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Admin Tools

#13169 Upgrade problems

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
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Monday, 06 August 2012 06:30 CDT

Sunday, 05 August 2012 04:11 CDT

gulam
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? No
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? No
Joomla! version: 2.5.6
PHP version: 5.2.8
MySQL version: 5.0.95
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you)
Admin Tools version: 2.3.0

Description of my issue:

Hi, When I try to manually upgrade to version 2.3.1 I get an AJAX Loading Error
HTTP Status: 500 (Internal Server Error).

When I try to go to the admin tools configuration screen, it just goes to the post installation screen and does not go anywhere from there.

I was also getting a problem trying to upload files through the media manager, so I thought this could be some permission issue. I therefore deleted (terminated the site in cpanel) and through cpanel copied the site back from a backup server where everything works fine, but I still get the same error. I assumed copying using cpanel will bring in all the permissions along with it.

What could be the problem.

Gulam

Sunday, 05 August 2012 05:58 CDT

nicholas
I do not understand two crucial things in your description:
- "copied the site back from a backup server" I am not sure if you copied files via FTP or you used cPanel's server-to-server site transfer (or something else).
- "I still get the same error" Are you referring to the files upload through the media manager or the Admin Tools installation issue?

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!

Sunday, 05 August 2012 06:37 CDT

gulam
Hi Nicholas,

Sorry I may not been very clear in my earlier post.

1. Copied back the site using cpanel server-to-server site transfer

2. Same AJAX 500 error. I get this error just when the system tries to create a restore-point - exactly at the point where its Determining Optimal AJAX method

Gulam

Sunday, 05 August 2012 09:40 CDT

nicholas
OK, I get it now. You need to upgrade to Akeeba BAckup 3.6.1. Before doing that, please read my clarification article of Akeeba Backup's SRP feature.

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!

Sunday, 05 August 2012 14:18 CDT

gulam
Hi, I tried as per your instruction but am now getting the following error:

Copy failed
JInstaller: :Install: Failed to copy file /home/nhif/tmp/install_501ebd4f1e39a/frontend/akeeba.php to /home/nhif/public_html/components/com_akeeba/akeeba.php

On further investigation I believe this has to do with permissions - I am not exactly sure what caused this.

When I go to System Info -> Permissions, all files are un-writable. I am not sure why this happened when I copied this from a backup server where FTP layer is disabled and there when i go system info -> permissions all folders are writable.

I am sorry, I know this has nothing to do with admin tools, but would you know what could be the problem?

Gulam

Sunday, 05 August 2012 14:20 CDT

nicholas
Well, we're getting somewhere :) Due to the permissions issue you can't upgrade Akeeba Backup which causes the inability to upgrade Admin Tools. One easy way, which should work, is enabling FTP in your site's Global Configuration. For more info and step by step instructions please consult the "Enable FTP" section of our installation troubleshooting page. After making that change you may also have to follow the "Checking your temporary directory" section of the same page before attempting to install Akeeba Backup 3.6.1 and Admin Tools 2.3.1.

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!

Monday, 06 August 2012 05:02 CDT

gulam
Hi,

Thanks for your help. I enabled FTP, followed the instructions in the link you provided and was able to install both Admin tools and Akeeba. They key was the path of the temp folder - it was pointing to /home/nhif/tmp (and this folder was writable) but the system did not like this. I had to change this to /home/nhif/public_html/tmp.

My question now is:- is there no way to disable the FTP layer and still be able to install all extensions? my backup server works perfectly without FTP layer enabled but am not sure why this server requires FTP? My understanding is you only require FTP if you have uploaded the site using FTP - in this case for this very purpose I did a copy using cpanel but it still did not work.

Gulam





Monday, 06 August 2012 05:08 CDT

nicholas
Before answering your question regarding the FTP layer, you have to understand how users, groups, ownership and permissions work on UNIX-derivative operating systems like Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X (the OS which are used by most live servers). You can find this information in Akeeba Backup's "Security Information" chapter. It's a long read, well worth the trouble.

By doing the server-to-server copy you had cPanel on your target machine write the files as the account user (which is the same as the FTP user). It appears that your host is not using suPHP, mod_fpm or mod_itk, therefore the Apache user is different than your account user. As a result you need the FTP layer.

Sorry, I can't explain it any simpler :(

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!

Monday, 06 August 2012 05:49 CDT

gulam
Hi,

Ok I have got it loud and clear.

The target server belongs to us but is co-located at an ISP. I therefore have full control on it. Are there any implications of enabling SuPHP on a live server?

I have checked the backup server is running SuPHP and that is why its not giving any problems.

Thanks

Gulam

Monday, 06 August 2012 05:52 CDT

nicholas
The only drawback of suPHP is that it's slightly slower than mod_php. Unless you have millions of visitors per day you won't notice that difference :)

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!

Monday, 06 August 2012 05:57 CDT

gulam
Thanks for that. I just wanted some idea whether there is any chance it would break any of my sites.

I will go ahead and enable it.

Thanks

Gulam

Monday, 06 August 2012 06:30 CDT

nicholas
You're welcome, Gulam!

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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