Updating, recompiling, VirtualHost templates, customizations, php safemode … systemd[12345]: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/sbin/httpd: Permission denied

A few reports of issues on Debian 8 boxes with the following error are preventing httpd from starting up:

root@server:/usr/local/directadmin/custombuild# systemctl start httpd
Job for httpd.service failed. See ‘systemctl status httpd.service’ and ‘journalctl -xn’ for details.
root@server:/usr/local/directadmin/custombuild# systemctl status httpd.service
httpd.service – The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2016-01-26 12:16:17 MSK; 10s ago
Process: 14703 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -k start (code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE)

Jan 26 12:16:17 server.domain.com systemd[14703]: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/sbin/httpd: Permission denied

 

 

 

Where the likely causes is a symbolic link

/tmp -> /var/tmp
or
/var/tmp -> /tmp

Neither /tmp nor /var/tmp should be symbolic links.
The simply solution is to simply delete the giving link and create a 2nd folder instead
Eg: if you had /var/tmp -> /tmp, then type:

rm -f /var/tmp
mkdir /var/tmp
chmod 1777 /var/tmp

 

---

From a systemd perspective, a less desirable workaround is to edit:

/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service

and replace this line:

PrivateTmp=true

with these two lines:

PrivateTmp=false
NoNewPrivileges=yes

and then you reload the systemctl deamon:

systemctl daemon-reload

and then httpd should be able to start up:

root@server:/etc/systemd/system# systemctl start httpd
root@server:/etc/systemd/system# systemctl status httpd.service
httpd.service – The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2016-01-26 12:19:04 MSK; 11s ago
Process: 17276 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -k start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 17284 (httpd)
CGroup: /lxc/101/system.slice/httpd.service

Jan 26 12:19:04 server.domain.com systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
Jan 26 12:19:14 server.domain.com systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

We will continue to monitor for other reports and we will consider changing the default boot script if it’s a common problem.

---

One other finding was that “localhost” couldn’t be use, even though “127.0.0.1 localhost” should tune in the /etc/hosts.
Change the host value in various places to 127.0.0.1 seeming to work…  although this might be an unrelated reverse dns issue (not yet sure)

./build: line 12786: autoreconf: command not found

If you are trying to compile apache, but run into this error:

Configuring httpd-2.4.18
./build: line 12786: autoreconf: command not found

try updating autoconf and automake:

 

 

 

and then try the apache compile again.