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 Moodle installation problem, Old install prevents new install? (4 Replies, Read 5983 times)
daniel_rodriguez
Group: Member
Post Group: Newbie
Posts: 4
Status:
Hi everyone!

On a cPanel server, we have an old, manually installed Moodle on this path:

/home/user/public_html/site1/

Moodledata is at /home/user/public_html/moodledata/

Now, we want to replace it with a brand new installation. We want to install a new Moodle using Softaculous, on this path:

/home/user/public_html/site2/

We want to create the moodledata dir at /home/user/moodledata/ , outside public_html

But Softaculous shows an error message on the installation process. Well, two errors messages, an the installation halts:
===========================================
- It seems that the Moodle files are already present at /home/user/public_html location. Hence you can not install Moodle on this domain. Please try to install lower version of Moodle on this domain.
- The folder /home/user/public_html should not be accessible via web. This folder is a document root of another domain
===========================================

It looks like the old Moodle install is preventing the new Moodle install; is that so? Is there any way for us to create a new Moodle instance on this user account, using Softaculous?
IP: --   

Moodle installation problem
nikita
Group: Softaculous Team
Post Group: Working Newbie
Posts: 57
Status:
Hi,

Apologies for the inconvenience caused to you.

As of Moodle 5.1, the script has made significant changes in their code structure. Only the /public subdirectory should be accessible to the web, while the core application code stays one level above it.
https://docs.moodle.org/501/en/Upgrading#Code_directories_restructure

When you try to install Moodle 5.1 via Softaculous into /public_html/site2, Softaculous attempts to place the core files in /public_html and the web-accessible files in /public_html/site2 Since your /public_html is already a root directory of the another domain, Softaculous is throwing an error. "The folder /home/user/public_html should not be accessible via web. This folder is a document root of another domain"

The error "files are already present" occurs because Softaculous has detected a similar file or directory name in your /public_html directory. Since Softaculous needs to put the new Moodle's core files in the parent directory (/public_html), it sees the existing folders and halts to prevent overwriting or mixing two different Moodle versions.

Instead of installing to a subfolder (site2), create a subdomain (e.g., newsite.yourdomain.com) and point its Document Root to a new, empty folder outside of public_html (e.g., /home/user/newsite_files). This isolates the two installations entirely and satisfies the Moodle 5.1 requirements.

IP: --   

Moodle installation problem
daniel_rodriguez
Group: Member
Post Group: Newbie
Posts: 4
Status:
Hi Nikita!

Thank you for your help, that makes sense :)

But Softaculous should be able to place the core files outside /public_html/ ( one folder above, on the user homedir ), and the public files at /public_html/site2/

I mean, we can do that manually, and it works; shouldn't Softaculous be able to do it too?

Could this be considered a bug on the current Softaculous version? Or is it the intended behavior?

Kind regards.
IP: --   

Moodle installation problem
nikita
Group: Softaculous Team
Post Group: Working Newbie
Posts: 57
Status:
Hi,
Sure. We shall test this scenario and get back to you.
IP: --   

Moodle installation problem
bluesteam
Group: Member
Post Group: Newbie
Posts: 1
Status:
Quote From : nikita May 7, 2026, 11:42 am

Instead of installing to a subfolder (site2), create a subdomain (e.g., newsite.yourdomain.com) and point its Document Root to a new, empty folder outside of public_html (e.g., /home/user/newsite_files). This isolates the two installations entirely and satisfies the Moodle 5.1 requirements.

Hello,

On cPanel, when creating addon domains, cPanel automatically creates a subfolder for that domain inside the public_html folder. This is default cPanel behaviour.

When choosing to install moodle, we have to choose a domain name we want to use with it. We obviously choose the addon domain name but not the subfolder(subdomain) itself that is created.

Softaculous should handle this step without issues so the current script is failing to handle this new version 5 setup.

However, in saying all this, your suggestion requires more information to us readers. You said "and point its Document Root to a new, empty folder outside of public_html (e.g., /home/user/newsite_files). This isolates the two installations entirely and satisfies the Moodle 5.1 requirements."

It would help if you could explain how we can set this up so that the Document Root is pointing to a folder outside of the public_html.

Some people don't know how to do that.
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