I have had a problem like this before where the session files were being stored in a directory unavailable to PHP. You might try setting the directory path in php.ini and/or checking the permissions on the directory being used.

Appropo dev stuff. Does the Drupal installer check the session directory? Several other CMS installers like Joomla do this.

Carl Mc Dade
____________________________
Web Developer

----- Original Message ----
From: Rob Thorne <rob@torenware.com>
To: development@drupal.org
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 8:30:12 AM
Subject: [development] Weird session behavior on submit block form

I'm debugging a weird issue with a Drupal 5.1 install.   The bug
presents like this:

   1. Log in as an admin user.
   2. Go to admin/build/block
   3. Select a disabled block for adding it to some region (say, right
      side bar) and hit "submit".
   4. The user will be immediately logged out,  and will now see the
      admin/build/block page as forbidden.

This problem is very specific to the server it's running on;  I can take
the same files and database, download them to a test host, and I will
*not* see this problem.

I've added a bunch of error_log() statements to the install on the host
with the weird behavior,  and you see something like this in the log:

    {{I log in here....}}
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] Cookie is d5b8a937d722318d971b1930406d744a
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] Calling session read for key
       d5b8a937d722318d971b1930406d744a
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] calling prepare for id user_login
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] returned from prepare for user_login
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] entering validate for user_login
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] returning from  validate for user_login
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] entering submit for user_login
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] leaving submit for user_login
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] Calling session write for key
       71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a and val
       tAJ44N_LlrbmNDZHcLue2FXede9BKRdCIQyBobLPanifZv7HurbKNgbJDHW23sYm

       {{I go to en/admin/build/block}}
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] Cookie is 71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:36] Calling session read for key
       71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:37] calling prepare for id search_theme_form
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:37] returned from prepare for search_theme_form
       [19-Feb-2007 01:49:37] Calling session write for key
       71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a and val
       tAJ44N_LlrbmNDZHcLue2FXede9BKRdCIQyBobLPanifZv7HurbKNgbJDHW23sYm
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:26] Cookie is 71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:26] Calling session read for key
       71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:26] admin display
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:26] admin form exit
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:26] calling prepare for id block_admin_display
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:27] returned from prepare for block_admin_display
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:27] calling prepare for id search_theme_form
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:27] returned from prepare for search_theme_form
       [19-Feb-2007 01:50:28] Calling session write for key
       71db2c27b1ff52aae4a0ac7ce8ba183a and val
       tAJ44N_LlrbmNDZHcLue2FXede9BKRdCIQyBobLPanifZv7HurbKNgbJDHW23sYm

       {{I try to select some block to add to the right side, and hit
    submit}}
       [19-Feb-2007 01:51:14] Cookie is
       [19-Feb-2007 01:51:14] Calling session read for key
       babc55f2b27b3c224414d840650a8abe
       [19-Feb-2007 01:51:14] calling prepare for id search_theme_form
       [19-Feb-2007 01:51:14] returned from prepare for search_theme_form
       [19-Feb-2007 01:51:14] Calling session write for key
       babc55f2b27b3c224414d840650a8abe and val
       tAJ44N_LlrbmNDZHcLue2FXede9BKRdCIQyBobLPanifZv7HurbKNgbJDHW23sYm

Any ideas as to what might be "zeroing out" the session cookie?

Thanks,
Rob

Rob Thorne
Torenware Networks