I keep getting this error in my Viart installation.
 
Fatal error: session_start(): Failed to initialize storage module: user (path: /tmp) in /hsphere/local/home/pelletbo/t-shirt-sales.com/includes/common.php on line 15
 
I changed the Temporary folder to /hsphere/local/home/pelletbo/t-shirt-sales.com/cache/ in the Global Settings, made a root folder called cache set permissions to 0777 and I still get this error.
 
Why is the program still looking for the temporary folder at /tmp/ when I have changed the setting to /hsphere/local/home/pelletbo/t-shirt-sales.com/cache/ in the global settings?
 
I get the error in both the front end as a customer and back end as admin, it only happens erratically about every 10 to 25 page changes or back end operations. Some times the error will clear if you refresh the page and sometimes it will not clear by refreshing the page. I get the error in Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 2 and Firefox 3.0b3
 
My system is:
Linux 2.6.14.4 #2 i686
PHP Version 4.3.11
MySQL - 4.1.20-max-log
Protocol version: 10
MySQL charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)
 
 
.htaccess file
 
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /shop2/friendly_url.php [L]
</IfModule>
 
php_flag register_globals off
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
 
php_flag safe_mode on
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
This error happened even without the .htaccess file being installed.
 
website url
http://www.t-shirt-sales.com/
php info url
http://www.t-shirt-sales.com/phpinfo.php

Hi Bob
 
I recommend that you place a support ticket. Just ran a test on your site got the same error you mention afterwards tried again products were gone - no products displayed. What version of ViArt is it?
 
 
Tony
HolleyLand.com

Hi Bob
 
You might check this article very similar to the problem you're having, just a hunch has to do with the following:
 
The problem you have faced has to do with the uploading Zend Encoded files in the 'includes' folder. Please, make sure that you have uploaded files within the 'includes' folder to your web server using BINARY mode in your FTP program. More details can be found here http://www.viart.com/faq_all
 
 
Afterwards you might include ViArt Opensearch to your browser, it help locate similar problems quickly from browser search.
 
Link: http://www.holleyland.com
 
Tony
HolleyLand

Thanks for the reply Tony.
I have reloaded the files you are talking about several times in binary format but I will try it one more time. Just to make sure, which files are the binary files? I have just been uploading all the files in the includes folder in binary.
If you go back to my web site you will find that it works again the products did not really disappear, they just disappeared for your session.
My version of Viart is the current version 3.4.2, I just upgraded yesterday from 3.3.1. with the just the files that changed download but had to upload more files for it to upgrade to 3.4.2 mine only upgraded to version 3.4.1 with the
just the files that changed download. I have had the problem from the fist time I installed the program with version 3.3.1.

As far as I know this problem related to your PHP settings and you need to change session.save_path variable to correct folder name where session files can be stored.

Thanks Monk for the reply.
I left a link to my PHP info file above if you check my php info the path is /tmp The administration global set up only allows /tmp/ I tried to remove the last slash but when I saved the setting the program added the slash behind tmp again the program will not let me save /tmp only /tmp/. As you can see above I even made a new folder and set the new path in global settings and it does not work either.

It seems that temporary folder in the global settings of the shop used for different purposes and not for session path.
It looks very strange as I have visited your site and didn't find any errors and it works for me great.
Also please note that sometimes it can happen when your session folder doesn't have enough free space or have other problems with writing files in it.

I have found out from my web hosting company that my php tmp file folder was almost full and was causing the error, but you can't clear the file yourself your web hosting company techs have to do it for you.
 
To cure this problem yourself you can specify another location in your home directory to store your php sessions instead of the standard built in php /tmp folder.
 
To set up another session storage folder in your root directory make a folder in your root directory and set the directory permissions to 777, then in you .htaccess file insert:
 
php_flag session.save_handler files
php_flag session.save_path /your/root/path/toyour/rootfolder/foldername
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
 
Then in the global administration of Viart set the same path with a / behind the folder name in the Temporary Folder text input box.
/your/root/path/toyour/rootfolder/foldername/
 
That should cure the error for you for good.

I have also found out a simpler way to cure the problem and have a new session save folder.
 
In the includes folder open common.php and add:
 
session_save_path("/your/local/path/toyour/rootfolder/foldername");
 
before:
 
session_start();
 
also set the path in your global administration like this:
 
/your/local/path/toyour/rootfolder/foldername/

Another fix for this problem is to change common.php and add
 
ini_set("session.save_handler", "files");
 
to common.php on the line above
 
session_start();
 
This problem could also be solved if the program saved the sessions in the data base like some other php programs.