[Forum] .htaccess and custom 404

[downloadsUK]

Using the VB supplied .htaccess files seems to be all working fine and dandy.... except...

when I test my 404 response I get a 500 Internal Server error. I've tried searching for solutions to this issue on this site, google and vbulletin.org and no cigar.

I created my own custom VB page here http:/www.download.co.uk/forums/404nf.php

but if you put something like http://www.download.co.uk/thisisclearlygoingto404

it just fails with an error, and not even a 404, but a 500 Internal error?

Before anyone says anything, I've also tried putting ErrorDocument 404 /forums/404nf.php into my .htaccess file and it still spazzes out.

VB guys care to point out "you're doing it wrong"?

[Zachery]

We'd need to know the cause of the internal server error before we can trouble shoot it.

[downloadsUK]

You can see the error for yourself...

This is the original unmodified vbulletin .htaccess file I am using:

RewriteEngine on
# This file is only needed if you have set the CMS URL in your admincp and you are 
# using the mod_rewrite option for friendly urls.  If this is the case, copy this file
# to your cms stub directory.

# If you are having problems or are using Vi
# RewriteBase /cms-stub-directory/

# If you are having problems with the rewrite from content/ to content.php, uncomment this line to turn MultiViews off.
# Options -MultiViews

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]rtualDocumentRoot, uncomment this line and set it to your vBulletin directory.

# MVC
RewriteRule ^(?:(.*?)(?:/|$))(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA]

If I delete the line

# MVC
RewriteRule ^(?:(.*?)(?:/|$))(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA]

then inserting the error document line works. So it's clearly the .htaccess that is not compatible with the standard ErrorDocument directive.

The error I get is: see attached file

[Zachery]

We need the REAL error message that is causing the internal server error, contact your webhost for more help with this.

[downloadsUK]

I'm trying to get at the error logs - they are not readily available under cpanel - or this error 500 is not being recorded. However, it's indicative from the post above and the attachment that it cannot use the ErrorDocument directive properly - because it's not compatible with the current .htaccess. What say you?

[Zachery]

Youneed to contact your webhost to get the real errror message, those interal server errors are only logged to apache itself, not specific sites.

[downloadsUK]

This is a horrible hash, but I've managed to fix it a little myself:

#RewriteRule ^(?:(.*?)(?:/|$))(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^(content)/(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA]

like I said, if you just examine the vbullletin rewrite rule you can see that's the one that allows the /content/1-my-article friendly URLS to work

re-jigging it so it doesn't capture EVERY url and then try to rewrite which it can't and then spazzing out and 500 error I can force it to capture the right link from within the CMS,

I have contacted my webhost and I am waiting on a reply. Hope this helps you help others in the future.

I'll be back. With my error logs. Heh.

[downloadsUK]

So I'm back here with some error loggage. Please take a look at this from my hosting:

[Thu Apr 07 11:12:52 2011] [error] [client 178.32.59.13] mod_rewrite: maximum number of internal redirects reached. Assuming configuration error. Use 'RewriteOptions MaxRedirects' to increase the limit if neccessary.
[Thu Apr 07 11:12:52 2011] [error] [client 178.32.59.13] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

Thoughts?

[Steve Machol]

You need to follow the advice given:

Use 'RewriteOptions MaxRedirects' to increase the limit if neccessary.

[downloadsUK]

So it would just error after 20 redirects rather than 10? That doesn't exactly address the problem....