Apache is not serving static files from correct directory

Question

I am actually not sure if the title of the topic is actually the source of my issue but there are serious indications for this. I am not an expert in application servers such as apache so any help is most welcome.

I have installed successfully a Django application in a google cloud VM machine (Ubuntu 16.04 with static IP). I am able to access the page but there is no CSS loaded, missing javascript files (e.g. jquery) and several 500 Internal Server Errors.

To give a better idea of the errors, I attach a screenshot

The first think I thought is that I have not put the static files in the correct folder for the application server (www/../). But that was not the case.

Then I thought maybe the www folder doesn't have the right permissions. But that wasn't not the case. The user was set correct to: www-data.

My sites-enabled folder of apache2 include my project.conf file.

Then I tried to run this command:

 /usr/sbin/apache2 -S 

and I got that back:

VirtualHost configuration: *:80 localhost (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/geonode.conf:3) ServerRoot: "/etc/apache2" Main DocumentRoot: "/var/www/html" Main ErrorLog: "/var/log/apache2/error.log" Mutex proxy: using_defaults Mutex default: dir="/var/lock/apache2" mechanism=fcntl Mutex watchdog-callback: using_defaults PidFile: "/var/run/apache2/apache2.pid" Define: DUMP_VHOSTS Define: DUMP_RUN_CFG User: name="www-data" id=33 not_used Group: name="www-data" id=33 not_used 

As you can see the Main DocumentRoot is in the following folder: "/var/www/html" I was wondering if this could be the reason. Somehow apache is trying to read files from the wrong directory (correct one /var/www/project).

I tried to change the Main DocumentRoot by modifying the parameters in the apache.conf file but whenever I test the changes (/usr/sbin/apache2 -S) I still get the old directory.

I am not even sure that this could be the issue. Any ideas what is going on here?

Note1: I have tried the installation in a local VM and works fine Note2: I have tried in another remote VM and I get the same issue. EDIT

This is the apache error.log file:

[Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.356938 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] Internal Server Error: /favicon.ico [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357214 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] Traceback (most recent call last): [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357347 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 108, in get_response [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357402 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] response = middleware_method(request) [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357450 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/middleware/common.py", line 62, in process_request [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357496 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] host = request.get_host() [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357556 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/http/request.py", line 94, inget_host [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357603 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] if domain and validate_host(domain, allowed_hosts): [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357651 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/http/request.py", line 571, in validate_host [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357696 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] pattern = pattern.lower() [Fri Jun 01 03:42:58.357762 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 32199:tid 140244594628352] AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower' 

EDIT

This is how my configuration file in sites-enabled folder looks like:

WSGIDaemonProcess geonode user=www-data threads=15 processes=2 <VirtualHost *:80> Servername localhost ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost LimitRequestFieldSize 32760 LimitRequestLine 32760 ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log LogLevel warn CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined WSGIProcessGroup geonode WSGIPassAuthorization On WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/geonode/wsgi/geonode.wsgi <Directory "/var/www/geonode/"> Order allow,deny Options -Indexes ] Allow from all Require all granted </Directory> Alias /static/ /var/www/geonode/static/ Alias /uploaded/ /var/www/geonode/uploaded/ Alias /robots.txt /var/www/geonode/robots.txt <Directory "/var/www/geonode/uploaded/documents/"> Order allow,deny Deny from all </Directory> <Directory "/var/www/geonode/uploaded/layers/"> Order allow,deny Deny from all </Directory> <Directory "/var/www/geonode/static_root/"> Order allow,deny Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Allow from all Require all granted IndexOptions FancyIndexing </Directory> <Directory "/var/www/geonode/uploaded/thumbs/"> Order allow,deny Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Allow from all Require all granted IndexOptions FancyIndexing </Directory> <Directory "/var/www/geonode/uploaded/avatars/"> Order allow,deny Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Allow from all Require all granted IndexOptions FancyIndexing </Directory> <Directory "/var/www/geonode/uploaded/people_group/"> Order allow,deny Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Allow from all Require all granted IndexOptions FancyIndexing </Directory> <Directory "/var/www/geonode/uploaded/group/"> Order allow,deny Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Allow from all Require all granted IndexOptions FancyIndexing </Directory> <Proxy *> Order allow,deny Require all granted Allow from all </Proxy> ProxyPreserveHost On ProxyPass /geoserver http://localhost:8080/geoserver ProxyPassReverse /geoserver http://localhost:8080/geoserver </VirtualHost> 

Answer 1

Try to set the DocumentRoot like this:

<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /var/www/project </VirtualHost>