By tekcert on

I've been with Godaddy shared hosting for about a year without issue. However, a couple days ago (around 10/25/2012), I started getting 500 errors. When I started to dig, I found the following log entries:

[Thu Oct 25 15:42:39 2012] [alert] [client 155.y.135.40] /var/chroot/home/content/83/8460003/html/.htaccess: Option SymLinksIfOwnerMatch not allowed here

Attempting to work with their [lack of] Support has rendered nothing but canned responses and frustration.

So, I've tried disabling this option in my htaccess file as well as rolling back to the previous setting of "Options +FollowSymLinks", none of which solves the problem. The 500 error goes away when I comment out SymLinksIfOwnerMatch, however my theme doesn't load properly without it and I end up with a lack of CSS.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to disable this htaccess option, yet still allow drupal to work, I would be very appreciative of your help.

Thanks!
Adam

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

jthibo7777’s picture

jthibo7777 commented

I have the same problem... trying everything, let me know if you come up with something.

tomws’s picture

tomws commented

Same problem. Bumpage.

jthibo7777’s picture

jthibo7777 commented

There is a .htaccess file in the ?files directory that needs to be modified.

Change
SetHandler Drupal_Security_Do_Not_Remove_See_SA_2006_006
Options None
# For security reasons, Option followsymlinks cannot be overridden.
#Options +FollowSymLinks
Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

To
SetHandler Drupal_Security_Do_Not_Remove_See_SA_2006_006
Options None
# For security reasons, Option followsymlinks cannot be overridden.
Options +FollowSymLinks
#Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

tekcert’s picture

tekcert commented

Unfortunately this didn't work for my site, I tried it the other day when I saw the error message about SymLinksIfOwnerMatch not being supported. When I enable FollowSymLinks the CSS doesn't get loaded properly for my theme and everything looks jumbled. I've tried disabling page caching in the performance settings and clearing all cached data, but that didn't help either. It would seem without the SymLinksIfOwnerMatch option enabled, my site won't work.

At this point I'm looking into alternative hosting options. And FYI for all you spammer hosting provider forum trolls, I've disabled the contact option on my drupal account, so you can keep your spam to yourself.

Thanks to all the normal helpful drupal forum people for the suggestions and help.

tekcert’s picture

tekcert commented

I should have read your solution more closely. I was working on the .htaccess file in the root html directory, not the one in /sites/default/files/

You are correct, changing the the .htaccess in /sites/default/files/ to the following corrects the problem:

SetHandler Drupal_Security_Do_Not_Remove_See_SA_2006_006
Options None
# For security reasons, Option followsymlinks cannot be overridden.
Options +FollowSymLinks
#Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

This still doesn't make sense why Godaddy would remove the SymLinksIfOwnerMatch option without prior notice to their customers then leave their tier 1 support guys in the dark about the change with nothing but canned responses for their customers. Pretty frustrating experience, but I'm relieved it's over.

GDHosting’s picture

GDHosting commented

To anyone who's experienced this, please know that our admins have investigated and will be making a change to resolve the issue shortly. If you continue to experience this later in the week, please say so here in the thread.

Thank you.

Mike_GoDaddy’s picture

Mike_GoDaddy commented

As GDHosting advised, we did investigate this issue and it should be resolved now. If you are still having issues with SymLinksIfOwnerMatch please send either GDHosting or myself and message and we will look into it for you.

Mike
Go Daddy® Hosting Ambassador

tekcert’s picture

tekcert commented

Mike,

Thank you for the update. I've re-enabled "Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch" on my site in both .htaccess files and everything appears to be running still, no 500 errors.

If you don't mind answering, I have a few questions that others in the community may be thinking as well:

1) Why and How did this happen?
2) Is this feature going to be remain available or will it be removed again?
3) If it is removed again, will the GoDaddy hosting team notify their customers ahead of time or just pull the plug without prior notification again?
4) Is GoDaddy offering their customers any compensation for downtime (in my case, 52 hours)?

Thanks