Gnat 4 with Gnatsweb 4, installation difficulties (long)

[Jamin W. Collins]

I've been trying now for a while to get Gnats installed and working with
Gnatsweb.  So far, I've had only limited success.

In an attempt to eliminate as many variables from the equation as
possible, I decided to start over with a completely virgin system. 
Here's the specs and the installation steps taken.  The end result thus
far has been almost exactly as in previous installation attempts.  Gnats
appears to be working correctly (at least for how far it's been
configured), but Gnatsweb appears to be sporadic about displaying full
web pages.  I'd really like to know what I've done wrong, or where the
problem is (if it's not something I've done wrong).

System
- P233 Mhz CPU
- 64 Megs RAM
- 8 Gig IDE HD
- 10/100 PCI NIC

Distribution
- RH 7.2

Installation Type
- Custom

Partitions
- /boot (50 Megs)
- /var/loge (150 Megs)
- swap (512 Megs)
- / (remainder)

User Accounts
- root
- jcollins

Chosen Packages
- X Windows System
- Gnome
- Network Support
- Web Server
- Utilities
- Software Development
- Kernel Development

First Boot
- Allowed Auto-config of sound card by kudzu
- Configured NIC (Realtek 8139) for DHCP
- Brought up eth0 
- Determine IP address (ipconfig eth0)
- Configured Apache web service to run in levels 2345
- Start Apache web service (service httpd start)
- Tested from another system (working fine)
- Configured SSH for jcollins account to allow connections from laptop
- Transferred the following files:
        - gnats-11-23-01.tar.bz2 (CVS as of the date)
        - gnatsweb-11-23-01.tar.bz2 (CVS as of the date)
        - support (xinetd script)

Gnats Installation (as root)
- tar xjf gnats-11-23-01.tar.bz2
- cd gnats
- ./configure
- adduser gnats -d /usr/local/com
- make all info
- mkdir /usr/local/man
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man1
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man2
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man3
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man4
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man5
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man6
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man7
- mkdir /usr/local/man/man8
- make install
- added /usr/local/libexec to gnats user's path (edited
~gnats/.bash_profile)
- su -l gnats
<gnats>
- mkdb /usr/local/com/gnatsdb
- echo *:*:edit: >> /usr/local/com/gnatsdb/gnats-adm/gnatsd.access
</gnats>
- mv support (xinetd script) to /etc/xinetd.d
- service xinetd reload

- tested gnats via telnet from another machine
- created bogus ticket via telnet (for Gnatsweb install)

Gnatsweb Installation (as root)
- tar xjf gnatsweb-11-23-01.tar.bz2
- make test USERNAME=jcollins PASSWORD=anon DATABASE=default (all
passed)
- mkdir /var/www/perl
- make install CGI_DIR=/var/www/perl
- edited /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
        - uncommented perl section starting at line 1064
- service httpd stop
- service httpd start

- tested via HTTP connection from another machine
(http://192.168.10.121/perl/gnatsweb.pl)
        - login successful (header bar)
        - query successful (header bar)
        - edit of dummy PR (no header bar)
        - submit success (return to query minus header bar)
        - repeated edits all successful (no header bar)
- no longer able to get useable base form
(http://192.168.10.121/perl/gnatsweb.pl) 

- the following is output when attempting to access gnatsweb.pl once the
problem has surfaced

<table><TR VALIGN="baseline"><TD><B>Create Problem Report:</B></TD>
<TD><FORM METHOD="get"  ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="debug" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE="hidden"
NAME="database" VALUE="default"> <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd"
VALUE="create"> </FORM></TD></TR><TR VALIGN="baseline"><TD><B>Edit
Problem Report:</B></TD> <TD><FORM METHOD="get" 
ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="debug" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE="hidden"
NAME="database" VALUE="default"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="cmd"
VALUE="edit"> <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd" VALUE="edit"> # <INPUT
TYPE="text" NAME="pr"  SIZE=6> </FORM></TD></TR><TR
VALIGN="baseline"><TD><B>View Problem Report:</B></TD> <TD><FORM
METHOD="get"  ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="debug" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE="hidden"
NAME="database" VALUE="default"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="cmd"
VALUE="view audit-trail"> <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd" VALUE="view">
# <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="pr"  SIZE=6> </FORM></TD></TR><TR
VALIGN="baseline"><TD><B>Query Problem Reports:</B></TD> <TD><FORM
METHOD="get"  ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="debug" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE="hidden"
NAME="database" VALUE="default"> <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd"
VALUE="query"> &nbsp; <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd" VALUE="advanced
query"> </FORM></TD></TR><TR VALIGN="baseline"><TD><B>Log Out / Change
Database:&nbsp;</B></TD> <TD><FORM METHOD="get" 
ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="debug" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE="hidden"
NAME="database" VALUE="default"> <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd"
VALUE="logout"> </FORM></TD></TR><TR VALIGN="baseline"><TD><B>Get
Help:</B></TD> <TD><FORM METHOD="get" 
ENCTYPE="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="debug" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE="hidden"
NAME="database" VALUE="default"> <INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="cmd"
VALUE="help"> </FORM></TD></TR></table><hr><small>Gnatsweb v3.99.2,
Gnats v4.0-alpha</small></BODY></HTML>

Note:
Stopping and starting the web server seems to temporarily correct the
problem.  However, after a few browser requests the first part of the
HTML (<HTML><BODY>) seem to disappear again.  Could this be some strange
Apache caching problem?

Jamin W. Collins