[Mailman-Users] SOLUTION! - problem with admin cgi

Mon Apr 14 23:13:46 CEST 2003

Hi,

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! JONC is my Mailman Saviour!

That was a big pain to solve for such a little thing.  Do you happen to
know which version of python I would need to use in order to support
USE_CRYPT=1.

So, for all of you who are wondering, here is a summary of the problem
and the solution.

Problem - Mailman appears to work perfectly.  The web site works, the
email functions work, but the Administrative section for any mail-list
is inaccesible, in spite of a reset mmsitepass admin password and a
browser that is accepting cookies.

Solution - It appears that all cgi scripts are correct, as the non-admin
section is working, because the admin section uses crypt for the
passwords you must have a version of python installed which supports the
type of crypt used by mailman.  To fix the problem either change the
value of USE_CRYPT (to 0 in the file mm_cfg.py ... don't change
Defaults.py) or you can (i guess, i didn't go this route) upgrade python
to the version that supports the crypt that is needed by mailman.

Ben.

On Fri, 2003-04-11 at 16:49, Jon Carnes wrote:
> This sounds like the old authentication bug from version 2.0
> 
> There was a setting in 2.0 where you could pick the authentication
> method used by Mailman, and in some circumstances you had to change it
> to a method that was available on your system (or upgrade your python).
> 
>    # Set to true to use the crypt module for passwords
>    # instead of md5.  Crypt may
>    # not work on all Python installations.  Don't
>    # change this value once you have
>    # lists running...  In fact, you should just let
>    # configure set this one and leave it alone.
>    USE_CRYPT = 1
> 
> 
> The user (or member) passwords are stored in plain text, so there is no
> problem with encryption on those.  the admin passwords are stored
> encrypted, and if the encryption technique used is not available then
> you will never be able to use one of the admin passwords.
> 
> Hope this is helpful - Jon Carnes
> 
> On Fri, 2003-04-11 at 12:00, ben strawbridge wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I have posted this in the past, but not recieved a reply.
> > 
> Can't say that anymore.
> 
> > I can access all the user pages fine, to edit a user and login to change
> > user prefs, so I am assuming that CGI is working correctly -- Is this a
> > good assumption?
> > 
> > When I go to log in to the Administrative page, I get an error
> > "Authorization Failed" from mailman.
> > 
> > I am positive this has nothing to do with cookie settings on my browser,
> > I have checked it from multiple browsers, running on every platform
> > available -- and I checked to be sure the browsers was correctly saving
> > cookies, and it is b/c other sites are using them just fine.
> > 
> > As a test, one which i don't know if it means the right thing, I ran
> > cgi-bin/admin program from the command line. -- the error message is at
> > the bottom of this messgae -- I just ran it as my own user through the
> > ssh shell, so it is probably not the right user anyway... however it may
> > be something.
> > 
> > This was installed from rpm, and i did a find on my system and there is
> > no source installed on the system, so i'm not sure where to begin if i
> > need to reconfigure, ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!
> > 
> > <head>
> > <title>Mailman CGI error!!!</title>
> > </head><body>
> > <h1>Mailman CGI error!!!</h1>
> > The expected gid of the Mailman CGI wrapper did not match the gid as set
> > by the Web server.<p>The most likely cause is that Mailman was
> > configured and installed incorrectly.  Please read the INSTALL
> > instructions again, paying close attention to the
> > <tt>--with-cgi-gid</tt> configure option.  This entry is being stored in
> > your syslog:
> > <pre>
> > Failure to exec script. WANTED gid 48, GOT gid 501.  (Reconfigure to
> > take 501?)</pre>
> > 
> This is a red herring.  You should first "su apache" or whatever user is
> running your Webserver and then run the cgi from the command line.  That
> gives you a much clearer idea of what is going on.
Ben Strawbridge - Senior Interface Engineer
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