HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Helmut Seidel M.A. -
Number of replies: 9

Hello everybody,

during my holidays I upgraded Moodle to 2.5 and installed HotPot-Module. A colegue of mine informed me that after uploading a HotPot-Activity the following error-message appears on trying to start the activity:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [no address given] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log. 

Can anybody help?
Thanks, Helmut

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In reply to Helmut Seidel M.A.

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi,
my first suggestion would be to upgrade your HotPot module to the latest version.

Then, please enable Moodle debugging:

  • Administration -> Site administration -> Development -> Debugging
  • set "Debug message" to "Developer"
  • enable "Display debug messages"

... and let us know if that gives a more meaningful message.

thanks
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by robert mcwilliam -

Hi Gordon

I also have this error. I have updated the hotpot plug in and changed the debugging in system administratior. I have tried the JCross and the Jcloze exercise. My webhost is siteground.

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In reply to robert mcwilliam

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Robert,
firstly, I should say that the HotPot was updated several times at the end of last week, so please be sure that you are using the very latest version: 2014.01.17 (95). I am hopeful that just upgrading to the latest version will fix the problem you are having. If not, read on ...

Unfortunately "Internal Server Error" doesn't tell us very much. We need to find out what the error was.

Probably the error message appears in full in the log files. If you do not know where to find the log files, please consult with Siteground help desk, and ask them to show you where the Apache and PHP log files are on your server.

In the log files, you should find a more specific description of which line in which PHP script caused what kind of error. That is the information that we need.

If you would like to try you quizzes on my server, you are welcome to do so.

regards
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by robert mcwilliam -

Hi Gordon

Thanks for your help. I have it working. I just had to change some permissions on the server

 

Robert

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In reply to robert mcwilliam

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Tom Page -

Robert 

I seem to have the same problem, and I'm also using moodle 2.5. Just out of interest can you remember what permissions you changed? (I know this was a while ago)

Thanks

 

Tom

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In reply to Tom Page

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Julie Simpson -

Hi Tom,

I am sure that you have resolved this by now, but thought I would post to help out someone else who may read this. 

I have had the same issue after upgrading Moodle to version 2.8.5.

It would appear that the mod/hotpot directory needs to have permissions 755 ( I also recursed the directories below it) instead of 777 and now I have this working again. It also affected other plugins installed such as realtime quiz, journal, scheduler and mindmap.

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In reply to Julie Simpson

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Elek Mathe -

Hi Julie,

Thanks a lot for this follow-up - it saved me! smile

My story is the same as yours:

- upgrade to 2.8.5

- HotPot exercises don't work, return an Internal Server Error message and nothing else

- turning on debugging gives no clue

- error log shows nothing

- changing the mod/hotpot directory to 755 from 777 recursively solves everything

I just wonder where things went wrong - and will I have to do the same next time I upgrade? Now that I know what to do it shouldn't be too difficult but still it's not the expected behaviour, is it?

Thanks again, Julie.

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In reply to Elek Mathe

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Julie Simpson -

So glad it helped you! I assume it will need to be done again with an upgrade but haven't tried it yet.

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In reply to Julie Simpson

Re: HotPot Moodle 2.5: Internal Server Error

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Once you have changed the permissions to 777, I doubt you will need to them again for the next upgrade if you upgrade via the Moodle user inteface.

If you upgrade some other way, like downloading a zip file and unzipping it on your server, then you may need to change the permissions. 

Julie, Elek: now you know that 777 is the required permissions for 3rd-party plugins to run on your Moodle site on your server, then it would be wise check the permissions after the next time you upgrade, to discover whether or not you need to set permissions every time.

Note that not all servers need these permission settings. In fact, in my experience most servers do not. It all depends how your server is set up, and how you upgrade plugins.

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