How to solve “.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable”

My error log shows:-
[Sun Jul 13 01:15:32 2008] [crit] [client 218.208.xxx.xxx] (13)Permission denied: /home/mydomain/public_html/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable
And the site is showing “403 Forbidden Error”.
At first, I suspect it’s .htaccess problem, but actually it’s caused by Frontpage Extension.
To solve “.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable” follow the steps below:-
- Login into your CPanel account
- Click on “Frontpage Extensions” icon
- Click on “Reinstall extensions” button beside your problem domain.
*If you do not use any frontpage extensions, it’s good to uninstall this extension - Done. The “.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file” problem has been fixed.
** If you are not on CPanel hosting, please contact your system administrator to fix the problem. ***
Credit: The HungryCoder
Tags: cpanel, cpanel hosting, CPanel Hosting Tutorial, frontpage, frontpage extensions, web hosting tips, web hosting tutorial
Posted at July 13th, 2008 by chua
If you think this article helps you to solve your problem and clear your headache, feel free to buy me a drink :)



July 27th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Also you’d check owner and chmod of files/dirs
September 14th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
THANKS!! great post. This helped me solve my problem very quickly
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:44 am
Thank you,
This solve my issue!
Rui
February 13th, 2009 at 2:00 am
cool….ill buy u tons of drinks
February 13th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
THANK YOU!
This just saved me a boatload of time. Can’t say how I messed my server up so madly, but me converting everything over to use svn (as root) made a the sites totally die even when I chowned things to the users. This cleared it up and I would *never* have guessed what the problem was!
March 5th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Looks like I had to make the folder 777 – I dont like that but it is working – so Ill play with it and let ya all know if you can back 777 down at all like to say 775 ?
March 5th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Update!!!!!——————————————-
—————-665 permissions works and is safer!!!————————-
At least using a software called coffee cup HTML you can put the permissions to 665 – that way the world can not write to it – I guess the moral here was to give the DIR execute permissions———————-
Sure hope this helps some one – and protects them – Sory for the fake email addy too!
March 5th, 2010 at 11:02 am
——-UM oops another update – ————————–
OOps I lost access to the folder with 665 so um – lest stick with 775?
Heheheh