MAMP Forum

Hi,

I have been using MAMP (not PRO) for years. For no apparent reason, as of today, I get this message when I hit the Open start page button:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /MAMP/ on this server.
Apache/2.0.59 (Unix) PHP/5.2.6 DAV/2 Server at localhost Port 8888

I have even gone so far as to trash the existing version and installed MAMP anew, but all to no avail.

I use MAMP 1.7.2 on a Mac Pro with OS 10.5.6. MAMP is, of course, in the Applications folder. I've run repair permissions using Disk Utility.

The strange thing is: the server itself is working properly in the sense that in Firefox and Safari I can access my files in the htdocs folder throught http://localhost:8888/ and PHP is being processed correctly. It's just that I cannot open the MAMP start page so I cannot access phpMyAdmin and the like.

Thanx in advance.

I have lost my patience since I found people who posted the same problem months ago in this very forum and it wasn't solved.

Sometimes a change is needed and, although reluctantly, I switched to XAMPP. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, so far, so bad: XAMPP gives a configuration error when I try to install Drupal. MAMP has no problem with Drupal.

But I still have a problem with MAMP. The apache_error_log says:

[Fri Jan 16 00:21:08 2009] [error] [client ::1] Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off which implies that RewriteRule directive is forbidden: /Applications/MAMP/bin/mamp/

I guess the MAMP developers read this forum, although this guy's fate doesn't leave much room for hope: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6577&p=12439&hilit=access+permission#.

Doesn't anyone know how to solve this problem? I tried a lot, even ran DiskWarrior, just in case, because the problem might have started one day ago when I shut down my Mac without stopping MAMP first. Maybe something got misconfigured.

Anyway, I don't want to resort to a complete system reinstallation, so if anyone knows how to solve this I'd appreciate it.

Thank me for solving my own problem. This post has been a nice monologue. What the hack... I like my company.

I'm afraid this solution is not going to help many other people, but all the same, here it is. I booted my Mac from the Leopard installation disk and chose Utilities => Restore From System Backup from the installation disk's menu bar. This means the system volume would be restored drawing from my Time Machine backup. I chose a date three days earlier than today, so in fact everything is working now as it was three days ago, before MAMP went awry.

This is not an ideal solution. I must say that the support from the MAMP developers team and the MAMP community has been pretty disappointing. The forthcoming days I'll be studying on alternatives. If I can get an alternative going I'll report it in this post. Remember, I need MAMP for Drupal development. If you see nothing new in this post after this message, it means I cannot get Drupal going in another ?AMP, for example, XAMPP.

Once again, thank me for my inventiveness and stubborness.

I can't believe this myself, but I think I found a solution.

For anyone who can't open the start page but can open sites in the htdocs directory, this is what I did:

1. Power MAMP down.
2. Open up your httpd.conf file in Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/. (You'll need TextWrangler or some such program.)
3. Find this section of code (lines 378-381 for me):
<Directory />
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

4. Change "AllowOverride All" to "AllowOverride None".
5. Save your httpd.conf file.
6. Test this by firing up MAMP and opening up your start page (mine is http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English) and voila! You should be all set.

If this doesn't work for you, I apologize, I really know nothing about apache... I stumbled onto this solution by reviewing my apache error log, then googling the error "Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off" and finding this page: http://www.elharo.com/blog/software-development/web-development/2006/01/02/two-tips-for-fixing-apache-problems/, then somehow figuring out that the httpd.conf file was the same as an htaccess file, and finally winging an adjustment to the section mentioned above. Research mixed with guesswork and a lotta luck.

Hope this helps the rest of you... happy developing

Thank you so much! I just made the change and things seem to be in order. At least the start page is showing again!! I have to import the site from a remote server before I can tell for sure. But thank you very much. There are tons of people posting on forums trying to figure out this issue, so hopefully they will find this thread. Is everything still working correctly for you?

Thanks again - I owe you a sammich or something

Hi mellonade,

I tried your solution and both the MAMP start and phpMyAdmin page are showing, but the loading time is killing.
it also slows down the loading time of the local testpages, it's impossible to work this way

does anyone know another solution? would be great!

thanx in advance

found a solution for my problem with MAMP.
wordpress had put a .htaccess file in the root level of my hard drive. something like this:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /ExampleSite/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /ExampleSite/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

I've deleted the file, as it should not be in the root of my harddrive anyway and now MAMP is perfectly working again.
hope this will help other people to get around this strange problem.

mellonade wrote:1. Power MAMP down.
2. Open up your httpd.conf file in Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/. (You'll need TextWrangler or some such program.)
3. Find this section of code (lines 378-381 for me):
<Directory />
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

4. Change "AllowOverride All" to "AllowOverride None".
5. Save your httpd.conf file.
6. Test this by firing up MAMP and opening up your start page (mine is http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English) and voila! You should be all set.

You would have thought this would have been addressed more publicly. Thank you, mellonade.The solution worked beautifully.

OMG. I created an account JUST SO I could say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I've been creating wordpress sites for clients for 2 years and I suddenly ran into this problem when I updated the server name in the settings and I have been tearing my hair out trying to figure it out, and the site is DUE TOMORROW. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

mellonade.. THANK YOU! also thanks to enaluna for the wordpress info.. I owe you both, greatly!!

I was faced with this issue months ago and as a result moved onto XAMPP, of which I now love but MAMP works best in our Mac lab at school—due to MAMP not requiring an admin password on startup. I can now move forward and conduct my WordPress templet design project in my Web Design class!!

Thank you again!

—Shawn

Thanks so much for posting this, this solution works!!

mellonade

Thank you!

Hi everybody.

I've been having this problem for a few weeks now, and can't figure out for the life of me how to fix it. Mellonade, I tried your solution (thanks), but unfortunately it had not effect.

Does anybody have any other ideas? I have a full wordpress site built, and have been unable to upload it to the server for weeks, way past when I needed to.

Thanks in advance.

mellonade wrote:I can't believe this myself, but I think I found a solution.

For anyone who can't open the start page but can open sites in the htdocs directory, this is what I did:

1. Power MAMP down.
2. Open up your httpd.conf file in Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/. (You'll need TextWrangler or some such program.)
3. Find this section of code (lines 378-381 for me):
<Directory />
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

4. Change "AllowOverride All" to "AllowOverride None".
5. Save your httpd.conf file.
6. Test this by firing up MAMP and opening up your start page (mine is http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English) and voila! You should be all set.

If this doesn't work for you, I apologize, I really know nothing about apache... I stumbled onto this solution by reviewing my apache error log, then googling the error "Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off" and finding this page: http://www.elharo.com/blog/software-development/web-development/2006/01/02/two-tips-for-fixing-apache-problems/, then somehow figuring out that the httpd.conf file was the same as an htaccess file, and finally winging an adjustment to the section mentioned above. Research mixed with guesswork and a lotta luck.

Hope this helps the rest of you... happy developing

worked for me... thx... sir