Tyring to Upgrade to civicrm 4.7.28 on Joomla but wsod error says civicrm.settings.php is missing

Question

I', having a hard time upgrading my Joomla! 3.8.3 site on Php 7 to civiCRM 4.7.28. This is the error I'm getting when I install from directory. I looks like it's not creating the civicrm.settings.php file.

Warning: require_once(/home/pastoral99/public_html/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm.settings.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/pastoral99/public_html/tmp/com_civicrm/admin/configure.php on line 115

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '/home/pastoral99/public_html/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm.settings.php' (include_path='.:/opt/alt/php70/usr/share/pear') in /home/pastoral99/public_html/tmp/com_civicrm/admin/configure.php on line 115

I've researched previous topics on this and nothing has been helpful. Can anyone tell me why it's not creating the civicrm.settings.php file?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Since you said you're upgrading, that file should already be there. Which means it isn't creating it, but instead viewing/updating it. The four best reasons for you getting this error that I can think of:

You accidentally deleted your settings file.

You accidentally moved your settings file.

The permissions on the file are incorrect. Looking at my install, it is set to 644.

The user associated with the file is incorrect. This one usually happens if you're like me and log into your server via root so that you can work with multiple accounts on the same login. Then your file uploads as belonging to "root" instead of the actual user.