php composer errors NoSslException and TransportException. Unable to find the wrapper "https". Cannot install phpspreadsheet. Ubuntu20.04

(SOLVED BELOW) I am stuck for a few days now trying to effectively use composer to install phpspreadsheet on a php project I am working on for a client. Since phpspreadsheet requires php >= 7.2 I installed multiple versions of php (5.6, 7.1,2,3,4, 8.0) on my Linux drive (ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS focal). I uninstalled an Ampps server which only had php7.1. Apache2 was already installed. I installed mysql-server 8.0 after some difficulties (until I purged the ampps installation).

Composer did install globally, and I did initialize a basic composer.json in my webroot directory. A /vendor dir was created containing a /composer dir.

My most recent composer.json file:

{ "name": "john/t.cga.it8", "description": "cga website", "type": "project", "license": "proprietary", "authors": [ { "name": "John Loughran", "email": "" } ], "minimum-stability": "dev", "require": {}
}

If I run $ composer diagnose from the web root dir in the terminal I got the following error:

[Composer\Exception\NoSslException]
The openssl extension is required for SSL/TLS protection but is not available. If you can not enable the openssl extension, you can disable
this error, at your own risk, by setting the 'disable-tls' option to true.

Attempts to run $ composer update or upgrade stall with the same error.

When, as suggested, I configure composer to run without SSL using $ composer config -g -- disable-tls true I get the following, in full technicolor:

You are running Composer with SSL/TLS protection disabled.
Checking composer.json: OK
Checking platform settings: FAIL
The openssl extension is missing, which means that secure HTTPS transfers
are impossible.
If possible you should enable it or recompile php with --with-openssl
The zlib extension is not loaded, this can slow down Composer a lot.
If possible, enable it or recompile php with --with-zlib
A php.ini file does not exist. You will have to create one.
If you can not modify the ini file, you can also run `php -d option=value`
to modify ini values on the fly. You can use -d multiple times.
Checking git settings: OK
Checking http connectivity to packagist: OK
Checking https connectivity to packagist: FAIL
[Composer\Downloader\TransportException] The "
/packages.json" file could not be downloaded: Unable to find the wrapper
"https" - did you forget to enable it when you configured PHP?
failed to open stream: No such file or directory
Composer is configured to disable SSL/TLS protection. This will leave
remote HTTPS requests vulnerable to Man-In-The-Middle attacks.
Checking github.com rate limit: FAIL
[Composer\Downloader\TransportException] The "
/rate_limit" file could not be downloaded: Unable to find the wrapper
"https" - did you forget to enable it when you configured PHP?
failed to open stream: No such file or directory
Checking disk free space: OK
Checking pubkeys:
Tags Public Key Fingerprint: <I removed the public keys here and below>
Dev Public Key Fingerprint:
OK
Checking composer version: Warning: Accessing getcomposer.org over http which is an insecure protocol.
OK
Composer version: 2.0.14
PHP version: 7.4.16
PHP binary path: /usr/local/bin/php
OpenSSL version: missing
cURL version: missing, using php streams fallback, which reduces performance
zip: extension not loaded, unzip present

To answer some of the points in the errors:

1. Openssl IS installed, using snaps, in non standard locations. From the browser the php function loaded_extension('openssl') returns true. Based on advice from I made a symlink from where I found the openssl file as:$ ln -s /usr/bin/openssl /usr/local/ssl and similarly $ ln -s /usr/local/ssl/include /usr/include/openssl.

2. Based on advice from Luke Welling's books I installed JPEG, PNG, IMAP and zlib libraries.

3. To address the php.ini "missing" issue, from the terminal I got:

john@john-desktop:~$ php7.4 -i | grep -i openssl
Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'openssl' (tried:
/usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl (/usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory), /usr/lib/php/20190902
/openssl.so (/usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl.so: cannot open shared object
file: No such file or directory)) in Unknown on line 0
SSL Version => OpenSSL/1.1.1f
libSSH Version => libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib
openssl
OpenSSL support => enabled
OpenSSL Library Version => OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020
OpenSSL Header Version => OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020
Openssl default config => /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf
openssl.cafile => no value => no value
openssl.capath => no value => no value
Native OpenSSL support => enabled

Perhaps my symlinks are wrong? Some configuration seems wrong but I am not sure how to fix it.

I do have php.ini files. For php7.4 the main one that phpinfo() shows is loading (in the browser) is in /etc/php/7.4/fpm/. I have left this unaltered but added a phpcustomjl.ini file (with priority 01) in /etc/php/7.4/mods-enabled/ which is symlinked by the system from /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/. It shows up in phpinfo() from the browser among the Additional .ini files parsed. I learned to use $ sudo systemctl restart php7.4-fpm after making changes to it, so that these changes take effect. The relevant lines from the .ini file are:

extension=zlib
;extension=/usr/lib/ssl
;extension=/usr/bin/openssl
extension=openssl
;extension=php_openssl

$ php7.4 --ini shows that this file is loaded in the cli. It outputs:

Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'openssl' (tried: /usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl (/usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory), /usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl.so (/usr/lib/php/20190902/openssl.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)) in Unknown on line 0
Warning: Module 'curl' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /etc/php/7.4/cli
Loaded Configuration File: /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: /etc/php/7.4/cli/conf.d
Additional .ini files parsed: /etc/php/7.4/cli/conf.d/01-phpcustomjl.ini,

This shows that the custom ini file is being read from the cli, so some setting in it must be faulty perhaps?

4. When I run $ php -v in the terminal I get PHP 7.4.16 (cli). In the browser when I want to enable php7.4 (as it is currently) I use a .htaccess file in the web root, with SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/" in a directive.

I hope I have enough details for someone to figure out the problem, or suggest any strategies. Until then I am stuck! Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. :-) John

1 Answer

​SOLVED: I have so many separate installations of php installed that composer did not know in which one to look for openssl or for php.ini.

The output way below shows that from the CLI the php command was looking in a dir where no php.ini file existed (/usr/local/lib), while the php7.4 command looked in the right place.

I did uninstall and reinstall openssl and composer and was about to start on php when I tried the commands below.

Now I am able to use composer properly with no errors from my project dir simply by typing

project-dir$ php7.4 /home/john/bin/composer update

instead of

project-dir$ composer update

and so on. One major headache over! 🙂

john@john-desktop:~$ php -i | grep -w ini RETURNED Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /usr/local/lib Scan this dir for additional .ini files => (none) Additional .ini files parsed => (none) user_ini.filename => .user.ini => .user.ini

john@john-desktop:~$ php7.4 -i | grep -w ini RETURNED Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc/php/7.4/cli Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini Scan this dir for additional .ini files => /etc/php/7.4/cli/conf.d Additional .ini files parsed => /etc/php/7.4/cli/conf.d/01-phpcustomjl.ini, /etc/php/7.4/cli/conf.d/10-mysqlnd.ini, …....../php/7.4/cli/conf.d/20-zip.ini user_ini.filename => .user.ini => .user.ini

​ Another resource that helped me as a workaround was a website that allows you to install php libraries using composer on their server and then download the files from there. Unfortunately I could only download one package successfully which was phpspreadsheet using their download function and would have been unable to download and integrate others successfully due to some glitch in their system (or its interaction with mine). Still, it allowed me to convert my phpexcel successfully to phpspreadsheet and kept me going until I solved this problem. Their website is and they charge a modest fee for the service.