cakephp routing - pages_controller/home.ctp error only on debug=0 - cakephp

Question

When core.php debug is set at 1 or 2 and I browse to the root of my cakephp site I get expected result, the page served is correct, ie, PagesController default() action -> home.ctp
However if I change debug to 0 I get the the following error:
Error: The requested address '/' was
not found on this server.
My router.php file contains:
Router::connect('/', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display', 'home'));
/**
* ...and connect the rest of 'Pages' controller's urls.
*/
Router::connect('/pages/*', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display'));
I have tried deleting all cache files and removing CAKE cookies, and other actions work as expected when visited directly, eg, /user, /groups, etc. Problem only occurs when hitting the root '/'.
I am using cakephp 1.3.4 and ACL + Auth.
Edit ** I'm including the code for the default() function from pages_controller.php
/**
* Displays a view
*
* #param mixed What page to display
* #access public
*/
function display() {
$path = func_get_args();
$count = count($path);
if (!$count) {
$this->redirect('/');
}
$page = $subpage = $title_for_layout = null;
if (!empty($path[0])) {
$page = $path[0];
}
if (!empty($path[1])) {
$subpage = $path[1];
}
if (!empty($path[$count - 1])) {
$title_for_layout = Inflector::humanize($path[$count - 1]);
}
$this->set(compact('page', 'subpage', 'title_for_layout'));
$this->render(implode('/', $path));
}

Answer 1

OK the answer is so simple it is embarassing: in home.ctp there is the following code:
if (Configure::read() == 0):
$this->cakeError('error404');
endif;
Configure::read() by default read var debug - therefore it throws this error if debug is set to 0.
Thanks to Benjamin for putting me on the right track. Cake is wonderful and at the same time infuriating until you know the basics!

Answer 2

imho this behavior makes sense, as you turn debug to 0 if your app goes into production (something tells me, that you don't want to show the home page as your entry page). The home.ctp which is displayed by the pages controller lives in
./cake/libs/view/pages/home.ctp
of your installation. But if you are in production you want to display the static pages from the
./app/views/pages
directory, which is the task of the pages controller. This directory is empty in a fresh cake installation.

Answer 3

I would like to update code for cakephp version 2.4.3.
as on cakephp version above code is replaced with
if (!Configure::read('debug')):
throw new NotFoundException();
endif;
as when debug is set to '0' it throws exception. you can use below code to make it run properly:
if ((Configure::read('debug')==='')):
throw new NotFoundException();
endif;