LinuxHostingSupport

“phpMyAdmin: Cannot start session without errors” is a common error while accessing phpmyadmin on a cPanel server. The problem relates to either of the following listed issues OR both

a) session.save_path parameter is not set properly in the phpMyAdmin configuration.
b) Ownership of the ‘phpmyadmin’ directory is incorrect.

1) To set “session.save_path”,  edit the phpMyAdmin configuration file

# pico /usr/local/cpanel/base/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/config.inc.php

Search for the parameter and set the value to /tmp

session.save_path =  /tmp

2) To correct the ownership of the directory, goto /var/cpanel/userhomes directory and execute

# chown cpanelphpmyadmin.cpanelphpmyadmin cpanelphpmyadmin -R

Once the issues are corrected, open phpMyAdmin in a different window ( to eliminate cache problem) and it should work fine.