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First Question

.....my problem is that as i start twiki i get the home page allright....i am even able to create new users....but when i try to edit that new user page identifying myself as user=users'wikiname and password=users' password....i get authentication failed... why is it so ?i have made all changes in httpd.conf of my apache 1.3.11 as per the instructions ....also after creating a new user i do see a new entry corresponding to that user in .htpasswd file....

....one more doubt....if i start as a twikiguest and at some point of time i want to change as different user ....how do i do that ? do i have to go to that user topic(his wikiname) or what ? .

  • TWiki version:dec 2000
  • Web server:Apache 1.3.11
  • Server OS:suse linux 7.0

-- TWikiGuest - 08 Jul 2001

I got this via email also

hi manpreet!
   found you while serching twiki for help...
    i am new to it....and having installation problems...plz help me
out...


.......my problem is that  as i start twiki i get the home page
allright....i am even able to create new users....but when i try to edit
that new user page identifying myself as user=users'wikiname  and
password=users' password....i get authentication failed...
why is it so ?i have made all changes in httpd.conf of my apache 1.3.11
as per the instructions ....also , after creating a new user i do
see a new entry corresponding to that user in .htpasswd  file....


....one more doubt....if i start as a twikiguest and at some point of
time i want to change as different user ....how do i do that ? do i have
to go to that user topic(his wikiname) or what ?

kindly help ...i am at my wits end.

Thanx in anticipation

I am leaving the name and email address out.

To the sender: Please do not contact me directly. I don't have the bandwidth to support people individually. You'll have better chance of your questions answered if you just asked those here. - ManpreetSingh

Answer

In gerneral, TWiki developers should not be contacted by e-mail. The preferred way to get help is this Support web.

In regards to the authentication problem, please follow the (now updated) TWikiInstallationGuide carefully. Make sure to rename the TWikiRegistrationPub topic in the TWiki web to TWikiRegistration.

To log in as a new user simply restart your browser.

-- PeterThoeny - 11 Jul 2001

Followup Question (different case)

I am getting this same authentication problem. I have followed TWikiInstallationGuide very carefully, going as far as installing a completely new and clean version (Sept2001).

OS Windows NT 4.0
Unix emulation CYGWIN_NT-4.0 1.3.3(0.46/3/2) 2001-09-12 23:54
Web server Apache 1.3.20 CAMP http://apache.dev.wapme.net/packages/
server root c:/unix/usr/local/apache/ (/usr/local/apache/ in cygwin)
document root c:/www/htdocs/ (/www/htdocs/)
twiki root c:/www/rr/ (/www/rr)

Here is my annotated Apache log. Note: This test Twiki is installed as rr to avoid mangling my existing installation.

[Wed Oct 24 09:19:19 2001] [notice] FastCGI: process manager initialized (pid 255)
[Wed Oct 24 09:19:21 2001] [notice] Apache/1.3.20 (Cygwin) CAMP/1.3.20 configured -- resuming normal operations
initial Apache startup
domainname: not found
on submission of the TWikiRegistration form
[Wed Oct 24 09:27:40 2001] [error] [client 199.247.173.75] (2)No such file or directory: Could not open password file: *
[Wed Oct 24 09:27:40 2001] [error] [client 199.247.173.75] user BasicAuthenticationTest not found: /rr/bin/edit/Main/BasicAuthenticationTest

this appears in the log when attempting to login for an edit as the just created user BasicAuthenticationTest. Viewing http://my.ip.number/rr/bin/view/Main/BasicAuthenticationTest works just fine

[Wed Oct 24 10:12:51 2001] [error] [client 199.247.173.75] (2)No such file or directory: Could not open password file: *
[Wed Oct 24 10:12:51 2001] [error] [client 199.247.173.75] user TWikiGuest not found: /rr/bin/edit/Main/BasicAuthenticationTest

Contents of /www/rr/bin/.htaccess (file system path):

      Redirect /rr/index.html http://my.ip.number/rr/bin/view

      AuthUserFile /www/rr/data/.htpasswd
I tried changing this to c:/www/rr/data/.htpasswd and /rr/data/.htpasswd but there is no change. I also renamed the file to something altogher different and the error messages did not change.
      AuthName ByPassword
      AuthType Basic

      SetHandler cgi-script

      ErrorDocument 401 /rr/bin/oops/TWiki/TWikiRegistration?template=oopsauth

      <Files ~ "[^/]*\.html$">
             SetHandler blabla
             allow from all
      </Files>

      <Files "edit">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "preview">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "save">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "attach">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "upload">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "rename">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "installpasswd">
             require valid-user
      </Files>

      <Files "*">
             allow from all
      </Files>

Contents of /www/rr/data/.htpasswd (file system path):

      TWikiGuest:zK.G.uuPi39Qg
      PeterThoeny:ZrsFit4kmpEik
      NicholasLee:h3i.9AzGUn4tQ
      AndreaSterbini:zuUMZlkXvUR6Y
      JohnTalintyre:2fl31yuNhvMrU
      MikeMannix:euHykHV5Q2miA
      TestUser:{SHA}qUqP5cyxm6YcTAhz05Hph5gvu9M=

      BasicAuthenticationTest:{SHA}E0tfjPe4iluff/w2xl8LUWa/gWM=

Notes:

  • the blank line really is there
  • {SHA} only occurs for new users
  • Authentication also fails for TWikiGuest which is not SHA encrypted.

-- MattWilkie - 25 Oct 2001

Similar but unrelated issue

I have the same problem - Authentication fails on either the newly created user or guest accounts. Also, the authentication failure page gives the server's default failure page with an additional message: "Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

My installation is on a virtual host.

I have checked a few times that I followed the TWikiInstallationGuide carefully.

-- TomKagan - 30 Oct 2001

solution

It's working now. After looking at the Apache docs for .htaccess [1], [2] for the umpteenth time, I found that the path for the 401 Document should be relative to the URL.

For my setup, The line should read as follows:

ErrorDocument 401 /cgi-bin/oops.pl/TWiki/TWikiRegistration?template=oopsauth

-- TomKagan - 30 Oct 2001

Following the follow up

Tom's error is different from mine as authentication failure on my box does take the browser to the proper TWikiRegistration page

Being curious about the Cannot find password file: * part of the error message. I removed the lines in .htaccess which read:

   <Files "*">
       allow from all
   </Files>

and this is the error that results:

   [Wed Nov  7 14:31:01 2001] [error] [client 199.247.173.75] 
   (2)No such file or directory: Could not open password file: edit

So, the question now is: why is the AuthUserFile /www/rr/data/.htpasswd directive being ignored?

-- MattWilkie - 07 Nov 2001

Working, but I don't know why

I finally have Basic Authentication working ( yeah! ) but I don't know the hows or whyfores. It could be any combination of:

  • Upgraded to TWiki20011201beta (twice)
  • uninstalled and reinstalled cygwin perl 5.6.1, Digest::SHA1
  • uninstalled and reinstalled Apache CAMP
  • fixed a problem with WhyDoLinesComeOutDoubleSpaced by mounting the drive in binary mode
  • fixed AttachedImageMangled by upgrading CGI from v2.752 to v2.78 (cpan & install CGI)
  • applied the changes described by ColasNahaboo in RcsNonStrictLocking
  • somewhere along the line the '401' in the ErrorDocument line of bin/.htacess got dropped, re-added that,
    • which produced this error message: [Tue Dec  4 16:50:32 2001] register: Undefined subroutine &main::encode_base64 called at /www/rr/bin/register line 200.
    • which I fixed (kludged) by sabotaging the if statement on line 199 of bin/register ; was (if ( $TWiki::OS eq "WINDOWS" ) {, is now if ( $TWiki::OS eq "WINDOWS2" ) {

and now users can login as they should.

{whew!}

-- MattWilkie - 04 Dec 2001

I've put in a pointer to a better fix for the register script, above.

-- RichardDonkin - 03 Mar 2002

Related Questions:

added 31-0ct-01, MattWilkie: added 07-Nov-01, MattWilkie:
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Topic revision: r16 - 2002-03-03 - RichardDonkin
 
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