[thelist] Apache only serving pages when it feels like it

[Jon Haworth]

And lo! Bruce Heerssen spake thusly:
> Jon Haworth wrote:
> 
> > Hi list,
> > 
> > We've got a Linux box here (2.4.5 kernel) running Apache 1.3.20, MySQL
> > 3.23.39 and PHP 4.0.6. When I try and browse to it, Apache serves up the
> > pages correctly around 60% of the time - the other times it just spits
out
> > the HTML for the page as if it's wrapped in <pre>...</pre> tags.
> 
> Is this happening for all pages, or just .php pages?
> 
> Mime types spring to mind. Verify that apache is sending out the correct 
> text/html mime type.
> 

Ooops, <blush>, er, <blush color="#FF0000">, er. 

I uploaded a test .html file and starting manically refreshing the page. The
same problem was happening (viz. loads of HTML code being dumped to the
screen), but it wasn't dumping the HTML that was the code for the test file
I just uploaded. At this point my suspicion-o-meter went through the roof.

The first line of the code appearing in my browser was <base
href="/system/error.php"> - coincidentally the error handler for the
intranet... Apache was set up to send HTTP headers 300-305 to this script
(including, of course, 304 Not Modified), and guess what: comment those
lines out of httpd.conf and it's all working fine.

Really annoying when the solution is under your nose, isn't it?

So, for wasting your time...

<tip type="eye strain, sanity">
Make sure your monitor refresh rate is as high as you can get it. Every new
PC I've bought/set up recently has, for some reason, been set to 60Hz, and
most decent monitors can go a lot higher. Under Windows, you open the
Desktop properties, select Settings, then Advanced, then Monitor. If you can
get your refresh rate up from 60Hz to 85Hz you'll be amazed at the increase
in picture quality and stability.
</tip>

Cheers
Jon



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