System status blank - error message changing resource url

Question

I'm trying to set up two civicrm installs. both on same host but with different domains.

First install seems to be fine so far.

Second install has blank system status page.

I have previously fixed this by changing resource urls to absolute paths so I thought to try this (although I don't know why this should be required as the other install is fine!)

but trying to change the resource urls gives this error:

Sorry, due to an error, we are unable to fulfill your request at the moment. You may want to contact your administrator or service provider with more details about what action you were performing when this occurred. We can't load the requested web page. This page requires cookies to be enabled in your browser settings. Please check this setting and enable cookies (if they are not enabled). Then try again. If this error persists, contact the site administrator for assistance.

Site Administrators: This error may indicate that users are accessing this page using a domain or URL other than the configured Base URL. EXAMPLE: Base URL is http://example.org, but some users are accessing the page via http://www.example.org or a domain alias like http://myotherexample.org.

Error type: Could not find a valid session key.

What is wrong with this installation?

Answer 1

The system status page uses ajax requests. Browsers won't let ajax requests access data on a server that has a different hostname from the one where the request started.

So your second install can be accessed by a different domain but thinks it has another name. You can check this in your browser's developer tools -> network tab to see what url the system status page is trying to access.

For example you are visiting my2ndsite.org but the system status page is trying to access someOtherName.org.

If you state which http server (e.g. apache) and which CMS (e.g. drupal) and maybe some details about your virtual host config it would help give a more specific answer.