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gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi

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gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi
Greetings,

So I take it that I was not supposed to install the forum into the cgi-bin next to gmail? Because now admin for gmail is gone...

Should i have installed the forum into a folder within cgi-bin?

What other files did I overwrite with the forum install? Can i just open the install.dat by sticking a .zip on the end and pull out the missing files for replacement?

Thanks for your help

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
It is always best to structure your directories, ie:

cgi-bin/gmail
cgi-bin/gforum

You can add a tar extension and open it with winzip.
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
The only file specific to Gossamer Forum and Gossamer Mail that you overwrote will be the 'admin.cgi' file. It isn't so easy as just pulling the files out of install.dat (you can do it, by adding ".tar" (not .zip) on the end, or changing it to install.tar). The best bet is going to be installing GForum into another location, then extracting the admin.cgi from the tar file using a program such as Winzip or Power Archiver.

You are going to have to make a changes to the GMail admin.cgi file, however, before uploading it, open it up and look for the line that says:

use lib '.';

The value to change this to depends on your installation - the easiest way to figure it out will be to download one of the user-side webmail CGI files (i.e. webmail.cgi) and copy the 'use lib' line found in that file. Also, while you have the webmail.cgi open, check the very first line: it should be something like:

#!/usr/bin/perl

If it is _not_ '#!/usr/bin/perl' you also need to change the first line in admin.cgi to match.

Once having made the above change(s), upload admin.cgi in ASCII mode, and CHMOD it to 755. After that, your GMail admin panel should be working again. Watch out, though - it probably won't be password protected anymore, as GForum will have overwritten the .htaccess and .htpasswd files.

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
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Re: [Jagerman] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Thanks for responding fellas.

I think i can follow jason's directions but I am wondering if it would be safer to wipe the slate? As long as i don't overwrite mySQL most of the data should be there, right?

thanks again,

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
How about this? If i reinstall the forum, can i set things up so that the url is somehting like www.forum.mysite.org ? What is the trick to tame these nasty long url addresses? Atleast for the login.

Thanks

Bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Well, both of these solutions might require your ISP to set something up for you.

First, like you suggest, you could set up Gossamer Forum so that you go to something like: forum.mydomain.com. This requires the ISP to set up a forum.mydomain.com virtual host in the web server configuration, enable CGI for it, and set the "DirectoryIndex" (the file it tries to display automatically) to gforum.cgi.

The second way is a bit easier - it involves your ISP enabling CGI scripts (they may already be enabled - give it a try; if you see the source code, it isn't enabled) for a directory such as /forum, then you access the forum via: http://www.domain.com/forum

The second way is certainly the easiest, and may work without having to contact your ISP at all.

As a last resort, you could install to: /cgi-bin/forum, then drop a .htaccess file in there with the content:

DirectoryIndex gforum.cgi

then accessing /cgi-bin/forum will take you to your forum. Of course, you can do this with the above solutions as well.

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
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Re: [Jagerman] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Thanks for the reply jason. I am managing (although pretty poorly at this point) my own server so I can check on all the options. I like option two and will give that a go.

I have another problem however. I have decided to reinstall the forum and mail programs. This time, as paul suggested, i created folders in the cgi-bin and placed the install.dat and install.cgi within. I am not able to get the install.cgi to run however. I have the permissions on the install.cgi set to 755 and to the folder it resides 777. What might i be doing wrong here?

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
i am searching through the website admin panel and i am not seeing where i would activate cgi for a /forum folder. Any clues?

Thanks again,

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
i just took a guess and created a folder in the cgi-bin called mail then pulled it out to the public_html level and it seems to be working. I will keep you posted if things go awry. Thanks again jason.

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
I did not quite get it.

i reinstalled gmail to a cgi enabled folder in public_html. Everything is working great if i enter through /user/login.cgi

when i stick a .htaccess file in their with directory index user/login.cgi

i get to the login screen but can't get past that... The requested URL /gmail/login.cgi was not found on this server

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
the process worked perfectly for the forum. I must be missing something simple for gmail.]

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
I assume you've fixed it as I just logged in and took a look at your install and it looks like Gossamer Mail is working fine.

Adrian
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Re: [brewt] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Hello Adrian,

not quite got it working. i am working on setting it up so that www.mysite/mail gets you in. It is working up to the login screen but when i try to login i am getting a 404 error. I stuck a htaccess file in the mail folder with directory index user/login.cgi in hopes that it would do the trick. It almost does, but not quite. works fine if i type www.mysite/mail/user/login.cgi

what do you think?

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Hi Bob,

You won't be able to specify a DirectoryIndex that goes to another path. Instead, I'd recommend installing so that www.mysite/mail is the user CGI location (as opposed to /mail/user). The admin location can then be: www.mysite/mail/admin

Then, inside mail's .htaccess file you specify:

DirectoryIndex login.cgi

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
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Re: [Jagerman] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Thanks for the continued support jason.

If i understand you correctly, just move the login.cgi file out of the user folder and up one level to rest in /mail ? Then change htaccess accordingly.

i guess i should give it a try, huh?..

bob
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Re: [bob c3] gforum overwrote gmail admin.cgi In reply to
Yep, that works great. Thanks again jason.

Here is a related question. I notice that the web page control panel software comes with the mail folder installed "above" public_html. I am having some pretty long delivery times and am wondering if it has anything to do with having the gmail folder in the public_html folder. If i moved the gmail folder up from /mysite/public_html/gmail to /mysite/gmail I could experiment with this question. I just need to modify the paths and urls in mail admin, right?

bob