[Mailman-Users] Internal 500 Error (Ubuntu jaunty / Mailman 2.1.12/ Python 2.6.2)

Tue Jun 23 03:10:33 CEST 2009

Dev Guy wrote:

>Hi,
>I've tried to look this up on the lists, forums, etc. but have failed to
>find anything that resolves this issue, so forgive me if I have missed a
>solution mentioned elsewhere.
>
>I have recently upgraded my Ubuntu distribution to Jaunty. This upgrade
>included an upgrade on Mailman, Python and Apache2.
>
>I'm currently running the following versions:
>
>ii  apache2                                   2.2.11-2ubuntu2.1
>    Apache HTTP Server metapackage
>ii  apache2-mpm-prefork                       2.2.11-2ubuntu2.1
>    Apache HTTP Server - traditional non-threade
>ii  python2.6                                 2.6.2-0ubuntu1
>   An interactive high-level object-oriented la
>ii  listadmin                                 2.40-2.2
>   command line mailman moderator queue manipul
>ii  mailman                                   1:2.1.12-1
>   Powerful, web-based mailing list manager
>
>I have looked through the logs, but nothing seems to indicate anything
>special, aside from the expressive line:
>
>----
>Premature end of script headers: admin
>----
>
>In my Apache2 error log file (turned logging to 'debug' level).
>
>Running the 'admin' or 'listinfo' scripts from the shell gives me this:
>
>----
># ./listinfo
>Content-type: text/html
>
><head><title>Bug in Mailman version 2.1.12</title></head>
><body bgcolor=#ffffff><h2>Bug in Mailman version 2.1.12</h2>
><p><h3>We're sorry, we hit a bug!</h3>
>
><p>Please inform the webmaster for this site of this
>problem.  Printing of traceback and other system information has been
>explicitly inhibited, but the webmaster can find this information in the
>Mailman error logs.
>-----
>
>I ran 'check_perms' and while there were errors it found, they were all
>fixed. This had no effect on the problem. Mailman appears to be operational
>otherwise. Emails are sent and received without issues. I can admin the site
>using the 'listadmin' tools. However, the web interface is completely
>broken.
>
>What am I missing?

The OP and I had a conversation on the #mailman channel at freenode. We
determined that he could successfully run

sudo -u www-data /bin/sh -c "PATH_INFO=;export
PATH_INFO;HTTP_HOST=www.example.com;export
HTTP_HOST;REQUEST_METHOD=GET;export REQUEST_METHOD;
/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin/listinfo"

(with appropriate changes to host and path) from the command line and
the listinfo CGI would produce appropriate output, so the problem is
apparently some issue with the way apache is (or isn't) invoking the
CGI. The OP says suEXEC is not involved, and I had no other ideas.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan