Blank Store home page for some customers

We have a customer who is able to get to our site and run our forums (/forum) and gallery (/photopost) but cannot get to our store (/shop). All 3 apps are on the same site/server. I've been pulling my hair out for the past two days trying to figure this out.

Symptoms:

• Other customers can get to the store but since this one customer can't - her daughter who lives locally to her also is experiencing all of this same thing.
• when she goes to the store (/shop), she just gets a a white/blank page in Firefox and a The Page Cannot Be Displayed error when she uses IE. However, at the times she tries to visit the store, we get this PHP error in the logs (/shop/php_error_log).

"[21-Feb-2008 15:27:20] PHP Warning: Unknown: A session is active. You cannot change the session module's ini settings at this time. in Unknown on line" with no previous errors to give us a clue on why this error is showing up

-The store is Zencart 1.3.7 (/shop).

• We have a completely fresh install in /testsite) without any customizations whatsoever and when she visits this application she experiences the exact same symptoms. So that tells me that zencart with our modifications are not causing her problems.
• This is a dedicated server so I have the luxury of getting at server log files all to no avail. I turned on the new error reporting functionality by installing that in the extra_configures/enable_error_logging.php but did not actually get any output corresponding to the same times as the above error and when the customer and I were coordinating attempts.

Specs are:
Zencart 1.3.7
**Server OS: **Linux 2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp
**PHP Version: **5.0.5 (Zend: 2.0.5)
**Database: **MySQL 5.0.45
**HTTP Server: **Apache/1.3.37 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635.SR1.2 mod_ssl/2.8.28 OpenSSL/0.9.7a PHP-CGI/0.4mm

I'm at a loss for what else to try. Host is saying it's specific to these two customers who share the same internet provider.

FAQ on dealing with blank page scenarios:
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82

• esp step 2(a)

Again, I've already done step 2a and provided the error I see in the error logs in the cache directory. No other more descript error shows up right before the error I see the following:

"[21-Feb-2008 15:27:20] PHP Warning: Unknown: A session is active. You cannot change the session module's ini settings at this time. in Unknown on line"

I'm inclined to agree with your host ... it's something unique on the customer's end.

I can't recall anything in Zen Cart that attempts to "change the session module's ini settings" in order to trigger the error you're seeing.

Thanks but I just got an email from yet another person experiencing this same thing. UGH! I thought application_top.php does change php settings for at the user level. Maybe I just don't understand what session module's ini means.

I just realized the last part of the error missing but probably doesn't help anything...it's "in UNKNOWN on line 0".

Could this be a permissions issues? I'm storing sessions in the dataase could it be anything with that?

for the time being, i have changed my configure.php files to store sessions as files instead of in the database just to see if that helps anything.

hollygds:

I just realized the last part of the error missing but probably doesn't help anything...it's "in UNKNOWN on line 0".

The "UNKNOWN on line 0" reference suggests that the problem is not with PHP code but rather with how the webserver and browser are interacting.

Which browser and operating system is your customer using?
What ISP do they use?

The research I've done on the net seem to say that it's being intermittently triggeredd when trying to establish a session. Still haven't found a direct cause but I too believe it's environmental because we were up and running fine on the same code on a previous server. And on top of that, it happens for these customers running the fresh and completely master version of zencart.

Changing the sessions to be stored as files instead of in the db didn't solve the problem.

The customer's info:
IE Version: 7.0.6000.16608
OS: XP
ISP: Comcast
(all of which I have and everything work fine)

Figured it would be good to post info from my Version page in zencart.

Server OS: Linux 2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp
Database: MySQL 5.0.45-community-log
PHP Version: 5.0.5 (Zend: 2.0.5)
HTTP Server: Apache/1.3.37 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635.SR1.2 mod_ssl/2.8.28 OpenSSL/0.9.7a PHP-CGI/0.4mm

Configure Command './configure' '--prefix=/usr/local/php5' '--with-pear=/usr/local/php5/pear' '--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/php5/lib' '--with-config-file-scan-dir=/usr/local/php5/etc' '--disable-ipv6' '--enable-bcmath=shared' '--enable-calendar=shared' '--enable-exif=shared' '--enable-ftp=shared' '--enable-mbstring' '--enable-mbstr-enc-trans' '--enable-mbregex' '--enable-memory-limit' '--enable-magic-quotes' '--enable-xslt=shared' '--enable-ucd-snmp-hack' '--enable-discard-path' '--enable-sockets=shared' '--enable-track-vars' '--enable-gd-native-ttf' '--enable-versioning' '--enable-wddx=shared' '--enable-pcntl=shared' '--enable-soap=shared' '--with-bz2=shared' '--with-xml=shared' '--with-xsl=shared' '--with-dom=shared' '--with-dom-xslt=shared' '--with-dom-exslt=shared' '--with-xslt-sablot=shared' '--with-xslt-sablot=shared' '--with-curl' '--with-curlwrappers' '--with-swf=shared,/usr/local/flash' '--with-gd=shared' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local' '--with-png-dir=/usr' '--with-xpm-dir=/usr/X11R6' '--with-gettext=shared' '--with-imap=shared,/usr/local/imap-2004g' '--with-mcrypt=shared' '--with-mhash=shared' '--with-mysqli' '--with-mysql=/usr' '--with-pgsql=/usr' '--with-pspell=shared' '--with-xmlrpc=shared' '--with-snmp=shared' '--with-openssl=shared' '--with-pdflib=shared' '--with-ttf=shared' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-zip=shared' '--with-zlib'
Server API CGI
Virtual Directory Support disabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path /usr/local/php5/lib/php.ini
Scan this dir for additional .ini files /usr/local/php5/etc
additional .ini files parsed /usr/local/php5/etc/extensions.ini, /usr/local/php5/etc/limits.ini, /usr/local/php5/etc/mysql.ini, /usr/local/php5/etc/pgsql.ini
PHP API 20031224
PHP Extension 20041030
Zend Extension 220040412
Debug Build no
Thread Safety disabled
Zend Memory Manager enabled
IPv6 Support disabled
Registered PHP Streams php, file, ftp, gopher, telnet, dict, ldap, http, https, ftps, compress.zlib, compress.bzip2
Registered Stream Socket Transports tcp, udp, unix, udg, ssl, sslv3, sslv2, tls

This program makes use of the Zend Scripting Language Engine:
Zend Engine v2.0.5, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies
with the ionCube PHP Loader v3.1.22, Copyright (c) 2002-2006, by ionCube Ltd., and
with Zend Extension Manager v1.2.0, Copyright (c) 2003-2007, by Zend Technologies
with Zend Optimizer v3.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2007, by Zend Technologies

---

PHP Credits

---

Configuration
PHP Core
Directive Local Value Master Value
allow_call_time_pass_reference On On
allow_url_fopen On On
always_populate_raw_post_data Off Off
arg_separator.input & &
arg_separator.output & &
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error_log php_error_log php_error_log
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error_reporting 2039 2047
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extension_dir /usr/local/php5/lib/php/extensions /usr/local/php5/lib/php/extensions
file_uploads On On
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bump....this is still happening! I've tried installing a clean copy of 1.3.8a and the customer has intermittently been able to get into that test area intermittently just like our real store intermittently. We now have 3 customers who are experiencing this intermittently.

I'm just at a loss...i've look at zencart's cache error logs, php errors logs, mysql error logs, apache error logs all to no avail.

Ok, I did a clean install of 1.3.8a on the server...no custom templates or files. I did this to try and eliminate any custom code. In application_top.php I change the setting to this:

define('DEBUG_AUTOLOAD', true);

And now the customer received this instead of a white page. Does it help identify the source of the problem?

actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/class.base.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/class.notifier.php');
actionPoint=>0 $zco_notifier = new notifier();
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/class.phpmailer.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/class.smtp.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/boxes.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/category_tree.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/template_func.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/split_page_results.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/language.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/cache.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/sniffer.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/class.phpbb.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/shopping_cart.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/navigation_history.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/currencies.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/message_stack.php');
actionPoint=>0 include('/home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/classes/breadcrumb.php');
actionPoint=>10 include('includes/init_includes/init_file_db_names.php');
actionPoint=>10 include('includes/init_includes/init_database.php');
actionPoint=>20 include('includes/version.php');
actionPoint=>30 $zc_cache = new cache();
actionPoint=>40 include('includes/init_includes/init_db_config_read.php');
actionPoint=>50 $sniffer = new sniffer();
actionPoint=>50 include('includes/init_includes/init_gzip.php');
actionPoint=>50 include('includes/init_includes/init_sefu.php');
actionPoint=>50 $phpBB = new phpBB();
actionPoint=>60 include('includes/init_includes/init_general_funcs.php');
actionPoint=>60 include('includes/init_includes/init_tlds.php');

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by (output started at /home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/autoload_func.php:95) in /home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/functions/sessions.php on line 108

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/autoload_func.php:95) in /home/godigit1/public_html/testshop/includes/functions/sessions.php on line 108

hollygds:

And now the customer received this instead of a white page. Does it help identify the source of the problem?It simply confirms that things load fine until at least breakpoint 50, after which the PHP session cannot start due to the debug info displayed on-screen.
So, no, it doesn't really give you much other than confirmation that the problems are not happening before that particular point.

The next file it's to load is init_session.php and this vague error seems to point to a sessions problem based on google finds so the fact that the debug hasn't reported a successfull run of init_sessions.php kind of confirms for me that this is a sessions problem? Would you agree?

hollygds:

The next file it's to load is init_session.php and this vague error seems to point to a sessions problem based on google finds so the fact that the debug hasn't reported a successfull run of init_sessions.php kind of confirms for me that this is a sessions problem? Would you agree?

Yes, as I said before, it appears to be a problem with how your webserver and the specific customers' browser are interacting ... and that is most likely to manifest in a sessions problem ... as indicated by the "PHP Warning: Unknown: A session is active. You cannot change the session module's ini settings at this time." message you first reported.

Just an update...my site upgraded our version of php to 5.2.5 and also recompiled to be apache mode instead of cgi. We were apache before we had a similar problem like this back a few months ago and they then recompiled in cgi mode. So those negate to me and maybe it's just simply functioning more efficiently with 5.2.5.