Nginx with php7.1-fpm showing blank php pages

[admin]

<h2>Background &amp; Environment</h2>

I am attempting to deploy a Nginx server with PHP7.1-FPM, following the instructions <a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/hosting-wordpress-yourself-nginx-php-mysql/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> and <a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/hosting-wordpress-yourself-setting-up-sites/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>:

<ul>
<li>The server is Ubuntu

16.04

</li>
<li>Nginx version is

1.13.3

</li>
<li>PHP version is

PHP 7.1.9-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Sep  2 2017 05:56:43) ( NTS )

</li>
</ul>

I am fairly new to all this, so compared to a seasoned linux admin, I am still somewhat ignorant of what's what, but I know enough to handle the basics.

<h2>The Issue</h2>

When I browse to a URL with as

inspired01.DOMAIN.com/application/

I get a blank page. There is no entry in the nginx error log.

When I browse to a URL such as

inspired01.DOMAIN.com/application/index.php

I get a 404 error.

<h2>Tried so far</h2>

I have attempted the suggestions in the stackoverflow post <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15423500/nginx-showing-blank-php-pages?s=1|3.8737">here</a>. As far as I could tell, my configuration already has the suggested entries that people are saying fixed this problem for them.

I was not able to resolve the issue with those answers. As that post is a few years old, I am thinking perhaps requirements have changed since then.

<h2>My Nginx configuration</h2>

My

nginx.conf

is:

user inspired786;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    multi_accept on;
}

http { 
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 25;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    server_tokens off;
    client_max_body_size 64m;

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    gzip on;
    gzip_disable "msie6";

    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 2;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    # Virtual Host Configs

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;
    server_name _;
    return 444;
    }
}

The site's conf file is:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name inspired01.DOMAIN.com;

    access_log /home/inspired786/DOMAIN.com/logs/access.log;
    error_log /home/inspired786/DOMAIN.com/logs/error.log;

    root /home/inspired786/DOMAIN.com/public/;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

<h2>Logs</h2>

No entry is generated in the Nginx server or site log.

No relevant entry is recorded to the FPM log at

/var/log/php7.1-fpm.log

<h2>Question</h2>

I would like to know if there is anything obvious missing or wrong in this configuration, which would potentially result in php files not being parsed.

<h1>UPDATE</h1>

As per comment below, pasting here so anyone new sees it:

<blockquote>
I enabled

debug_connection

and went through the masses of log output
that produced. As far as I could tell, there were no issues being
reported. Well, no obvious

errors

or

warnings

. So I created a
basic

hello.php

file including a basic echo command, and also
phpinfo. The file worked fine. So I suspect the issue is something
else. Continuing to investigate.
</blockquote>

Consider this question on hold for now, whilst I look into some other possibilities for the blank pages issue.