In some recent clean 3.1.1 installs we are finding that certain tabs and or modules on a page do not retain the permissions being set after the Update button is being hit.

e.g., You can go to the settings option for a tab and select that a security role has View or Edit Page rights to that tab, proceed to click Update only to find that the permissions were not set and that when you go back to the settings option those permissions do not seem to have been applied.

Has anyone else seen this?  And or know where I should look to try and figure out why it's happening?

We are using the code base from the "3.1.1.Install"  of 8/23/2005 and are running this in a shared hosting environment.  There were no errors in installation nor have we see any other problems thus far.  The only strange thing that we did see was that even though the installation procedure showed several modules being installed we had to manually install the Text/HTML and a few other modules because they did not appear in the list of available modules.

Thanks.

- Mark

I'm having the same problem with incomplete DotNetNuke installations on a shared server and I'm looking for the cause as you read this. I suspect it is a folder permission issue, but the install does not report the failure. You can tell right away when there are only 5 modules to choose from.

Be forwarned not to add content to the partially installed system.  At first I added the modules manually as well, but there are other problems that don't occur after a normal installation. Until this is resolved, the partial DNN environment seems to be unstable.

Did you notice that DotNetNuke appeared with a blank page, without the host and admin info?

After logging in…
Did you notice you only had 5 modules pick from the dropdown list or Host|Modules?
Did you notice that the wizards in the control panel don’t work?

If so, it is a reproducible problem from a repeated install not a clean install.

Warning: Do not attempt this on a working DotNetNuke site! This should only be tried on an empty installation or test environment.

Steps to reproduce

Installation

• Follow DotNetNuke installation.
• Browse to http://localhost/dotnetnuke to install the portal.
• Click to view your portal. Note the admin and host passwords on the home page.

Clean up

• Delete database.
• Add new database, setup user as dbowner.
• Delete file:      c:\dotnetnuke\install\dnn.config
• Remove key:   <add key="InstallationDate" value="9/25/2005" /> from web.config 

Repeat Reinstall

• Browse to http://localhost/dotnetnuke to install the portal.
• Click to view your portal.
• Bad Installation
  • Portal displays with Dotnetnuke logo but blank page.
  • Login as host…
  • Only 5 modules available drop dropdown or Host|Modules
  • Control panel wizards do not work.
  • Other weird stuff

Workaround - Clean Install

• Delete database
• Add new database, setup user as dbowner
• Delete all files in c:\dotnetnuke
• Copy original DotNetNuke files to c:\dotnetnuke
• Copy release.config to web.config and edit as necessary
• Browse to http://localhost/dotnetnuke to install the portal
• DotNetNuke works fine

I can reproduce this on a shared host or localhost, I just can’t figure out _why_.

Dwayne,

Thanks for the feedback!!!  Very interesting.

The more we look, the more our problem seems to point to an ASP.NET security / installation 'issue' at our hosting provider.  I should have further info later today and will let you know if that's the case.

From what we've seen ...

• We get 11 modules installing ([Skin Objects], Account Login, Banners, Feedback, IFrame, News Feeds (RSS), Search Input, Search Results, User Account, UsersOnline,  XML/XSL )
• Our wizards do work!  (I've been able to create several child/parent portals, apply templates, etc...)
• We don't experience the same symptoms you describe in "Bad Installation"
• I can NOT recreate this on a production Win2k3 server (that we maintain ourselves) that we've been testing for months now, our problem only seems to happen with the hosting provider we're using which I believe is in a MS Win2k Shared Hosting model, however, more info on that to follow...

With one of the installs I've actually gone quite a ways with content and additional modules and it 'seemed' OK, until I started assigning permisisons that just wouldn't hold.  The content that has been added in those portals seems to be maintained.


I also noticed another problem from the logs in all the portals that are giving me problems that I describe in post:
http://forums.asp.net/1061619/ShowPost.aspx (Initial DNN install error. Help. What does this mean?)

I've only just realized that all portals that have this problem seem to start with the following General Exception in the event logs (I've now learned the value of the logs and to check them religously especially after an install)
   General Exception
   InnerException: Access is denied: 'DotNetNuke.Modules.Announcements'.   (or similar)

I'd be curious if your logs show the same thing.  This is what is having us look at the configuration of ASP.NET as the issue.

I figured out that the zip files in c:\dotnetnuke\install\module are deleted as they are installed, which make sense when you try to install again, the files are not there.

As for your problem, one trick I use on shared hosting environments is to disable anonymous users, then access the site to install it. Enter your credentials to login, and let DotNetNuke install. Then change the IIS settings back to anonymous and everything should work.

There are still issues where write permissions must be set on certain folders, but DotNetNuke will generate a message to indicate the problem. With Win2000 adjust IUSR_ permissions; with Win2003 adjust NT AUTHORITY\Network Services permissions. They need modify (write) access.

I’m still working on it.