Magento 2.0: main.CRITICAL: Broken reference

Question

I am trying to install fresh Magento 2.0 to my centOS 6.5, php 5.6.19 via composer + browser install wizard. I have followed all the steps and install is success. All file permission are modified as suggested. My apache server is running with nobody:nobody user. But it's showing Internal Server Error in frontend and backend. Cleared cache (php bin/magento cache:flush), reindexed. Also changed the file/folder ownership to different user/group, and nobody:nobody too.

Can anyone please help me get out of this issue ?

NOTE: A localhost similar install process in php 7.0.1. is a success with even the data import using data import module. Could it be due to nobody user or maybe php ver. 5.6.19 ? Your hints and suggestions is highly appreciated.

cpanel error log shows this:

[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'global_notices' element cannot be added as child to 'global.notices', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'logo' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'global.search' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'user' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'menu' element cannot be added as child to 'page.menu', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'breadcrumbs' element cannot be added as child to 'page.breadcrumbs', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'formkey' element cannot be added as child to 'page.formkey', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'page.title' element cannot be added as child to 'main.top', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'messages' element cannot be added as child to 'page.messages', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'page.actions.toolbar' element cannot be added as child to 'page.main.actions', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'legal' element cannot be added as child to 'footer', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'system_messages' element cannot be added as child to 'notifications', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'unread_system_messages' element cannot be added as child to 'notifications', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'notification_window' element cannot be added as child to 'notifications', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'notification.messages' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'header.inner.left' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'header.inner.right' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'logo' tries to reorder itself towards '', but their parents are different: 'header' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'global.search' tries to reorder itself towards 'logo', but their parents are different: 'header' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'user' tries to reorder itself towards '', but their parents are different: 'header' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'page.actions.toolbar' tries to reorder itself towards '', but their parents are different: 'page.main.actions' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'system_messages' tries to reorder itself towards '', but their parents are different: 'notifications' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'unread_system_messages' tries to reorder itself towards 'system_messages', but their parents are different: 'notifications' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'notification.messages' tries to reorder itself towards 'user', but their parents are different: 'header' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'header.inner.left' tries to reorder itself towards '', but their parents are different: 'header' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'header.inner.right' tries to reorder itself towards 'header.inner.left', but their parents are different: 'header' and '' respectively. [] []
[2016-03-26 17:49:06] main.CRITICAL: Broken reference: the 'global.search' tries to reorder itself towards 'notification.messages', but their parents are different: 'header.inner.right' and '' respectively. [] []

Here is the list displayed while doing ls -al:

drwxrwxr-x 13 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 26 16:51 ./
drwxrwxrwx 23 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 27 02:01 ../
drwxrwxr-x  5 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:06 app/
drwxrwxr-x  2 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 24 07:48 bin/
drwxrwxr-x  3 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 22 19:05 cgi-bin/
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody    437404 Mar 21 10:06 CHANGELOG.md
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      2095 Mar 21 10:07 composer.json
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody    318476 Mar 21 10:07 composer.lock
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      3425 Mar 21 10:07 CONTRIBUTING.md
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody     10011 Mar 21 10:06 CONTRIBUTOR_LICENSE_AGREEMENT.html
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody       631 Mar 21 10:06 COPYING.txt
drwxrwxr-x  4 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:07 dev/
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody         0 Mar 23 07:30 error_log
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      1032 Mar 21 10:07 .gitignore
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      2918 Mar 21 10:06 Gruntfile.js
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      7577 Mar 23 16:33 .htaccess
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      6419 Mar 21 10:06 .htaccess.sample
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      1371 Mar 24 07:18 index.php
drwxrwxr-x  4 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:07 lib/
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody     10374 Mar 21 10:07 LICENSE_AFL.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody     10364 Mar 21 10:06 LICENSE.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      4108 Mar 21 10:07 nginx.conf.sample
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      1427 Mar 21 10:06 package.json
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      1659 Mar 21 10:07 .php_cs
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody       804 Mar 21 10:06 php.ini.sample
drwxrwxr-x  2 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:07 phpserver/
drwxrwxr-x  7 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 22 18:38 pub/
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      4388 Mar 21 10:06 README.md
drwxrwxr-x  7 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:07 setup/
-rw-rw-r--  1 nobody nobody      3731 Mar 21 10:07 .travis.yml
drwxrwxr-x  7 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:06 update/
drwxrwxr-x 14 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 26 15:34 var/
drwxrwxr-x 28 nobody nobody      4096 Mar 21 10:07 vendor/

Answer 1

Since I didn't receive an answer to my question, I'm adding the steps to resolve it.

This is basically a permission issue. You need to be logged in as full previledged user or a su user in your server terminal. Run this in your magento 2.x installation root:

chown -R [apache-user:apache-group] .; && find . -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \; && find . -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
/usr/bin/php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy;
/usr/bin/php bin/magento cache:flush;

Answer 2

I had faced similar issue. We can check the apache or Nginx error log. In my case, there was a syntax error in phtml. Resolving it fixed the issue.

Answer 3

Try for the "compose update"

to the below kind of error

2024-01-21T12:53:07.309317+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'tracking' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] [] [2024-01-21T12:53:07.316254+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'notification_area' element cannot be added as child to 'notifications', because the latter doesn't exist [] [] [2024-01-21T12:53:07.317196+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'unread_system_messages' element cannot be added as child to 'notifications', because the latter doesn't exist [] [] [2024-01-21T12:53:07.318044+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'notification_window' element cannot be added as child to 'notifications', because the latter doesn't exist [] [] [2024-01-21T12:53:07.319384+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'notification.messages' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] [] [2024-01-21T12:53:07.322232+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'global_notices' element cannot be added as child to 'global.notices', because the latter doesn't exist [] [] [2024-01-21T12:53:07.323310+00:00] main.INFO: Broken reference: the 'logo' element cannot be added as child to 'header', because the latter doesn't exist [] []