I cannot get Web Sharing to turn on.

Question

Level 1

4 points

I cannot get Web Sharing to turn on.

Ever time I click the check box to turn on Web Sharing, the gray light blinks quick to orange, then turns back to gray. I try it over and over and still it will not turn on. I've read many other support discussions related to this and I have tried many of the "solutions", including:

Changing the name of my computer, multiple times
Replacing the existing httpd.conf file with the "original" httpd.conf file
Commenting out LoadModule fastcgi_module libexec/apache2/mod_fastcgi.so from the httpd.conf file
Starting apache in the terminal by typing sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl start
Removing the lines <key>Disabled</key> <true/> from the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist
Removing old users from the /etc/apache2/users/ directory

Nothing has worked so far. I've redownloaded Lion hoping to be able to use the files contained within the installer package to restore all of the relevent files that might have become corrupted somehow. I haven't done this though because I don't know how.

When I try to start Web Sharing while Console is running I get the following message

5/31/12 12:57:43.618 PM org.apache.httpd: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using ChrisMacBook.local for ServerName

5/31/12 12:57:44.549 PM System Preferences: -[__NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value (key: NSLink)

5/31/12 12:57:44.551 PM System Preferences: (

0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff9205bf56 __exceptionPreprocess + 198

1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff88f04d5e objc_exception_throw + 43

2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff9205bd8a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106

3 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff9205bd14 +[NSException raise:format:] + 116

4 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff92018c4b -[__NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:] + 219

5 SharingPref 0x000000010bc5e48f SharingPref + 115855

6 SharingPref 0x000000010bc5e3a0 SharingPref + 115616

7 SharingPref 0x000000010bc5e315 SharingPref + 115477

8 SharingPref 0x000000010bc4d970 SharingPref + 47472

9 SharingPref 0x000000010bc47d60 SharingPref + 23904

10 Foundation 0x00007fff90dc4f40 __NSFireTimer + 102

11 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff92010934 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_TIMER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 20

12 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff92010486 __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 534

13 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff91ff0e11 __CFRunLoopRun + 1617

14 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff91ff0486 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 230

15 HIToolbox 0x00007fff8acd44d3 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 277

16 HIToolbox 0x00007fff8acdb781 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 355

17 HIToolbox 0x00007fff8acdb60e BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 62

18 AppKit 0x00007fff9108fe31 _DPSNextEvent + 659

19 AppKit 0x00007fff9108f735 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 135

20 AppKit 0x00007fff9108c071 -[NSApplication run] + 470

21 AppKit 0x00007fff91308244 NSApplicationMain + 867

22 System Preferences 0x000000010719fb30 System Preferences + 6960

23 ??? 0x0000000000000002 0x0 + 2

)

This is really driving me crazy. If anybody can help, please let me know.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2.0Ghz - 4GB RAM

Posted on May 31, 2012 10:12 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 31, 2012 11:39 AM in response to EChrisDenney

Please post the recent messages in /var/log/apache2/error.log.

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Answer 2

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

May 31, 2012 11:58 AM in response to Linc Davis

As requested. This is the messages displayed when I tried turning it on. And, extremely frustratingly, the box stays checked now except that now it's not displaying any information at all. No orange box, no gray box, no text saying "starting" or anything

[Thu May 31 14:55:41 2012] [warn] Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using ChrisMacBook.local for ServerName

[Thu May 31 14:55:41 2012] [warn] mod_bonjour: Cannot stat template index file '/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/index.html'.

[Thu May 31 14:55:41 2012] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...

[Thu May 31 14:55:41 2012] [notice] Digest: done

[Thu May 31 14:55:41 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.21 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.21 OpenSSL/0.9.8r DAV/2 configured -- resuming normal operations

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 31, 2012 12:31 PM in response to EChrisDenney

Launch the Activity Monitor application and select All Processes from the toolbar menu. Enter "httpd" (without the quotes) in the Filter text box. You should have two httpd processes, one owned by root and one by _www. Is that what you have? And is the server working?

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Answer 4

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

May 31, 2012 12:50 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you. I did as you requested and you're correct. That is what I have.

I'm not certain how to check if the server is working. I believe I can just navigate to http://localhost/ and it should display "It works!". If this is the correct way of checking whether or not the server is working, then yes it is working. When I navigated to http://localhost/ the page displayed "It works!"

In my previous message I had mentioned that the check box was staying checked. Now it's changed back. Now when I try to check the box it's doing exactly as described in my original post. Turning orange and then back to gray and not leaving the box checked. After I try checking it a few times it turns orange constantly and says "Web sharing is starting..." but then it never starts.

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 31, 2012 12:56 PM in response to EChrisDenney

Are any error messages logged when the server fails to start?

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Answer 6

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

May 31, 2012 12:58 PM in response to Linc Davis

I can check. Which logs would be most helpful to check?

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 31, 2012 12:59 PM in response to EChrisDenney

The same one you checked before.

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Answer 8

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

May 31, 2012 1:02 PM in response to Linc Davis

No "errors" but there are warns and notices

[Thu May 31 15:49:21 2012] [warn] Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using ChrisMacBook.local for ServerName

[Thu May 31 15:49:21 2012] [warn] mod_bonjour: Cannot stat template index file '/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/index.html'.

[Thu May 31 15:49:21 2012] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...

[Thu May 31 15:49:21 2012] [notice] Digest: done

[Thu May 31 15:49:21 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.21 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.21 OpenSSL/0.9.8r DAV/2 configured -- resuming normal operations

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Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 31, 2012 1:33 PM in response to EChrisDenney

Have you edited the Apache configuration file at

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

If so, compare it with

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf.default

or just replace the former with a copy of the latter. Then restart Apache.

Reply

Answer 10

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

May 31, 2012 1:41 PM in response to Linc Davis

I had not tried replacing httpd.conf with that specific file. But after you mentioned it I tried it now. Still acting the same as it did before. Here is the message I get from the error.log

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using ChrisMacBook.local for ServerName

[Thu May 31 16:38:33 2012] [warn] mod_bonjour: Cannot stat template index file '/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/index.html'.

[Thu May 31 16:38:33 2012] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...

[Thu May 31 16:38:33 2012] [notice] Digest: done

[Thu May 31 16:38:33 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.21 (Unix) DAV/2 configured -- resuming normal operations

Here is an updated list of the things I have tried already, appended with what we just tried.

Changing the name of my computer, multiple times
Replacing the existing httpd.conf file with the "original" httpd.conf file
Commenting out LoadModule fastcgi_module libexec/apache2/mod_fastcgi.so from the httpd.conf file
Starting apache in the terminal by typing sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl start
Removing the lines <key>Disabled</key> <true/> from the
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist
Removing old users from the /etc/apache2/users/ directory
Replacing the existing httpd.conf file with the httpd.conf.default file

Reply

Answer 11

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 31, 2012 2:10 PM in response to EChrisDenney

Launch the Terminal application and enter the following command:

/usr/sbin/httpd -t

The output should be

Syntax OK

If you get any other output, post it.

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Answer 12

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 1, 2012 4:56 AM in response to Linc Davis

I get the following messages

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using ChrisMacBook.local for ServerName

Syntax OK

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Answer 13

etresoft

Level 8

46,312 points

Jun 1, 2012 5:06 AM in response to EChrisDenney

Sorry I missed your question. It would be best to undo any changes you have made to the plist and configure files. This is a known problem with Lion. If you just keep trying, eventually it will work, as you have discovered.

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jun 1, 2012 6:16 AM in response to Linc Davis

It's not clear to me that you have an actual problem. Yes, sometimes you get an abnormal display in System Preferences when you activate Web Sharing. But every time you check whether the web server is working, it is. Maybe the solution is to activate it and leave it alone.

You can suppress the warning message about the domain name by giving the server a fixed IP address on the network and adding a line to the hosts file, or running an internal DNS server (which is a lot more work to set up.) Maybe that will also make Apache start up more smoothly.

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Answer 15

EChrisDenney Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 1, 2012 8:46 AM in response to Linc Davis

I see what you mean. It does seem to be running. The GUI just isn't giving me much.

I'm really a novice when it comes to most of this so I'm not sure how I could give the server a fixed IP address on the network and add a line to the hosts file, or run an internal DNS server. I think I might avoid trying to do those things so long as it's working properly.

Now, any recommendations on how I can start using Web Sharing on my Mac. My goal is fairly simple. I want to serve a couple dozen folders, each folder having a customer name. Within those folders would be folders that relate to specific assemblies that we build for each customer. From there I'd like to be able to access the contained PDF's using my iPad's Safari web browser. I figure this should be fairly straight forward.

I'm not looking for step by step help on how to accomplish this, I'm only hoping to you might be able to refer me to a well written blog post or article on the web somewhere.

Thanks again for all your help!

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