Merge server files error 500

[Mike Hughes]

I've just moved to a new host and I'm having problems getting Actinic up and running on the new server. When I do a site refresh I get the following message:

"A server error occurred while attempting to merge server files. 500 - Internal Server Error"

and any attempt to run a script also gives a server error 500 with the following message:

"Premature end of script headers: ca000001.pl" (same for all scripts).

I've checked the permissions. cgi-bin and acatalog are 755 and setting to 777
makes no difference. Here are my network settings, I've tried a few variations but nothing seems to make much difference). These were set up with the help of the wizard and pass the test OK.

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST localhost
WEBSITEURL http://www.domain.co.uk/
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
CATALOGURL http://www.domain.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.domain.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../httpdocs/acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ftp.domain.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME xxxxxxxxxx
FTPPASSWORD xxxxxxxxxx
PATHTOCGIBIN /cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP true
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

Anyone have any ideas?

Mike

[MikeBooker]

Mike try

1. Path to perl - use the AC Web | Configure web details wizard - it usually finds the path.

2. Some servers only run .cgi and not .pl

[Mike Hughes]

Thanks but no luck.

1. I did use the wizard. Doesn't seem to be a path problem to be honest.

2. I tried your suggestion of using .cgi, same result.

Reading around a bit, it seems that the 'Premature end of script headers:' message is to do with errors in the file, usually as a result of uploading as binary rather than ascii.

My new server is running plesk, that sometimes is configured with binary as the default ftp transfer mode. Has anyone setup actinic on a server with plesk and does anyone in actinic know if upload/refresh assumes the default to be ascii ?

I'm running 6.1.3, if that makes any difference.

Mike

[Classix]

Firstly, i would not recommend using the wizard. It took me over 2 weeks to try get mine uploaded until i realised you can fill in the information manually.

The wizard is not worth wasting your time on.

What hosting are you using? I used Fasthosts and there are articles for many well known companies in the Actinic Knowledge Base explaining how to set it up correctly

Try seaching on http://knowledge.actinic.com/users/kadmin/acatalog/

[Mike Hughes]

Thanks for the reply Andy. There are some strange results in the setup, but even after changing these I'm still having trouble.

It's not the file transfer anyway. I've manually ftp'd one of the files up in both Binary and Ascii mode and can confirm that actinic is transferring them as ascii.

So it's back to looking at the network setup again.

Mike

[MikeBooker]

Have you tried other scripts -i.e. non AC ones? Do they run?

I have found that with some hosts, script processing needs to be enabled first, and that this takes a day or so when a new host is set up. It's a real pain, but on day 2 they suddenly work.

I assume you have contacted the host about this.

[Mike Hughes]

Good suggestion and had me worried for a while.

I uploaded a simple test file and that works fine.

So that's not the problem either.

Mike

[Mike Hughes]

Fixed. But don't ask me why.

I had been using a modified version of actinic.pm to get around authenticated smtp for email. Changing back to the original version fixed everything.

Thinking about it, I guess mail::mailer wasn't installed and so the script must have been falling over at that point.

A few more things to tidy up and then hopefully I'm live again. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Mike

[Classix]