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"Precondition Failed" when attemping Vanilla install.

AustinAustin
edited June 2006 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
On the second page of the installer script I get

Precondition Failed

The precondition on the request for the URL /installer.php evaluated to false.
See for yourself at http://forum.mocephus.org/installer.php?PostBackAction=Permissions

All of the file/directory permissions have been set as described on the first page of the installer script.

I think I remember reading somewhere that this has something to do with mod_security? I'll start a trouble ticket with my host to see if they can see anything.

Comments

  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    Now that is a wierd one. I'm googling it now...
  • AustinAustin
    I'm hosted over at Textdrive. I posted a message in a thread re: Vanilla with this same information. One of the admin guys is looking at it.

    That thread is here: http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?id=4659
  • AustinAustin
    Ryan w/ Textdrive got back to me.

    Adding SecFilterSelective "QUERY_STRING" "tback" "nolog,allow" to my .htaccess file gets it working.

    Works like a charm now.
  • UnLogikalUnLogikal
    I'm getting the same thing, I just turned mod_security off for that directory until I get more of it straightened out. I'm also hosted at TextDrive btw. But the real reason it is there is because apparently something in Vanilla decides to do a ../../ for the path... this is typical of some directory traversal hacks, thus it is not allowed at TextDrive under the default settings. I guess it's not so bad that it requires a few changes, but ultimately maybe it's a hint something should be altered so that something like this doesn't happen elsewhere too? I'm certainly not the all powerful security overlord, I'm wondering whether this ranks as any sort of priority?
  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    Hmmm. I took a look at the installer and it doesn't do ../../ but it does do ../ in a few places. I'm pretty sure I can do a getcwd() and figure out an absolute path to use instead, but I'm not sure that would be a better solution anyway...
  • UnLogikalUnLogikal
    Yea I'm not sure what the best method would be. I'm not a PHP guru by any stretch of the means... more of a Ruby On Rails guy. I just used ../../ as an example because that was what one of the admins at TextDrive said, maybe it's just ../ that does it. I can ask in more detail if you want more information.
  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    Sure, that would be great. Thanks!
  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    Try this:

    In the root of Vanilla, create an .htaccess file with this inside:

    SecFilterSelective "QUERY_STRING" "tback" "nolog,allow"
  • UnLogikalUnLogikal
    Yup they stated that was how to fix it, and that's what I'm currently using. So no big deal, might as well just make note of it in the installation file or something of that nature for future reference.
This discussion has been closed.