Ubuntu 20.04 - apache does not start at boot

Question

I got myself in a similar situation and I can't find a proper fix.

Here is my use case:

Each site I host on my laptop is configured using a file named www-example1.conf. This file's location is /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/www-example1.conf

The content of this file is:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        ServerName www-example1
        ServerAlias www.www-example1
        DocumentRoot /home/myuser/www/www-example1/public_html
        ErrorLog /home/myuser/www/www-example1/error.log
        CustomLog /home/myuser/www/www-example1/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

The apache user/group is www-data. The www-example1 folder is owned by myuser:www-data. The www-example1 folder has 755 permissions. Inside this folder there are the error.log and access.log files, each with 755 permissions and owned by myuser:www-data.

The issue is that apache fails to start on system boot.

When I use sudo systemctl status apache2, the result is:

● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2020-06-18 22:58:00 EEST; 12min ago
       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
    Process: 3044 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC apachectl[3067]: (2)No such file or directory: AH02291: Cannot access directory '/home/myuser/www/www-example1/' for error log of vhost defined at /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/www-example1.conf:1
iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC apachectl[3067]: AH00014: Configuration check failed
iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC apachectl[3044]: Action 'start' failed.
iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC apachectl[3044]: The Apache error log may have more information.
iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
iun 18 22:58:00 SIA-PC systemd[1]: Failed to start The Apache HTTP Server.

If I start apache manually using sudo service apache2 start, everything works.

What can I do to make apache start at boot?

Thank you!

I already tried this solution, but to no avail. I would really like to keep my folder structure as it is.

Answer 1

I had the same problem

Ubuntu 20.04 work with libphp7.4.so and apache2 work with libphp7.2.so so to fixe it you need to change the configuration of apache2 and this is how i did it :

1- you can check this problem by testing the apache and writing : apache2ctl configtest

The output message :

apache2: Syntax error on line 146 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Syntax error on line 3 of /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.2.load: Cannot load /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.2.so into server: /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.2.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Action 'configtest' failed. The Apache error log may have more information.

2- open the file php7.2.load by gedit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.2.load you can see

LoadModule php7_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.2.so

3- go to /usr/lib/apache2/modules/ and check the version of libphp by ls , it will be libphp7.4.so

4- back to the file and change the version :

LoadModule php7_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.4.so

save it and restart apache2

systemctl start apache2.service

check the status :

systemctl status apache2.service

That's all :)