haven't already Turn on debug messages login as admin and try to render the page again.

There might also be a pathing issue with your custome directory structure. You see your paths configuration by performing a export command. (Didn't work??)

"Down for upgrade, check back soon"

This is actually an indication that something is wrong in the code (i.e. a bug) or your installation. Turn on debug messages and try to access your site. The very least that will do is give ccHost developers the exact location of the problem. After you turn on debugging, look at your cc-errors.txt file and send that along to the developers so they can narrow down the issue for you.

Outputting Debug Messages

In order to help ccHost developers troubleshoot your site you should enable debugging messages in your system. The easiest way to do this is to create a file called _DEBUG_.php with the following contents:

<?
  CCDebug::Enable(true);
?>

and put that file into your libs directory.

Now repeat the steps that led you to the problem and hopefully you will get more detailed information about the error.

Make sure to remove this file in your production installation.

Lost Admin Password

If you have lost or forgotten your admin password and you don't have email set up on your site then the Lost Password feature will not work.

You can set the password from a terminal commandline using the mysql program. First invoke mysql replacing the DBNAME and DBUSER below with your database name and database user name:

mysql DBNAME -u DBUSER -p

After entering your password type the following command replacing NAME with your ccHost admin account name and PW with your ccHost admin account password:

update cc_tbl_user set user_password = md5('PW') where user_name = 'NAME';

Upon success you'll something like:

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.04 sec)
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0

Type exit at the mysql command line to exit.

Can't Log In Hack

There might come a time when you need to log in but can't through the normal login screen. The script below uses undocumented and otherwise unsupported features (in other words, no promise it will work) however it may do the trick. Here's are steps to using it:

<?
if( !empty($_GET['alogin']) )
{
    $time = time()+60*60*24*30;
    $val = array( $_GET['alogin'], md5($_GET['pw']) );
    $val = serialize($val);
    setcookie('lepsog2',$val,$time);
    print('user ' . $_GET['alogin'] . ' cookie set');
    exit;
}
?>

1. Cut and paste the code above into a file called autolog.php
2. Put the file into the root of you ccHost installation.
3. Send your browser to

   http://your_installation_root/autolog.php?alogin=USERNAME&pw=PASSWORD

   using your admin username and password.

If the account information was correct and valid, you should now be able to perform commands such as restoring a configuration snapshot (see Configuration Backup)