Upgrading from 2.0.13 to 2.0.14 broke our forum

[probeman]

First off- I know next to nothing about UNIX server systems, but yesterday I was having issues where I couldn't edit a user post and change an attachment- basically after clicking Modify the page would just sit there forever- so I decided to check if there was an update and saw that I was at 2.0.13 and 2.0.14 was available.

I think I clicked the install button, and the install seemed to go too quickly, but then I started getting an error when trying to access forum main web page about "function name must be string in... htdocs/smf/Sources/Load.php on line 133.

So I called network solutions (our domain provider) and we tried to update the php to 5.6 and the sql as well, and now the page loads with a

500: Internal server error

Network Solutions MyTime Support says SMF is an unsupported product so they won't help.   I'm getting desperate, we have a very active user forum, and users are starting to write me that they can't access the user forum.

I tried running the repair smf from the network solutions My Applications page but that didn't help either.

There is a re-install smf option, but they say I would lose all my content.  I have used the database backup recently so in principle I do have the content backed up.  The attachments are in the attachments folder and the images are in the Gallery folder, so I guess they should be OK.

What can I do to get my user forum back up?  Help, please.

[Illori]

what is the complete error message you are receiving?

[probeman]

500: Internal server error

This error is generated when a script running on the server could not be implemented or permissions are incorrectly assigned for files or directories

Troubleshooting suggestions:

Temporarily disable any rewrite rules by renaming your .htaccess file if it exists.

Ensure that any CGI or Perl scripts have at least .755. permissions.

If trying to run PHP and you get this error, you may have an invalid php.ini in your /cgi-bin, or may be missing your php.dat file in this folder.

[Colin]

Can you check the server error log and please give use the full error message.

[probeman]

I called network solutions and they said that error logging was not on, so they turned it on but now they say it takes 24 hours to generate the first error log!

So as soon as I get the error log I will post it here.

Thank-you so much for your help on this.
john

PS Too bad that even their MyTime Support which they charge me for won't help with SMF issues.

[probeman]

Will we be able to get the forum back up to where it was since my last database backup (from the Admin web page)? 

I also have an ftp backup of the attachments and Gallery image folders.

I hope nothing is lost, this is a very busy scientific forum:

probesoftware.com\smf

with lots of useful info for many labs around the world...
john

[Illori]

maybe worth looking for a new host if they dont have error logging on by default.

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Backup

[Colin]

Don't worry, none of your data should be lost.

[probeman]

Maybe so.

I've been backing up my forum using the SMF Database Maintenance web page in the admin web page.

So I think everything is backed up. 

[probeman]

Don't worry, none of your data should be lost.

I'm hoping it's all there!

[Illori]

you should NOT be using the admin panel backup. see the link i posted above.

[probeman]

I don't know if this is interesting, this all started when a user was trying to load a 15 MB pdf as an attachment, but whenever I tried to download the pdf Acrobat would say it was corrupted.

The user said she could download the pdf she uploaded in Acrobat, but I could not. We tried a couple different things removing the post, but whenever I tried to edit her attachment and load a jpg for example, the page would go blank and never appear again.  Then if I tried to go to that #new post, it would be listed under Recent Posts, but if I clicked on the post, the topic would never load.

Not sure if this helps but now I notice that my older database backups (the sql.gz files) slowly increase in size over time, say 2,000 KB, then 2,200 KB, etc.  But the last database backup I did shows a sql.gz file of 10,000 KB.  Almost as though the large pdf file got stuck in the database as opposed to the attachments folder.

Is that possible?

Should I try and restore an older database backup?  Or wait for the error log first?  How does one restore a database backup without the web page loading properly?   Do I unzip it and then ftp it?  What about the file permissions?

Sorry I'm kind of getting panicked.
john

[probeman]

you should NOT be using the admin panel backup. see the link i posted above.

Yes, I saw that.  But why is it there if it's not supposed to be used?

I have also downloaded everything using ftp, so I have all that from last month at least.
john

[probeman]

I've pretty regularly used Filezilla (in binary mode) to download the smf folder, so hopefully that data is all OK.  I have that from last month at least.

Another crappy thing about network solutions, that they didn't tell me, but I found out today, is that once your site goes over 2 GB, they stop automatically backing it up for you!

Jeez.
john

[Illori]

the database cannot be backed up with FTP.

[probeman]

the database cannot be backed up with FTP.

OK, good to know. 

I do see a list of the smf databases backed up every day in the Manage Databases page on Network Solutions, so I guess once the forum page finally is loadable again, I will be able to restore the database from any day in the last 10 days or so.

Interestingly, the sizes of these recent database backups look much more reasonable at 2,700 KB, as opposed to my last manual backup from the smf admin page which was 10,000 KB, compared to last month's backup at 2,200 KB or so.

[Illori]

did you read the link i provided? it tells you how to do your own database backup.

[probeman]

did you read the link i provided? it tells you how to do your own database backup.

Yes, I looked over it and it seems very helpful.  Once I get the darn forum working again I will definitely be doing that.

I guess I'll have to wait at least until an error log is generated overnight so you guys can figure out why the main forum page won't load.

[Kindred]

a 500 error indicates an error in php with the FILES...   so, nothing that has happened would have affected your database at all.
there should be no need to restore any database.

[Illori]

while you are waiting, do you know what version of php is running on your server? 2.0.14 requires php 5.4 or higher. this may also help with the error you are getting.