New Installation help -- 500 Error. Internal Server Error.

📦 Install & Upgrade Help
1

I installed and ran SuiteCRM on my laptop using AMPPS. I decided to migrate my data to a shared host and that didn’t go well (thread: https://suitecrm.com/suitecrm/forum/suitecrm-7-0-discussion/21503-need-help-changing-servers)

So I decided to delete everything and try a clean install. I downloaded SuiteCRM fom here https://suitecrm.com/download/

I unzipped the file into a folder named suitecrm on my shared host. The host uses Apache 2.2, PHP 5.6, and MySQL 5.5.23

Next, I tried to execute the following:


  sudo chown -R nobody:nobody .
  sudo chmod -R 755 .
  sudo chmod -R 775 cache custom modules themes data upload
  sudo chmod 775 config_override.php 2>/dev/null

But I hit a few snags:

  1. sudo doesn’t work – I get an error message. But the commands seem to run fine without using sudo so I think that I’m okay.
  2. chown didn’t work. I got a message saying that changing ownership is not permitted. I found the following in my host’s KB:

The problem is when you install a PHP script, the script needs permission to edit files. Traditionally, PHP is treated as 'nobody' on the server. Therefore, PHP is treated the same an any unknown visitor and must obey the permissions granted to World.

The solution to this conflict is to treat PHP as the Owner. We have done so by implementing a special PHP security environment known as suPHP (or phpSuExec).

With suPHP, all PHP scripts are allowed the same permissions as the Owner, and outside visitors are still restricted by the World permissions. Therefore, 755 is the perfect number; it allows all actions for PHP and only reading/viewing for potential hackers.

I interpret that to mean that I shouldn’t need to chown to apache or nobody. Would you agree?
3) I couldn’t chmod on the config_override.php file because it doesn’t exist. I double checked the install zip I downloaded and it isn’t in there. Am I supposed to create it?

Finally, I tried to load install.php, which I where I get the following error message


 Sorry, that didn’t work.
Please try again or come back later.
500 Error. Internal Server Error.

How can I fix this?

2

Update: I never figured this out, BUT my web host has an easy install button for SugarCRM. I was able to install it upgrade to SuiteCRM. The upgrade process was a nightmare too – it took about six fresh starts before I finally got everything to upgrade all the way to 7.11. But, all’s well that ends well!