15-Aug-2012

More investigations
I have done a bit more investigation on the PHP issue.
First, I created a procedure in which I can set the PHP environment as /JOB logicals so I can do the tests without interferendce with the access over the Internet.
Next, I checked the WordPress versions I haev installed. Apart from 2.6.3, I have installed 2.6.5, 2.8.2 and 3.4.1. I tested each of them after setting the PHP version to use (either 5.2.6 of 5.3.14), directly on the root directory of that WP version – so VERY basic.
Even using 5.2.6 I had problems – where this wasn’t the case a few days ago: On each of the blogs, PHP complained a file could not be located:

$ set def WP:[000000] ! the root directory of that WP version
$ php index.php

X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.6
Content-type: text/html

<br />
<b>Warning</b>: require(/WEB_DISK2/private/wp263/wp-includes/class.wp-dependencies.php) [<a
href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: failed to open stream: no such file or directory in
<b>/WEB_DISK2/private/wp263/WP-INCLUDES/script-loader.php</b> on line <b>3</b><br />
<br />
<b>Fatal error</b>: require() [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: Failed
opening required '/WEB_DISK2/private/wp263/wp-includes/class.wp-dependencies.php' (include_path='.:/php_root/000000') in
<b>/WEB_DISK2/private/wp263/WP-INCLUDES/script-loader.php</b> on line <b>3</b><br />

The problem here is that this filename contains a dot: the file does exists:

$ dir [.wp-includes]class.wp-dependencies.php

Directory WEB_DISK2:[private.wp263.WP-INCLUDES]

class^
⁁.wp-dependencies.php;1

Total of 1 file.
(except in WP34, but that is to be expected: I didn’t change the file there)

The only reason I can think of is that the tests a few days ago – or work done yesterday – has removed something….

The same runs using PHP 5.3.14 didn’t run into this issue, even with the older WP versions; apart from the ‘depricated’ messages, any version runs into error:
PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in
/sysblog/000000/wp-includes/class.wp-styles.php on line 72

It means the file – including the dotted name – is actually found.
WP 2.8.2 didn’t show the ‘depricated’ messages, so that one seemed to be Ok for PHP 5.3. But there was this same error in the end…
The WP3.4 gave a slightly different message:
PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '>' in /web_disk2/private/wp34/wp-blog-header.php on line 19
So not ‘unexpected $end’; it could mean theer si something else wrong – but since it’s off-the-sheld, ist simply should work…

Bu the web has no trouble with it – so I tried – with PHP 5.2.6 – and removed the private PHP logicals, and used the /SYSTEM/EXEC defined once: Same problems….But for the web access, nothing changed: it simply runs like it has done for months….

Next, I redefined thet SYSMGR blog to run from WP 2.8.2 – being the latest version before WP 3.0; And by access from the web, I remembered why it wasn’t released before: It uses some form of Redirect which causes a loop when the mapping in WASD isn’t altered: accoring the WATCH output, it is obvious that is does: time after time, it runs into the bolded line:

redirect /sysblog /sysblog/index.php
redirect /sysblog/ /sysblog/index.php?
redirect /sysblog/**/ /sysblog/*/index.php?
exec /sysblog/**.php (phpwasd:)/sysblog/*.php \
ods=5 script=syntax=unix script=query=none map=once
pass /sysblog/* /sysblog/* ods=5 search=none dir=noaccess

Quite likely that WP 3.4 runs into the same problem

So I set things up to use 2.6.5, and now the blogs run on that version; there is yet another issue to be tested: Does WP 3.4 require another mapping…

PMAS license
The new license has arrived and is now installed. Just in time 🙂

29-Mar-2009

Busy weekend
It has been quite a busy weekend, in terms of system management.
First, I asked the hardware shop on the behaviour of the graphics card – it even crashed when closing a window. According the technician, it’s a sign the card in at the end of it’s lifetime. It’s not designed to work in a 1400 x 1050 resolution, AND running a heavy application like Google Earth, AND be able to handle the extra features that the ATI software could set it to, of the nice features build in the Linux environment, AND do anything fancy like fast changes in the background.
So I purchased a more modern card – this time, Nvidia based. It means a bit higher noise volume but way lower than the older card without adjustment by software. I could have taken a card with no fan – just a heat sink, but that would limit the abilities that I foresee I’ll use.
To built it in, required preparing both Windows installations, push the card in and load the software (drivers and utilities) in both. That took a few hours. Next was the Ubuntu installation, it was signalled that there was another driver needed, I had to redo some of the settings (screen resolution, fanciness of the screen and so on, but it was rather painless in the end.
Next year’s licenses
Next job was to install the new licenses on Diana. The file was stored binary, copied that way to VMS, and I edited the file to make it more readable. That alone was a nasty job, but with the aid of the “learn” and “repeat” facilities of TPU it was done in less than 30 minutes. Then, all new licenses have been installed and loaded.
Software update and new installation
Last but not least, there was an update to Soymail – the web-base mail client – and a new program by Mark Daniel, that I can use as a template for my own ‘blogging’ program – and to redo the website homepage more easily. But there are still some things to discover. It doesn’t exactly do what I would expect. Biggest difficulty: how to get started…
Well, it’s still BETA 🙂
Apart from this software, I think to update WordPress to it’s latest version (2.7.1) no matter the problems with the PHP engine. Using Firefox on the Ubuntu desktop works fine, even with these issues. I think part of the access problems are actually caused by Internet Explorer; at least, it looks like it: where IE (both 7 and 8) have problems accessing the admin pages, there is hardly a problem using Firefox, where it concerns passing information to the application.
Also, there are a number of patches to be downloaded and installed, and I’ll take a look to newer versions of Python and MoinMoin – the Python based wiki. Now it’s just a matter of finding time to do it all.