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#12174 Joomla site identity crisis (1.7.4->2.5.4) & upgrade woes.

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Admin Tools version
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Latest post by nicholas on Friday, 04 May 2012 11:45 CDT

Friday, 04 May 2012 04:23 CDT

user58696
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Oh yeah.
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes.
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yep.
Joomla! version: That's what this is about...
PHP version: 5.3.8
MySQL version: Server version: 5.5.16, Protocol version: 10
Host: localhost for now, see below:

PHP Built On Windows NT SERVER1 5.1 build 2600
Database Version 5.5.16
Database Collation utf8_general_ci
PHP Version 5.3.8
Web Server Apache/2.2.21 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.21 OpenSSL/1.0.0e PHP/5.3.8 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1
WebServer to PHP Interface apache2handler
Joomla! Version Joomla! 1.7.4 Stable [ Ember ] 24-Jan-2012 14:00 GMT
Joomla! Platform Version Joomla Platform 11.2.0 Stable+Modified [ Omar ] 27-Jul-2011 00:00 GMT

Admin Tools version: several versions attempted/used

Description of my issue:

I've got a live site, its operative, has k2 and a bundle of other stuff in it. I want to upgrade it to the latest version. I've pulled it down local and provided as much enviornmental info as possible above. Joomla has an identity crisis. Here are 4 locations where I've checked the J version...

Joomla sys info 1.7.4
Joomla update manager 2.5.4
AT Pro front page 1.7.4
AT Pro core update 1.7.4 (and after reload as well)

I've done a complete dump install from j2.5.4 complete install. Horrible failure. Tried various versions of AT to upgrade. Failures across the board. Installed AT Pro 2.2.a3 as directed and it appears to identify 1.7.4 is installed and 2.5.4 is the latest (no other AT version does that - they all said 1.7.4 was latest??).

If I try the A2 2.2.a3 joomla core upgrade, it just downloads entire 2.5.4 zip. I know how THAT ends up :(

I've googled, searched this site, read the manuals, tried 3 or 4 different upgrade routes. Nada.

I'm out of ideas. Without knowing exactly what version of J I'm running, its challenging. I'm fairly sure its some hybrid mangled mashup, but I've got no idea how to tackle it/fix it. Help!

Friday, 04 May 2012 04:33 CDT

nicholas
OK, I understand what happens and we'll try to get you outta that tight spot between a rock and a hard place :)

First, let's get a copy of the site we can work on. Go to your site and install Akeeba Backup 3.3.13 (not 3.4.3 - it won't work!). Take a backup and restore it on a local server, e.g. XAMPP, WAMPServer or something in the like. Now the tricky part. Edit the php.ini of your local server and set max_execution_time=3600 and memory_limit=256M so that you get plenty of execution time and memory. Then, restart the local server. You now have a site which can be upgraded.

The easiest way to perform the upgrade is to go to Admin Tools and let it upgrade. Despite what you think, it doesn't screw up your site. There are several minute differences between what Admin Tools actually does and what you think it does (or what you actually did).

If that doesn't work, you'll have to go through the scenic route: upgrade 1.7.4 to 2.5.0 and then 2.5.0 to 2.5.4. In order to do that, download the 2.5.0 upgrade package and install it like any other extension: Extensions, Manage Extensions, Browse, pick the package, Upload and Install. After several minutes your site will be upgraded to 2.5.0. Then, download the 2.5.0 to 2.5.4 upgrade package. Install like the other upgrade package.

The next steps are very important:
- Back up your local (upgraded) site
- Delete all files and folders from your live site. If you skip this step, hell breaks loose, the site will behave wacky and your pet might die. OK, your pet might not die, but your site will behave wacky.
- Upload the (upgraded site's) backup and restore it.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 04 May 2012 04:58 CDT

user58696
Cheers on the insane response time. Ok - local environment configured for ex time & max mem. I already have a full backup of the site in its confused state that I have reinstated (several times now) and its operative. It was done via 3.3.4 somehow.

I did *not* do a new backup of the site with 3.3.13 (just noting that in case you hit me with idiot tax) for this reason.

Went to AT Pro. Tried to upgrade. Got same deal - it won't upgrade, just downloads the 2.5.4 full package. So moving on to the scenic route... Moved 2.5.0 patch package onto LH server. Installed as a regular extension. End up with this:

Fatal error: Class 'JLanguage' not found in C:\xampp\htdocs\sites\whitsundayholidays.com.au\administrator\includes\application.php on line 71

The installation did not complete.

This is similar to previous upgrade attempts, although others had issues with LoginClassModule or something similar to that and one "special" occasion where it reported an issue with AT's geoip.

I'd rather avoid going back to the live site, taking a new backup with 3.3.13 and working with that, as I'd lose about 10 clumps of hair worth of k2 development & items. Additionally, the live site is in a fairly restricted SFTP environment. But I have to make this work :\
Edited by user58696 on 2012-05-04 05:04 CDT

Friday, 04 May 2012 07:50 CDT

nicholas
Hm, the only solution I have for you is to ask you to follow Method C - Manually Copy New Program Files from the official Joomla! 1.7 to 2.5 update guide.

Please try doing that on your local copy first. If it works, take a new backup of your live site, restore it locally, repeat the upgrade procedure, back up the local site, remove files & folders from the live site and restore the upgraded site's backup on your live site.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 04 May 2012 08:24 CDT

user58696
Nicholas - you're a champ. Going via 2.5.0 manually has worked thus far. This isn't your issue (and its now clear it wasn't in the first instance either), but you've been a great help.

One last question, if I may: Getting from 2.5.0 -> 2.5.4, given my "special" site history on this one - go latest AT Tools Pro? Manual again? What is best in your opinion?

Friday, 04 May 2012 08:28 CDT

nicholas
You'd be surprised at the kind of support requests I receive every day. I knew it's not an Akeeba issue, but I thought I could help ;)

Given your site's history, I'd recommend first backing up the site you upgraded to 2.5.0. Then try using Admin Tools 2.2.5 to upgrade to Joomla! 2.5.4. That should work. Admin Tools 2.2.5 has the same updater I wrote for and is currently included in Joomla! 2.5.4.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 04 May 2012 10:23 CDT

user58696
Its 1am.

Its running on 2.5.4. I have only got sh404sef left to iron out some kinks with my alleged FTP errors!

Nick - you're a rockstar mate. Thanks for everything! For anyone else who is having ridiculuous/non-sensical upgrade issues, the summary of all this was (its a brute force approach):

1) Backup every time you consider sneezing. Really.
2) Manually copy files from 2.5.0 update package over the top of your 1.7.4 joomla installation
3) Use Joomla's extension manager -> database tab -> fix database to correct SQL structural issues
4) Once operative on 2.5.0, use Admin Tools Pro to update your site to 2.5.4.

The final steps, which I haven't taken yet are for when I restore to live. Essentially this amounts to:

a) Take full backup of fully upgraded local site
b) Obliterate the live site. Slaughterise the lot of it.
c) Restore backup to live site
Edited by user58696 on 2012-05-04 10:24 CDT

Friday, 04 May 2012 11:45 CDT

nicholas
Awesome! I'm glad I could help you out :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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