Manual 8.8.1 installation failling while Softaculous auto Install works

📦 Install & Upgrade Help
1

Hello all,
Pulling hair here and need your wisdom. Tried to install SuiteCRM from downloaded zip v.8.8.1 on Hostgator VPS server. Watched about all videos on youtube, re-read the docs (specific to v8x) and trippled checked all settings. tried on 2 different domains, 2 subdomains, root, and subdirectory under public_htm - same results. however when i try to run the auto install via Softaculous in CPanel, it works every time. The things i have noticed to be different from documented install are:

  1. all permissions below root of the suoteCRM install folder are set to 755 for files and folders
  2. in my manual install, when failing, logsinclude the error about not being able to create writable cache/upload/import folder and it is also missing in the auto install
  3. install.log is missing all together
  4. When i install manual pre-check looks good for all but LDAP which is missing and i believe is not required.
  5. i can not install without the Failed install unless i check “ignore errors and warnings”
  6. when i do get passed that failure, and login i see nothing in the module menu all blank and i do get an error reading meta data. that is as close as i did get with manual install.
  7. even then i get same errors in the log file, here some of them:

[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: Begin DB Check Process *************
[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: testing with mysql:mysqli
[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: Basic form info is valid, continuing Process.
[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: Testing user account…
[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: Connection made using host: localhost, usr: xxxxxxxxxxx_dev_usr1
[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: ERROR: Cannot create writable dir cache/upload/import
[2025-08-241 03:07:28] install.FATAL: installerHook: Info: custom/install/install_hooks.php not present, no custom hooks to execute
[2025-08-241 03:07:31] install.SECURITY: OutboundEmail::checkSavePermissions - not logged in - skipping check
[2025-08-241 03:07:31] install.FATAL: User update error: Temp User is not retrieved at ID 1, boolean given
[2025-08-241 03:07:31] install.FATAL: Email address save error
[2025-08-241 03:07:33] install.SECURITY: Invalid ext logger_file_ext : ‘’.
[2025-08-241 03:07:33] install.SECURITY: Setting logger_file_ext to ‘.log’.
[2025-08-241 03:07:33] install.SECURITY: Setting logger_file_name to ‘’.
[2025-08-241 03:07:33] install.SECURITY: Log file extension can’t be blank.
[2025-08-29 03:07:33] install.INFO: step: run-legacy-install | status: failed
[2025-08-29 03:07:33] install.INFO: step: run-legacy-install | messages:
[2025-08-29 03:07:33] install.INFO: An error occurred while installing SuiteCRM. Please check the ‘/logs/install.log’.
[2025-08-29 03:07:33] install.INFO: step: run-legacy-install | debug:
[2025-08-29 03:07:33] install.INFO: Exception: Call to undefined function exec()

part of me is happy that i finally got a “working” instance, but i am seriously concerned about what could be wrong, and how/when it will manifest itself.

Please assist as i am out of ideas to try.

2

Hello Erick,

I’ve just checked - you’re running on AlmaLinux, which is red hat based.
Additionally, cPanel was optional.

So far, I haven’t installed / used Alma - just a suggestion to cPanel:
Remove it and stay with vanilla / standard LAMP system.
If that still doesn’t work, maybe look into the differences between Alma and Debian / Ubuntu based servers.

I’d be very surprised, if this is not a permission issue.
Look into your PHP / webserver processes. Under which user / group are they running? Does this fit to your file and folder permissions?

Same here. I’d always focus on a clean server system with a clean installation first. Ideally, you’re building up your companies brain here for the next 5 - 10 years. That should be done on a solid foundation.

3

Thank you very much for your response @Bastian !

I know that Hostgator is planning to move to some other distro from CentOS for known reasons, but my server has not yet been migrated. So today i am still running:

OS: CentOS v7.9.2009 STANDARD kvm
cPanel Version: [110.0.71]

Unfortunately i can not rid myself of Cpanel as i am hosting several small customers. as for the permissions, i did check what the httpd is running under and both userid and group are identical and i have ensured proper permissions per documentation and also ensured ownership was taken . i wonder if i should try to install with 755 on both files and folders just to see if i get same results as Softaculous. based on my search i saw quite a few folks with same fatal/errors in the install.log but no posts that explained/resolved.

4

Checkout the video:

5

Thank you @rsp!
I have seen this video many times and followed it’s suggested approach with steps like re-running permissions after install (before 1st login), and updating config.php with ensuring the site_url, host_name, user/group, and default permissions. There was a little gap cut out right before the cron job discussion but i am not sure if there was anything important there.

I even tried to do the permissions that are suggested for the different user/group (664 and 2775) - same result.

I did not do the vhost portion but understand it to be highly recommended but not required and don’t believe my errors and failed install is due to that.

Any other ideas anyone?

6

If it’s CentOS I would suspect Selinux is blocking accesses…

See if you can disable it, at least temporarily, to check if it makes a difference. And then configure it properly for SuiteCRM.

7

Thank you kindly for the suggestion, @pgr!

I checked the SE and it shows as disabled.

Blockquote
root@server-xxxxxxx.com [public_html]# sestatus
SELinux status: disabled

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