httpd could not be started

[Frank Staals]

Greg Barniskis wrote:

> Steven Narmontas wrote:
>
>> I'm entirely new to FreeBSD, but have a fair amount of Linux experience.
>>
>> I installed FreeBSD 6.0 (Production Release) on an oldish i386 
>> system.  During the install, I asked to install "ALL".  The install 
>> went flawlessly.
>>
>> I need Apache on this system for some software development, so I 
>> followed these instructions I found at:  
>> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports-using.html 
>> :
>>
>> # pkg_add -r cvsup-without-gui
>> # cvsup -L 2 -h cvsup.FreeBSD.org 
>> /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile
>> # cd /usr/ports/www/apache13
>> # make
>> # make install
>>
>> Everything to this point went smoothly!  
>
>
> As well it should have, since you followed correct procedure. =)
>
> > I edited
>
>> /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf ONLY to set the ServerName to the IP 
>> address of the machine. However, when I try to start apache I get:
>>
>> #/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start
>> /usr/local/sbin/apachectl start: httpd could not be started
>
>
> [snip]
>
>> Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get ANY version of Apache 
>> running on a new install of FreeBSD 6?
>
>
> Apache and most other add-on daemons on FreeBSD require that you 
> explicitly enable them to run in /etc/rc.conf. Have you got a line
>
> apache2_enable="YES"
>
> in your rc.conf?
>
> The need for this as well as the proper syntax should be noted in the 
> file /usr/ports/www/apache2/pkg-msg. For any other port you install 
> there's probably gold nuggets of info in its pkg-msg file. This stuff 
> displays during the make install, but then so does several K of other 
> info so it's not hard to miss these things.
>
In fact, it doesn't realy matter if you add apache_enable="YES" to 
rc.conf ( since het installed apache13 adding apache2_enable="YES" would 
be quite useless ... ) when you start it manually from commandline, 
adding it to rc.conf is only usefull when you want to start apache from 
boot, which can be quite usefull, but it can't be the reason why apache 
wouldn't start.

Try adding '127.0.0.1               <full name machine> localhost' to 
/etc/hosts that might help. You should also check your apache log ( 
probably in /var/log/  when at default settings ) for a more detailed 
message of what went wrong

Good luck,

-- 
-Frank Staals