I have successfully installed Phusion passenger + Apache 2 + Rails 3.1 program + git on a linux Debian 6. I ran passenger-install-apache2-module and followed the configuration instructions. I followed also the setup instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RubyOnRails#Configure%20Apache

My program is in /var/www/myrailsproject and runs fine on webrick on my mac. When going to myhomepage.com (example) I only see directory listing. By preventing directory listing and setting Options -Indexes in < Document> tag in /etc/apache2/sites-available default or myhomepage.com I get an error on my website:

Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server. Apache/2.2.19 (Debian) Server at myhomepage.com Port 80

In /etc/apache2/apache.conf I added:

ServerName myhomepage.com
LoadModule passenger_module /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-3.0.8/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so PassengerRoot /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-3.0.8 PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby1.8

In /etc/apache2/sites-available myhomepage.com:

< VirtualHost *:80>

 ServerName myhomepage.com
 ServerAlias www.myhomepage.com
 DocumentRoot /var/www/myrailsproject/public
 ErrorLog /var/www/logs/error.log
 CustomLog /var/www/logs/access.log combined
 RailsEnv test
 RackEnv test
 RailsBaseURI /mayrailsproject
 < Directory /var/www/myrailsproject>
            Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
            AllowOverride all
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
 < /Directory>
 < Directory /var/www/myrailsproject/public>
     AllowOverride All
    Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
 < /Directory>
    RailsSpawnMethod smart
    PassengerPoolIdleTime 1000
    RailsAppSpawnerIdleTime 0
    RailsFrameworkSpawnerIdleTime 0
    PassengerMaxRequests 5000
    PassengerStatThrottleRate 5

< /VirtualHost>

I think I have tried all possible combinations of values and variables in < Directory> (and < Directory />, < Directory /var/www> etc.)

the dafault looks like:

< VirtualHost *:80 >

    ServerName myhomepage.com
    RailsBaseURI /myrailsproject
    DocumentRoot /var/www/myrailsproject/public
    RackEnv test
    RailsEnv test
    < Directory /var/www/myrailsproject>
        Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
    < /Directory>

    <Directory /root/public/myrailsproject/public>
            Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
    </Directory>

    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
            AllowOverride None
            Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    LogLevel warn
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
< Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
    Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
< /Directory>

< /VirtualHost>

So I wonder why my rails project is not being run, only directory listing. I do not have any index file in my project, routes.rb routes to root :to => 'static_pages#home' I think all permissions are as they should be. Thanks a lot in advance Regards Íris