Saving TW files locally fails on a linux box
Alex S. Garcia
I recently had to upgrade my entire system and now I can no longer save changes when I edit a tiddly file.
It's very odd, because I installed a plugin that allows me to work on my files remotely, and when using that I can save data just fine. But doing it from localhost fails with the following message:
--------------------------------
It's not possible to save changes. Possible reasons include:
- your browser doesn't support saving (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera all work if properly configured)
- the pathname to your TiddlyWiki file contains illegal characters
- the TiddlyWiki HTML file has been moved or renamed
--------------------------------
I've tried with different browsers (Firefox, Vivaldi and Opera) but they all return that same error.
And it's not the pathname (besides, it's the same as before, and it worked fine in the past).
And I haven't moved any of the files around, so it's not that third thing either.
I'm suspecting perhaps a permission issue, but I've tried everything I could think of to no avail.
My tiddly folder is owned by my user (likewise for the group) and the permissions are set to drwxrwxr-x.
The contents of that folder are also owned by my user, with permissions set to -rwxrwxr-x.
/var/www & /var/www/html are both owned by root:root (drwxr-xr-x).
What am I missing here?
On a side note, I made apache a member of my user's group so that it could have access.
Any thoughts/leads would be appreciated!
Alex.
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Hegart Dmishiv
Alex S. Garcia
First off, I just realized I made a small mistake in my description. I said I couldn't save from localhost. That's somewhat misleading. When I'm at home, I load the page directly from the hard drive, ie.
file:///var/www/html/tiddly/filename.html
This has always worked in the past.
On Thursday, January 14, 2016 17:17:43 Hegart Dmishiv wrote:
> Hi Alex, can you save the file directly to your /var/www/html folder? Or to
> the relevant subdirectory under that? Doing so would isolate out any
> potential Apache issues. Just a thought for diagnosis, not a real solution.
Well, if I'm on the page using the URL I mentioned above, and use my browser's "Save page as..." command in the "File" menu, then ask to save it under a new name in the same spot (ie. /var/www/html/tiddly), then yes, that does work.
I'm assuming that's what you meant?
Hegart Dmishiv
Also, using the browser's save functionality is not recommend when using TW. It is best to use "Save Changes" in the TW sidebar (the red tick icon). You can then select a folder to save it to. Try saving it directly to /var/ww/html/tiddly/ if that is where you browse it from.
Alex S. Garcia
OK, I think there is some confusion, so I'm going to try to clarify things a bit ;-)
> you also mentioned Apache, so I assumed
> that you are hosting and serving your TiddlyWiki from
> Apache locally on the same machine you use to browse it
> from. I do that sometimes for testing purposes, and find
> that accessing /var/www/html directly is a good way to
> diagnose Apache problems.
This is actually how I typically work when I'm at home. I just load the file from /var/www/html into my browser directly.
> If you're not even using Apache
> to serve your TiddlyWiki, is there any advantage to
> storing it in the /var/www/html directory? Why not just
> save it and browser to it from a subdirectory of your
> home folder?
Well, I do need to be able to access it when I'm travelling (or at work), so I can work on my stuff from anywhere I am, that was the whole point for me of setting up tiddly's in the first place.
So, to sum it up: when at home I use /var/www/html.
When I'm not home, I connect remotely via my webserver.
> Also, using the browser's save functionality is not
> recommend when using TW. It is best to use "Save Changes"
> in the TW sidebar (the red tick icon).
Yes. That's what I normally do. I only used the browser's save functionality because I thought that was the test you wanted me to do in your previous message. I must have misunderstood you ;-)
Normally I do this:
When at home, I click on "Save changes" under "Admin tools" in the side bar.
When I'm not home, I use the plugin which adds a "Save to web" option to the sidebar.
The latter currently works, while the former is the one that is now broken, for some reason.
Hope that clarified things a bit.
Hegart Dmishiv
Alex S. Garcia
On Thursday, January 14, 2016 20:41:24 Hegart Dmishiv wrote:
> Sorry for the confusion there. I see what you're getting
> at now. To prove it out to a permissions problem with
> your /var/www/html folder or subfolders, have you tried
> saving the download (when browsed from the local machine,
> not via Apache, as we can conclude the problem isn't
> there) temporarily to your home folder, as a test
> download?
If I use the browser's saving functionality? Yes, that does work if I use that to save/download the file to my home folder.
Mark S.
If you launch your browser as root, then can you save?
I'm guessing that your plugin can't/won't navigate those directories owned by root.
As a workaround, can you edit on your server as http://localhost...tw.html ?
Mark
Alex S. Garcia
On Friday, January 15, 2016 08:42:59 'Mark S.' via TiddlyWiki wrote:
> Are you using tiddlyfox?
Nope.
> If not, how are you saving?
Just the 'normal' way, ie. clicking 'save changes' under 'admin tools' in the sidepanel, while the file is loaded from /var/www/html.
> If you launch your browser as root, then can you save?
Ah, good question. Hadn't tried that. Just did now. And, interestingly enough, it does NOT work as root either. I get the same error as with my user, ie:
"It's not possible to save changes. Possible reasons include:
- your browser doesn't support saving (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera all work if properly configured)
- the pathname to your TiddlyWiki file contains illegal characters
- the TiddlyWiki HTML file has been moved or renamed"
> I'm guessing that your plugin can't/won't navigate those directories
> owned by root.
But I'm *not* using a plugin in this specific case, only TW's internal functionality to 'save changes'.
OTOH, I *do* use a plugin when I work remotely, and THAT works just fine!? Weird, isn't it? The plugin can get access but not the file itself...
What user would the system see trying to save the file locally? Would it be coming from my user, from apache, or something else? Makes me wonder.
And what about the plugin, for that matter, shouldn't my computer see it coming from the same user?? If so, saving should not be possible via the plugin either... unless it's not a permissions issue, but then what? *baffled*
Well, yes, it would then just use that TW plugin in that case and I'd have to click "save to web". Saving from my laptop while connecting remotely also works fine for the same reason, since it would also be using the plugin.
It just puzzles me to no end that I can't do a normal local save... that just doesn't sound right :-o
Mark S.
Why not try tiddlyfox and see what happens?
Still guessing, but I think when the browser runs it runs with reduced rights as a security measure (even if you launch as root).
After launching with sudo, and using ps aux, I see that my firefox is still running as my base user. There's probably a more scientific way to force FF to use root's rights.
Mark
Eric Shulman
On Friday, January 15, 2016 08:42:59 'Mark S.' via TiddlyWiki wrote:
> Are you using tiddlyfox?
Nope.
> If not, how are you saving?
Just the 'normal' way, ie. clicking 'save changes' under 'admin tools' in the sidepanel, while the file is loaded from /var/www/html.
- your browser doesn't support saving (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera all work if properly configured)
Alex S. Garcia
> > - your browser doesn't support saving (Firefox, Internet Explorer,
> > Safari and Opera all work if properly configured)
>
> Note the phrase "if properly configured". All major browsers have
> blocked javascript from performing direct file I/O with the local
> filesystem. TiddlyFox is a browser plugin for Firefox that restores
> access to the privileged file I/O functions. If you are using Firefox
> without TiddlyFox, then it is *not* "properly configured" for file
> saving. Install the TiddlyFox browser plugin, and try again.
Wow. That worked. Awesome.
Weird, though, as I'd never had to use TiddyFox before and had never ran into this problem. Then again, truth be told, I was using some really old versions of everything, so perhaps this security feature had not been implemented yet...
In any case, thank you all for your help! Much appreciated.
Hegart Dmishiv
I'm wondering if this is a TWC issue and it doesn't affect TW5? I noticed that Alex kept mentioning "clicking 'save changes' under 'admin tools' in the sidepanel" (emphasis mine), which I assume indicates that Alex is using TWC, not TW5, am I right?
Alex S. Garcia
On Friday, January 15, 2016 13:24:53 Hegart Dmishiv wrote:
> Okay, that was interesting. Well done Eric for coming up with the
> solution which helped Alex. I'm confused by the answer though, as I use
> TiddlyWiki to save locally from Firefox under Linux myself, and have
> never had such a permissions problem before, and I don't use, nor need,
> the TiddlyFox plugin.
>
> I'm wondering if this is a TWC issue and it doesn't affect TW5? I noticed
> that Alex kept mentioning *"clicking 'save changes' under 'admin tools'
> in the sidepanel"* (emphasis mine), which I assume indicates that Alex
> is using TWC, not TW5, am I right?
Actually, I use TWW, a modified version of the original TiddlyWiki. The "AboutTWW" tiddler states this:
"Tiddlywiki Write (updated 11-22-10) is an implementation of the Tiddlywiki concept (version 2.6.1) and is an experiment in mind mapping for writers."
Definitely not TW5, in any case.