Joomla Database Access Error

Question

I used to have a working Joomla 3 site, but when upgrading Ubuntu from 12.10 to 13.10, I lost the OS. I've copied everything from /var/www and /var/lib/mysql and have the contents available.

I've placed the contents of /var/www onto my new system's Apache2 DocumentRoot, and can access the files. I've gone through and checked the configurations, but am stuck at the point of restoring my old MySQL database using the /var/lib/mysql files.

I've wrecked one system simply by 'scp /old_server/mysql root@roboserver.local:/var/lib' in which the mysql server failed every attempt to access. So instead I created a new database with the same name and copied everything 'var/lib/mysql/robo/.' over to that new server's database in that same location.

I need to know how to bring back an old Joomla database exactly as I had it. The current error I am getting is:

Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Can't find file: './robo/robo_session.frm' (errno: 13) SQL=DELETE FROM `robo_session` WHERE `time` < '1399079287'

I'm 15yrs old, just started using SSH a month ago, so if you could give a step-by-step fix I'd appreciate it! I have complete physical and root access to every machine.

Answer 1

I've found the solution and am documenting it for anyone else with this specific problem.

When Joomla returned the error from the MySQL Database, it attempted to find the file by reading it. Running 'chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql' set all the permissions back to normal, allowing the database to be read.

In my attempts to repair the databases, I neglected to check ownership of the files. (As I was logged in through SSH as root, yes, shame on me.)