Zend Debugger Error: Zend Debugger: Cannot read a valid value of zend_debugger.httpd_uid or zend.httpd_uid, will not perform dropping of privileges

Question

I have this error after installing Zend Debugger on a Ubuntu server with PHP 5.2.6 and Apache2:

Zend Debugger: Cannot read a valid value of zend_debugger.httpd_uid or zend.httpd_uid, will not perform dropping of privileges

Apache will not start, it creates an httpd process that netstat shows is listening to ports 80 and 443, but the pid file is never written and it's not serving requests.

Answer 1

I wanted to post this question because there is NO good info on Google for this.

The solution to my issue was that I had ionCube installed. IonCube and Zend Debugger do not play nice together.

I uninstalled ionCube (no longer needed it) and all is well.

Answer 2

This link by Jeffery helped me. I hope that it does to you http://www.jefferyfernandez.id.au/2010/08/28/zend-debugger-cannot-read-a-valid-value-of-zend_debugger-httpd_uid/