asp.net on mono Failed to map path '/' - asp.net

Question

I installed mono from source on a Centos 6.4 to test a msc asp web site.
It seems to work fine all but
some pages return this error
System.InvalidOperationException
Failed to map path '/'
Description: HTTP 500.Error processing request.
Details: Non-web exception. Exception origin (name of application or object):
System.Web.
at System.Web.HttpRequest.MapPath (System.String virtualPath, System.String baseVirtualDir, Boolean allowCrossAppMapping) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.HttpRequest.MapPath (System.String virtualPath) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.MapPath (System.String virtualPath) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Hosting.DefaultVirtualPathProvider.DirectoryExists (System.String virtualDir) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.FindWebConfig (System.String path, System.Boolean& inAnotherApp) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration (System.String path, System.String site, System.String locationSubPath, System.String server, System.String userName, System.String password, Boolean fweb) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.GetSection (System.String sectionName, System.String path, System.Web.HttpContext context) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.GetSection (System.String sectionName, System.String path) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Security.SqliteMembershipProvider.Initialize (System.String name, System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection config) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Configuration.ProvidersHelper.InstantiateProvider (System.Configuration.ProviderSettings providerSettings, System.Type providerType) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Configuration.ProvidersHelper.InstantiateProviders (System.Configuration.ProviderSettingsCollection configProviders, System.Configuration.Provider.ProviderCollection providers, System.Type providerType) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Web.Security.Membership..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
I did the same thing on a debian and It works fine.
Do you have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Find all your Server.MapPaths and change from
Server.MapPaths(#"\")
to
Server.MapPaths(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar)

Answer 2

Have you checked the paths in your view files? Just as a reminder:
'/' like in <script src="/myScript.js"></script> maps to the DocumentRoot folder defined on your /sites-available/.conf, it may be something like /var/www
'~/' like in <script src="#Url.Content("~/scripts/script1.js")"></script> maps to the path where your mvc application is, it may be somethin like /var/www/site1
'../' would try to access one folder above the DocumentRoot folder. This may actually be forbbiden by your apache site configuration (recommended).
Also note that if your run your mvc app from monodevelop/xspServer the document root and the mvc application path are actually the same but if you install your mvc app on apache they may not be the same path.

Answer 3

This error occurs because there is a bug in mono System.Web
It contain this check (https://github.com/mono/mono/blob/mono-3.2.1-branch/mcs/class/System.Web/System.Web/HttpRequest.cs#L1565)
if (!isAppVirtualPath && !virtualPath.StartsWith (appVirtualPath, RuntimeHelpers.StringComparison))
throw new InvalidOperationException (String.Format ("Failed to map path '{0}'", virtualPath));
To fix this, you can comment those lines in Mono surce code and re-compile Mono.
This bug is in latest Mono also.
Links:
https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=24457

Answer 4

I had the same error, with exactly the same stacktrace.
It only occured on the first request when apache was just started. The error did not occur after the first request.
I solved this by removing WebMatrix.WebData.dll
This will probably have some consequences when you use SimpleMembershipProvider and it might affect OpenAuth functionality on MVC4.