Laravel ``$user->can("...")`` throws server error 500 - php

Question

I host a SPA with a Laravel API on AWS (EC2). When you fill out this form: http://ec2-52-59-214-55.eu-central-1.compute.amazonaws.com/register (feel free to do so), the server throws an error with a response code of 500, right at the point where a $user->can("...") method is called. I developed the app localy and everything worked fine there.
Local environment:
Windows 10 / XAMPP - Apache 2.4.41
PHP 7.4.4
Laravel 7.5.2
Server environment:
Ubuntu 18.04 / Apache 2.4.29
PHP 7.4.6
Laravel 7.5.2
It uses spatie/laravel-permission for role management, which also affects the can method provided by the Laravel framework.
Here is the code causing the error:
echo "Before store<br>";
if($user->can("store files")) { echo "Inner store";
// Store avatar
if(isset($data["avatar"])) {
if(!$data["avatar"]->isValid()) {
return reponse(null, 422);
}
// Check if avatar is new
$current_avatar = $user->getAvatarAttribute();
$store_images = get_new_files([$data["avatar"]], [$current_avatar]);
if(isset($store_images[0])) {
// Create asset for avatar
$new_avatar = create_asset([
"file" => $store_images[0],
"user_id" => $user->id,
"type" => "avatar"
]);
$new_avatar->save();
}
}
}
echo "After store<br>";
And here the error which I guess means, that the script failed as soon as if($user->can("...)) got called.
Do you have any idea how to fix that?

Answer 1

Logging errors are fairly common, especially when configured as a daily log.
https://laravel.com/docs/7.x/logging#configuration
Specifically look at the section on "Configuring The Single and Daily Channels" as this allows the permissions of the log file to be set on creation.
Temporarily, you can change the permissions for you logs like so:
sudo chmod 644 storage/log/.