403 after new DocumentRoot

[george15]

I am a somewhat new to ubutnu. I've looked for the answer before posting here, but found nothing helpfull.
Sorry in advance if I missed something abvious.
I installed ubuntu 13.10 server ( ip address 192.168.1.103 )
When I went to 192.168.1.103 in the browser I got:
--------------------------------------------
It works!

This is the default web page for this server.

The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet.
--------------------------------------------

Then I modified 000-default.conf from
DocumentRoot /var/www
to
DocumentRoot /home/me/www

Now in the browser I am getting 403 :
Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Apache/2.4.6 (Ubuntu) Server at 192.168.1.103 Port 80

Why is moving doc root gives permission error?

[drmrgd]

I don't know a ton about apache, but the file that I thought should be edited is in /etc/apache2/sites-available/default. If that's indeed the file you changed, did you make sure to change both the 'DocumentRoot' line and the 'Directory' lines? As a quick test, I just did what you tried and it seemed to work OK.

EDIT One more thing that I forgot to say, I think by default, the directory should be owned by 'www-data'. You might also try changing ownership of the directory.

[george15]

In ubuntu 13.10 default became 000-default.conf
I do not see Directory lines in there.
I did not think permissions mattered since the directory has world read permission.
Either way adding www-data access did not change anything.

[nerdtron]

The directory has world read permission - yes, but how about the upper folders?
Be sure to have 755 on the folders and parent folder of the directory you want to use. Access 403 is permission issues.

[sandyd]

In ubuntu 13.10 default became 000-default.conf
I do not see Directory lines in there.
I did not think permissions mattered since the directory has world read permission.
Either way adding www-data access did not change anything.

hope it has passthrough permissions

btw, try this

su www-data
bash
cd /

now, start navigating one level at a time, until you get permission denied error.
Fix the permissions on that folder, and you should be fine

Also, make sure you have an index file - directory listings are disabled by default and will result in an error as well.