Apache2 restart failed in Ubuntu 16.04

Question

I am trying to use domain for my localhost instead of localhost or 127.0.0.1

I have added a configuration file myconfig.conf in sites-availbale I also have enabled it using sudo a2ensite myconfig.conf

When I restart apache2 server using sudo sudo systemctl restart apache2, I get error as

Job for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

I reinstalled apache2 by uninstalling it but it gives error as

Job for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript apache2, action "start" failed.

Output of sudo journalctl -xe

May 26 12:42:51 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:52 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:53 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:54 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:55 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:56 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:57 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:58 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:42:59 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:00 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:01 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:02 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:03 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:04 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:05 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:06 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:07 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:08 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:09 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:10 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:11 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:12 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:13 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:14 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:15 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:16 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:17 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:18 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:19 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:20 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:21 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:22 vostro-tbe gnome-session[2123]: GET /chrome HTTP/1.1
May 26 12:43:22 vostro-tbe sudo[16839]:     anuj : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/etc/apache2/sites-available ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/journalctl -xe
May 26 12:43:22 vostro-tbe sudo[16839]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by anuj(uid=0)

Output of systemctl status apache2.service

● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2016-05-26 12:42:43 IST; 53s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 16781 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apache2 start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe apache2[16781]:  *
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe apache2[16781]:  * The apache2 configtest failed.
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe apache2[16781]: Output of config test was:
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe apache2[16781]: apache2: Syntax error on line 140 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Syntax error on line 2 of /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.0.load: Cannot load /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.0.so
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe apache2[16781]: Action 'configtest' failed.
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe apache2[16781]: The Apache error log may have more information.
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Apache2 web server.
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe systemd[1]: apache2.service: Unit entered failed state.
May 26 12:42:43 vostro-tbe systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Output of sudo apache2ctl configtest

apache2: Syntax error on line 140 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Syntax error on line 2 of /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.0.load: Cannot load /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.0.so into server: /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp7.0.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Action 'configtest' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.

content of myconfig.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName website.com
    ServerAlias www.website.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/website
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Solution 1

Install package libapache2-mod-php7.0 or disable the PHP7 module by running

sudo a2dismod php7.0

Solution 2

I also got the same issue and the reason it caused was something like this ,

I created a virtual host example.com.conf in etc/apache2/sites-available , so it created a link of it in etc/apache2/sites-enabled when u enable the virtual host for that particular host.

Later on i deleted the file example.com.conf from etc/apache2/sites-available , but forgot to disable the host so the link of that host is still available at etc/apache2/sites-enabled , so that causes the error in my case so i simply deleted that linked file from etc/apache2/sites-enabled and my apache started working.

Solution 3

If you use php7 be sure to disable php5 module:

sudo a2dismod php5

this worked for me

Solution 4

Your issue is with your 2 lines in your config file. The 2 log paths cause an error with Apache.

I had this same issue and when I removed the two log file lines exactly like you had them I was able to restart apache.

View more solutions

Comments

[MKay]

Something is wrong in your myconfig.conf.

[Anuj TBE]

updated question with contents of myconfig.conf

[Anuj TBE]

Installed libapache2-mod-php7.0 but still same error on sudo systemctl restart apache2

[Anuj TBE]

Solved! installed libapache2-mod-php7.0

[Shubham Agarwal]

This works perfectly thnks

[CSharpened]

This was the solution for me also after removing a conf file and attempting a restart.

[Cie6ohpa]

Solved my problem too. On Ubuntu / Kubuntu 16.04.2 LTS Xenial (with a previous php5 installation). sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php7.0 and then apache2ctl configtest (better than journal -xe) and finally sudo service apache2 start

[Renaat De Muynck]

This solved my problem too. I had my log file config pointing to a non existing location. Solved after doing mkdir -p /my/log/location/