Apache 2.4 & Ubuntu 14.04 error on Vagrant: "You don't have permission to access / on this server."

Question

I realize there are a lot of similar questions on here, but I've been struggling with this for hours and have been unable to find a solution.

When I try visiting my Vagrant Ubuntu box via the host name shopwise.dev (set to the Vagrant box's IP in /etc/hosts), I get the following error page:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) Server at shopwise.dev Port 80

I created the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/shopwise.conf:

ServerName host.foxytronics.com
NameVirtualHost *:80

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>
<Directory "/home/shopws/public_html">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName www.shopwise.dev
    ServerAlias shopwise.dev

    DirectoryIndex index.php
    Options FollowSymLinks
    DocumentRoot "/home/shopws/public_html"

    # Logfiles
    ErrorLog  /home/shopws/logs/apache/error.log
    CustomLog /home/shopws/logs/apache/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Then ran:

sudo a2ensite shopwise.conf
service apache2 reload

I verified the directory permissions along the path /home/shopws/public_html are 755 and the file permissions are also currently 755 (although I think they're actually supposed to be 644?).

Is my configuration incorrect?

UPDATE:

Solution

As usual, my issue was totally my fault and due to my ignorance :-)

I needed to use the Directory directive to grant users permission to access the directory I chose to put my site's files in. This is my final working configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName www.shopwise.dev
    ServerAlias shopwise.dev

    DocumentRoot /home/shopws/public_html

    # Logfiles
    ErrorLog  /home/shopws/logs/apache/error.log
    CustomLog /home/shopws/logs/apache/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

<Directory /home/shopws/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
</Directory>

I hope that helps someone else someday!

Comments

[drookie]

NameVirtualHost *:80 has no effect in apache 2.4.x. Does the directory actually contain an index file ?

[Nate]

@drookie Thanks for your reply! Yes, there is an index.php file here: /home/shopws/public_html/index.php. One thing that just occurred to me is that the files are "owned" by the user vagrant. Could it be that Apache isn't able to open the files because it doesn't "own" them? I guess that is kind of a Vagrant-specific question..

[drookie]

nope, owner is not the reason since you have sufficient permissions. what will happen if you will request shopwise.dev/index.php exactly ?

[Nate]

@drookie I see the same error when going to that URL. I added a few screenshots to my question, for what it's worth..

[drookie]

And what does the apachectl -S show ?

[Nate]

@drookie Added a screenshot. Thanks again for your help!

[AlexR]

What about error log file, what do you see there, maybe paste here? Who is the owner of /home/shopws/ and subfolders (you should have vagrant). Do you have an index.something?

[Nate]

root is the owner of /home, vagrant is the owner of /home/shopws on down. I'm not sure what you mean by index.something? I'm having trouble finding the error logs, but will post them once I do. Thanks for your help!

[Nate]

The error log file hasn't been created, then. Yes, there is an index.php file at /home/shopws/public_html/index.php.

[Nate]

The error log file hasn't been created, then. Yes, there is an index.php file at /home/shopws/public_html/index.php. Also, you should update your other answer or post a comment on your other answer instead of posting a new answer :-)

[AlexR]

Well I'm kinda new to this.

[AlexR]

But what about access.log???

[Martin Joiner]

Just saved my day! :-)