[mv] Server running, reconfig works, but all web access attempts result in "Internal Server Error"

[Tim Murphy <goombah@netcom.ca>]

******    message to minivend-users from Tim Murphy <goombah@netcom.ca>     ******

Arrrghh.
 I'm trying to figure out this seriously confusing problem. I'm setting
up a site on futurequest.net right now, (they run Apache 1.3.9) and the
install of Minivend 3.14-5 goes flawlessly (all the tests are OK).  The
server starts fine, I can do a reconfig from the simple catalog
subdirectory, the error.log file in the main mvend directory has an
entry showing the successful reconfig, all the signs of a working setup.
I have re-installed Minivend 5 times just to be certain the info
required during the configuration is  ABSOLUTELY correct, and also to
take into account any possible screwups on my part in a given install.
I understand the dreaded "Internal Server..." is a mostly useless error,
but unfortunately the cgi logs and mvend logs don't shed any additional
light. And, NO error.log file gets created in the catalogs/simple
subdirectory. I'm wondering if that is a symptom of the problem.
Anyway, here is the cgi log:

%% [Sun Mar 12 22:48:56 2000] GET /cgi-bin/simple HTTP/1.0
%% 500 /big/dom/xthemagicalblend/cgi-bin/simple
%request
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, image/png,
*/*
Accept-Charset: iso-8859-1,*,utf-8
Accept-Encoding: gzip
Accept-Language: en
Connection: Keep-Alive
Host: xthemagicalblend.futurequest.net
Pragma: no-cache
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.72 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.14-15mdk i586)
%response

That's it, no other info.

The mvend error.log contains:

- - - [12/March/2000:23:07:25 -0500] - - MiniVend V3.14-5
- - - [12/March/2000:23:07:25 -0500] - - Config '_mv_admin' at server
startup
- - - [12/March/2000:23:07:25 -0500] - - Config 'simple' at server
startup
- - - [12/March/2000:23:07:26 -0500] - - START server (30011) (INET and
UNIX)
- - - [12/March/2000:23:07:26 -0500] - - Accepting connections from
localhost|127\.0\.0\.1
LOCAL - minivend [12/March/2000:23:09:00 -0500] simple
/cgi-bin/simple/process Reconfig 'simple' rebuild=no
- - - [12/March/2000:23:09:01 -0500] - - Config 'simple' from running
server (30011)
- - - [12/March/2000:23:09:01 -0500] - - Reconfig of simple successful,
build=.

On one of the installations  I received this error message when trying
to get to the catalog:

- - - [11/March/2000:23:04:16 -0500] - - Runtime error: REQUEST_METHOD
is not
  defined at /big/dom/xthemagicalblend/mvend/bin/minivend line 2138.

It hasn't shown up since the later installs. Perhaps it's indicative of
something?

And for some reason there's no catalog-specific error.log.

Trying the vlink program as "simple" or "simple.cgi" makes no
difference. It's so strange! I can see things are working (else why
would the reconfig work) but  trying to access the catalog from a
browser always fails.

I'm sort of a test case for futurequest, I guess. I managed to locate a
previous user who tried to get Minivend going there, and ultimately he
couldn't get it to work. I'd like to be able to figure this thing out,
as futurequest
 really is an excellent webhost (they've tried to help me out as much as
possible but I fear the intricacies of Minivend are unexplored for them
as of yet) and I'd like to stay.

There must be some hitch in the cgi interaction, but I can't see it. Can
anyone suggest any further avenues of investigation? Sadly, my debugging
abilities have reached their limit on this one.

Mike, I know you're a very busy man. With your knowledge of the code, if
you have the chance could you recommend an area (such as anything that
has to do with cgi "issues") that I should dive into? If I could get
this to run on futurequest I think it would be a Good Thing.

Sincere thanks,

Tim


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