# Installing Radiant on shared host

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924>\
**Category:** Radiant CMS\
**Created:** [September 16, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924 "2006-09-16T22:46:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/1 "2006-09-16T22:46:32Z")

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Hi,  
I have follwed the steps from the Radiant setup on [HostingRails.com](http://HostingRails.com)

[http://www.hostingrails.com/forums/wiki\_thread/18](http://www.hostingrails.com/forums/wiki_thread/18)

I have created the database  
edited database.yml  
edited environment.rb  
changed rights for dispactch.fcgi to 755  
.htaccess uses .fcgi  
and changed the symlinks.

I ran the command:  
[~]# ruby script/setup\_database production  
and everything runs smoothly.No errors thrown and it says its created a  
admin user with password as radiant.

Now when i try to access radiant, i get no error.My browser window is  
blank.  
I tried playing around with .htaccess by changing the dispatch.fcgi  
entry to make sure it was using it.Now the problem could be somwhere  
with the dispatch.fcgi  
maybe i have got the #!/usr/bin/env ruby wrong …  
any idea how i could verify?

Also, how do i restart the server? (it says i need to restart the server  
when i change environment.rb or database.yml)

Any clue where i could be missing the point…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/2 "2006-09-16T22:48:14Z")

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the problem i have above is that my browser window has a blank display  
with no errors thrown.

where can i check the logs?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/3 "2006-09-16T23:21:04Z")

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Gautam wrote:

> the problem i have above is that my browser window has a blank display  
> with no errors thrown.
> 
> where can i check the logs?

Logs are in the standard logs directory in the root of your Radiant  
install.

You might also check the apache logs. Your hosting provider would be  
able to tell you how you can access those.

–  
John L.  
[http://wiseheartdesign.com](http://wiseheartdesign.com)

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 7:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/4 "2006-09-17T07:15:02Z")

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I have checked the radiant logs.nothing in there.

Does it seem i might have missed something, as i am not getting any  
errors.  
When i fire up the link to my /radiant/public, it does take some time to  
process but the browser window is blank.

Thanks,  
Gautam

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 8:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/5 "2006-09-17T08:43:31Z")

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what does your database.yml look like?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 8:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/6 "2006-09-17T08:55:11Z")

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> what does your database.yml look like?  
> database.yml =\>  
> production:  
> adapter: mysql  
> database: gautam\_radgeekprod  
> username: gautam\_geek  
> password: abcde  
> socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

$script/setup\_database production  
runs fine and i get no errors for that.so i do not suspect a database  
problem.

environment.rb =\> ENV[‘RAILS\_ENV’] ||= ‘production’  
.htaccess =\> points to dispatch.fcgi  
dispatch.fcgi =\> #!/usr/bin/env ruby

These are the key areas(as i have went thru prev posts).Error could be  
due to one of these.

1.How to i know that the app has started? How can i stop and restart it?  
2.When i submit the link to my radiant/public folder, it does seem to  
process my request.But nothing is displayed on the browser ☹

Have been going thru all files and ruby code.  
Its a great learning experence 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/7 "2006-09-17T07:19:08Z")

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On IE, its giving a “page cannot be displayed error”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 9:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/8 "2006-09-17T09:05:31Z")

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ok which option did you select in the setup database? if it is option 1  
(someone correct me if Im wrong) but there will be no page data to show  
so  
it could potentially be doing what youre experiencing.

is the error happening when you go to [yourwebsite.com](http://yourwebsite.com) or  
[Fastest Web Hosting Services | Buy High Quality Hosting](http://yourwebsite.com/admin)?

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/9 "2006-09-17T09:26:40Z")

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lemme complete the scenario a little more:  
my website:www.gautam.com  
addon domain:geek.gautam.com redirected to /public\_html/geek/public  
radiant is installed at /public\_html/geek/  
I have edited:  
database.yml (for production)  
environment.rb (for production)  
dispatch.fcgi (made no change here)  
.htaccess (made no change here)

when i keep an index.html in /public\_html/geek/public.It works fine.  
when i remove that, i get just a blank page(Firefox) or page cannot be  
displayed(IE).

Thanks,  
Gautam

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 9:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/10 "2006-09-17T09:19:27Z")

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Josh Stockwell wrote:

> ok which option did you select in the setup database? if it is option 1  
> (someone correct me if Im wrong) but there will be no page data to show  
> so  
> it could potentially be doing what youre experiencing.  
> I chose option 3, the Full Weblog.

> is the error happening when you go to [yourwebsite.com](http://yourwebsite.com) or  
> [Fastest Web Hosting Services | Buy High Quality Hosting](http://yourwebsite.com/admin)?  
> The error is one i go to both [www.mywebsite.com](http://www.mywebsite.com) and  
> [mywebsite.com is available for purchase - Sedo.com](http://www.mywebsite.com/admin)  
> I had installed Typo following such steps before, so i cant seem to  
> figure out why this aint workin.

Thanks for the help.  
I am also available on the #radiant channel on [irc.freenode.net](http://irc.freenode.net)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/11 "2006-09-17T11:39:51Z")

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to start with…#radiantcms rocks!  
its pretty active, and i got tons of help!

the problem was that in database.yml, i had removed entries for  
development and test and kept only production.

I added entries for all 3: development,test and production and filled  
them with the same entry as above.  
This followed by:

# ruby script/setup\_database production

# ruby script/server

This succesfully started my webbrick server on 3000.

So now my site is up and running.

Thanks,  
Gautam

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/12 "2006-09-17T18:00:04Z")

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Congratulations, Gautam. What you ran into are typical problems when  
setting up any Rails application. Unfortunately, without a little  
experience and knowing the tricks, it can seem impossible. Nowadays, I  
don’t even bat an eye when deploying one, but I’ve deployed many of  
them, so I know all the pitfalls. Best of luck to you on your website!

Sean C.  
[seancribbs.com](http://seancribbs.com)

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 9:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/13 "2006-09-17T09:48:46Z")

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Thanks to some help on #radiantcms  
i fired

# ruby script/server OR # ruby script/server production and i got this

error log:

gautamsa@server [~/public\_html/gforgeek]# ruby script/server  
=\> Booting WEBrick…  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.14.4/lib/active\_record/connection\_adapters/abstract/connection\_specification.rb:194:in  
`establish_connection': development database is not configured (ActiveRecord::AdapterNotSpecified) from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.14.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:185:in`establish\_connection’  
from  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.6/lib/initializer.rb:182:in  
`initialize_database' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.6/lib/initializer.rb:84:in`process’  
from  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.6/lib/initializer.rb:42:in  
`run' from ./script/../config/../config/environment.rb:15 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:21:in`require’  
from  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:147:in  
`require' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.6/lib/commands/servers/webrick.rb:52 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:21:in`require’  
from  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:147:in  
`require' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.6/lib/commands/server.rb:30 from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:21:in`require’  
from  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:147:in  
`require’  
from script/server:3

The error seems to be as the development database is not configured.But  
in environment.rb i has uncommented the line:  
ENV[‘RAILS\_ENV’] ||= ‘production’

Also, my databsae.yml has no entry for development, as i am setting this  
up in poduction mode.

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/14 "2006-09-17T20:36:16Z")

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If you have shell access to your server, you can just ssh into it and  
move  
away the public\_html (or www) directory and link radiant/public to  
public\_html (or www).

2006/9/17, Gautam [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/15 "2006-09-17T20:32:19Z")

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Thanks 🙂  
There were many time when my friends were askin me to quit trying this  
and go for a simpler PHP CMS setup, but i knew that you have to get it  
done once and then it starts becomin easier (hopefully)

But the battle is far from over.  
Though Radiant is workin fine on Webrick(port 3000) but i want it to be  
working on the default webserver of my host(apache 1.3)

The CMS is running on Webrick means that all settings are fine, except  
those of server.  
I just need to figure it out how to get it working at the default  
webserver.

Any tips?

Thanks,  
Gautam

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/16 "2006-09-17T21:12:19Z")

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Here are the following steps I did …

My host had given me a mongrel port of 4021 … so went info config/  
lighttpd.conf and changed 3000 -\> 4021

Switched the symlink (like noted below) … and that was pretty much  
it …

Im running off RailsPlayground w/ 1 mongrel instance. Everything  
looks fine, just looking how/if to port Typo entries to Radiant and  
if Im suppose to be able to modify CSS directly from the admin tool …

- Jon

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/17 "2006-09-17T22:14:24Z")

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I usually have the same problem when trying to run my apps on apache  
fcgi  
the first time. I don’t understand why it happens, but you have to  
reload  
often the page in the first 5 minutes or so, and then it works.

There has to be a reason for this but I don’t know it and I’m happy it  
works  
🙂

2006/9/17, Gautam [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/18 "2006-09-17T22:05:37Z")

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@ Giovanni I.:  
Yes i tried that.But doesnt work.All i get is a blank window on my  
browser.It seems to be processing something and then displays nothing.  
Where as when i run webrick it runs fine.so problem seems to be with  
setting up the apache-fastcgi.But i cud b wrong…

Jon B. wrote:

> Here are the following steps I did …
> 
> My host had given me a mongrel port of 4021 … so went info config/  
> lighttpd.conf and changed 3000 -\> 4021
> 
> Switched the symlink (like noted below) … and that was pretty much  
> it …
> 
> Im running off RailsPlayground w/ 1 mongrel instance. Everything  
> looks fine, just looking how/if to port Typo entries to Radiant and  
> if Im suppose to be able to modify CSS directly from the admin tool …
> 
> - Jon

My host has given me apache-fastcgi.And as radiant seems to be workin  
well on webrick, i wonder why it is not with apache.

Thanks,  
Gautam

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/19 "2006-09-18T17:54:26Z")

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On 9/17/06, Gautam [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> There were many time when my friends were askin me to quit trying this  
> and go for a simpler PHP CMS setup, but i knew that you have to get it  
> done once and then it starts becomin easier (hopefully)

OMG, you have friends who care about what CMS you use? Lucky guy!

Erik M.

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**Author:** ![gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@gautam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gautam)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-radiant-on-shared-host/68924/20 "2006-09-18T18:34:33Z")

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I sense an oxymoron in “simpler PHP CMS”. Most PHP CMS systems I’ve  
used or  
evalutated were a bloody mess. Radiant has been extremely refreshing,  
and  
fun, thanks to John’s beautiful code and the power of Ruby.

Sean C.  
[seancribbs.com](http://seancribbs.com)