Directory directive: AuthType None but still need an AuthProvider?

Question

I'm using Apache 2.2 instead of 2.4, which explains the error in the title. After Brain99 posted his comment, I found out that I had 2.2, adjusted my configuration to what he suggested (which still didn't work), tried around a bit, slept a night and the next day I found out, that I forgot the Include statements for the mod-enabled directory!

For now I just need the server to let me download files from one specific folder (in my case I chose /opt/myFolder for that task)

Distribution is Debian 6.0

edit_start

Apache version is 2.4, according to their official documentation, the Order/Allow clauses are deprecated and should not be used anymore

I'm an idiot: Apache version is 2.2.

edit_end My directory directives in apache2.conf look like this:

<IfModule dir_module>
                DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php
</IfModule>
ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"
DocumentRoot "/opt/myFolder"
<Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AuthType None
        AllowOverride None
        Require all denie
</Directory>
<Directory "/opt/myFolder/*">
        Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        AuthType None
        Require all allow
</Directory>

When I try to access a file inside that folder (http://myserver.de/aTestFile.zip) I get an Internal Server Error. Also Apache writes the following error into it's log:

configuration error:  couldn't check user.  Check your authn provider!: /aTestFile.zip

Why would I need an authn provider if I don't want any authentication? Also I hope someone can explain to me what kind of AuthenticationProvider I'd need for that. Everytime I search for those things I get pointed at people asking how to protect files/directories with passwords or restrict access to some IP addresses, which doesn't really help me.

ok, since I've Apache version 2.2, here is the error I get when using the Order/Deny/Allow commands instead of AuthType/Require:

Invalid command 'Order', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration.

Solution

I believe this is due to the following erroneous configuration directives:

Require all denie
Require all allow

Try the following configuration instead:

<Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AuthType None
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
</Directory>
<Directory "/opt/myFolder/*">
        Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        AuthType None
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
</Directory>

Edit 2: Your problem could also be due to the mod_authz_host module not being loaded. You can try enabling this with a2enmod authz_host and restarting apache.

Also, it seems that AuthType None is invalid. Just remove the AuthType directive entirely from your configuration.

Comments

[Steffen Winkler]

well, in that case Apache doesn't start at all. Output from apachectl start Invalid command 'Order', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration. Are you sure that this option is still available in Apache 2.4? I saw a few forum threads where it was said that those options were dropped and replaced by the Require clauses.

[brain99]

See my edited answer.

[Steffen Winkler]

I'm stupid. My apache version is 2.2. But why do I get that error?

[Steffen Winkler]

also, even with your edits it doesn't work.

[Steffen Winkler]

to your 2nd edit: AuthType None is supported, according to official documentation. Anyway, when I remove it, apache says that it couldn't perform authentication. AuthType is not set.

[brain99]

Are we looking at the same docs? According to this, the accepted values are Basic and Digest. The value None is apache 2.3+ only.

[Steffen Winkler]

yes, I looked at the 2.4 docs, sorry.

[Steffen Winkler]

well, I got it working with the appropiate config for 2.2 (Order/allow combination). I made the following mistakes: I thought I had Apache 2.4, which wasn't the case and I found out about that after your answer I tried your config, which didn't work at first and gave me the Invalid commanderror. After a night of sleep, I looked at the apache config again and saw that stupid me forgot to add the include directives for the module-enabled directory.

[sites]

could you explain how to include these modules? thanks