Error installing moodle. Dataroot location is not secure and Parent directory (/var) is not writeable.

Question

I'm trying to install moodle but I come across an error in the process, when I specify the path to the moodle data folder. Basically they want it be at a place where it cannot be accessed from the web.

I've tried placing it in /var/moodledata which gives me an error saying Parent directory (/var) is not writeable. Data directory (/var/moodledata) cannot be created by the installer. and at /var/www/moodledata which gives me an error saying Dataroot location is not secure

I tried giving sudo(permissions) to the /var/www/ folder and also tried hacking install.php to skip the validation by commenting out the following lines

/*while(is_dataroot_insecure()) {
    $parrent = dirname($CFG->dataroot);
    $i++;
    if ($parrent == '/' or $parrent == '.' or preg_match('/^[a-z]:\\\?$/i', $parrent) or ($i > 100)) {
        $CFG->dataroot = ''; //can not find secure location for dataroot
        break;
    }
    $CFG->dataroot = dirname($parrent).'/moodledata';
}*/

and

       /* do {
        if ($CFG->dataroot !== '') {
            $prompt = get_string('clitypevaluedefault', 'admin', $CFG->dataroot);
        } else {
            $prompt = get_string('clitypevalue', 'admin');
        }
        echo $error;
        $CFG->dataroot = cli_input($prompt, $CFG->dataroot);
        if ($CFG->dataroot === '') {
            $error = get_string('cliincorrectvalueretry', 'admin')."\n";
        } else if (is_dataroot_insecure()) {
            $CFG->dataroot = '';
            $error = get_string('pathsunsecuredataroot', 'install')."\n";
        } else {
            if (install_init_dataroot($CFG->dataroot, $CFG->directorypermissions)) {
                $error = '';
            } else {
                $a = (object)array('dataroot' => $CFG->dataroot);
                $error = get_string('pathserrcreatedataroot', 'install', $a)."\n";
        cli_error(get_string('pathsunsecuredataroot', 'install'));
            }
        }

    } while ($error !== '');*/
} /*else {
    if (is_dataroot_insecure()) {
    }
    if (!install_init_dataroot($CFG->dataroot, $CFG->directorypermissions)) {
        $a = (object)array('dataroot' => $CFG->dataroot);
        cli_error(get_string('pathserrcreatedataroot', 'install', $a));
    }
}*/

However, I havent had any success . Any idea on how I could over come this would be appreciated!

Answer 1

You can create the directory yourself.

I assume you're using Ubuntu or Debian. From the step-by-step guide to install Moodle in Ubuntu:

sudo mkdir /var/moodledata
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/moodledata

Where www-data is the user used by your webserver.