Joomla! is a powerful Open Source Content Management System. It makes the job of hosting a content driven web site easy with its user-friendly administration module that can be accessed over the web. That was the reason why the Dissect Framework team chose Joomla! to host its project web site on Sourceforge.net.

Even though the installation proceeds without much issues, working with Joomla! on Sourceforge does throw up a few nasty surprises. Here is one of the problems that users may face while trying to get Joomla! to work on Sourceforge.net.

What is the problem?
When trying to log-in to the administration console, Joomla! keeps throwing the user back to the login page in spite of correct login credentials. Only one in ten to fifteen attempts succeeds. But a subsequent click sends the user back to the login page. This problem is sometimes called the "admin login loop" problem.

Why does it happen?
This problem happens due to the clustered environment at Sourceforge in which Joomla! has problems maintaining a file based PHP session.

How to solve it?
After installation, Joomla! needs to have a directory in which to store sessions. Even though the /tmp directory appears writable to it, it does not work as a location to store the session information. The solution is to create a directory in the following path:
/tmp/persistent/<project_name>

After the directory is created, apply 777 permissions on it. Different combinations were tried out on the permissions but 777 was the one that worked.
Now create a .htaccess file in the Joomla root directory containing the line:
php_value session.save_path /tmp/persistent/<project_name>

Please note, the <project_name> is the UNIX name given to a project on approval by Sourceforge.net.

Illustrative Example
Project name(UNIX): foo
Path to store session information: /tmp/persistent/foo
.htaccess file entry: php_value session.save_path /tmp/persistent/foo