Ubuntu – Apache gives 403 Forbidden

Apache2joomlalamppermissionsserver

Server: Ubuntu 12.04 w/ LAMP
I can access the default index.html, but I created a symbolic link to a folder in my Dropbox. Whenever I try to access 192.168.2.6/Joomla (Joomla is the symbolic link), I get a 403 error. Editing my httpd.conf according to this question didn't work. I can post conf files, etc, just ask.

I've tried using chmod to allow all permissions on the files in question, but that didn't help.

Also, I deleted the default index.html to force Apache to show the www directory. It shows, but is empty (Symbolic link doesn't show up)

Output from ls -lSrah (in Joomla): 

total 7.6M
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens  865 Mar 31 18:03 robots.txt
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens 1.3K Mar 31 18:03 index.php
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens 1.7K Mar 31 18:03 web.config.txt
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens 1.8K Mar 31 18:07 joomla.xml
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens 3.1K Mar 31 18:03 htaccess.txt
drwxrwxr-x  2 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 tmp
drwxrwxr-x  6 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 templates
drwxrwxr-x 13 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 plugins
drwxrwxr-x 26 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 modules
drwxrwxr-x 15 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 media
drwxrwxr-x  2 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 logs
drwxrwxr-x  7 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 libraries
drwxrwxr-x  4 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 language
drwxrwxr-x 10 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 installation
drwxrwxr-x  2 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 includes
drwxrwxr-x  4 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 images
drwxrwxr-x 13 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 components
drwxrwxr-x  2 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 cli
drwxrwxr-x  2 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 cache
drwxrwxr-x 10 somekittens somekittens 4.0K Mar 31 18:03 administrator
drwxrwxr-x  5 somekittens somekittens 4.0K May 25 08:51 ..
drwxrwxr-x 17 somekittens somekittens 4.0K May 25 08:53 .
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens 4.2K Mar 31 18:03 README.txt
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens  18K Mar 31 18:03 LICENSE.txt
-rwxrwxr-x  1 somekittens somekittens 7.5M Mar 31 18:18 Joomla_2.5.4-Stable-Full_Package.zip

Output from ls -lSrah (in /var/www/): 

somekittens@KittensTest:/var/www$ ls -lSrah
total 7.5M
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   41 May 25 09:39 Joomla -> /home/somekittens/Dropbox/Project/Joomla/
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4.0K May 24 20:50 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K May 25 10:08 .

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

<virtualHost indextj:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@indextj

DocumentRoot /home/somekittens/Dropbox/Project/Joomla
<Directory />
        Options +FollowSymLinks -SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Best Answer

Your server is set to not follow symlinks. Add this line:

Options +FollowSymLinks -SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

to your http.conf. For more info: http://www.hackersgarage.com/symbolic-link-not-allowed-or-link-target-not-accessible.html

You will also need to add browse access for others to each folder, all the way up to /home/somekittens/Dropbox/Project/Joomla/. i.e.

sudo chmod o+x /home
sudo chmod o+x /home/somekittens
chmod o+x /home/somekittens/Dropbox
chmod o+x /home/somekittens/Dropbox/Project
chmod o+x /home/somekittens/Dropbox/Project/Joomla
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