[Mediawiki-l] MediaWiki Login Doesn't Stick

[Scott Thile]

I'm still having issues with this--see bellow:
 
> > Do I need to specify a file as well as a path for session data?
> 
> Just a path should be fine.
> 
> But, if you're on a hosting service be aware that you might 
> not always be on the same server. You might be on a server 
> farm where /tmp is a different local hard disk on each request.
> 
> So you might have to try a directory that's 'persistent', in 
> a filesystem that's shared across servers. There might be a 
> special place for this (like on SourceForge's servers now) or 
> you might have to take over a locked directory in your own 
> web space. Check with the documentation or support for your 
> hosting service if you have to do something like that.

It seems like I'm getting closer--I have my session.save_path in the php.ini
file pointing correctly to a directory I have full access too, and I even
see files being written there, but in all but one case they are empty (0
bytes). The only file that is not empty was generated from a different
application we have using the same server space. 

The end result is we're still not able to edit pages while logged in.
Mediawiki continues to report a loss of the session data when we try to save
edits. 

Complete symptoms: I can only edit files if I'm NOT logged in. I can only
upload files if I am logged in. I can only stay logged in while changing
pages if I check the "Remember me on this computer" box while logging in. 

In other words, in appears that no session data is being saved on the
server, and/or being retrieved, in spite of the session files being written
in the directory specified (there is just no data in there!).

The files being written are in the format
"sess_lotsofrandomnumbersandletters" ,  and permissions are set to -re------
(600).  Is that how they should look?

In all but one case, these files are empty (0 bytes). These are from
mediawiki. The other file, which was 288 bytes, came from a different php
site we have running on the same server account.

What else can I be missing that would be causing a continuous loss of
session data?

Environment: This is a fresh install of version 1.10.0 running under PHP
Version 5.1.0RC1, The Server API is CGI, and is running on Linux. I'm using
a custom php.ini file I can teak to override the defaults. If it helps to
figure out the issue, here is a link to pi.php file to see the environment:
http://americanpipemakers.info/mediawiki/pi.php

I'm a noob with all this. I love mediawiki, and think it's perfect for my
application, but I obviously need to get this nailed down before I can
launch the project.

Thanks for trying any help, 
Scott