No, while 777 is the most “open” permissions you can grant, there are some environments running certain security software that will specifically prevent PHP from modifying files with such open permissions.

I’m still waiting for the answer to what the results are of the following, as without this knowledge, we cannot proceed to assist you:

Also, put the error_reporting() and ini_set() lines in a new PHP file with phpinfo().  The new file should just have the following:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
phpinfo();

Then access that file in your browser and check the ‘display_errors’ value; it should read “On”.

Hi Derek,

Nothing. No errors reported. Just the same usual db errors.

Thanks,

Adrian

Adrian, this code is supposed to go in a separate PHP file, there should be no database connectivity (or ExpressionEngine) involved.

Hi Derek,

That’s what I did, but again I got no errors reported. What I did get was the whole configuration list.

Adrian

Then access that file in your browser and check the ‘display_errors’ value; it should read “On”.

What is the value of display_errors in that configuration list?

Yep, it’s “on.” This is why I’m even more puzzled.

Ok, unzip and upload this to the root public directory of your domain.  Change writeme.php’s permissions to 666 and then access in your browser: http://example.com/write_test/action/

Assuming you get no errors, open writeme.php, it should now have “Hello World” written to it.

Hi Derek,

Yes, this file now says “Hello World” What should we do now?

Thanks,

Adrian

It’s been over a month, so I really think it’s best that we approach this issue fresh.  If you restore and proceed through an update, does the config file still not get written to?  What if you were to do a new install on this server to a different database and location?  Is the new config file written to properly?

If I try to run the update, it doesn’t work. The database gets updated, but whatever else is to happen, doesn’t happen. I can imagine that if I get the set of updated files, the update is supposed to make, it’ll work.

Adrian

What if you were to do a new install on this server to a different database and location?  Is the new config file written to properly?  There’s not any reason I can see here that the file is not updating - you aren’t getting errors, and the identical code in a standalone PHP file works.

The problem is, how do I do a new install with an upgrade license? and how do I do it with only one database allowed by the host? If I could get a hold of the set of files that work with 1.6.3 I would be ready to complete the upgrade.

If your host only allows one database then you would not be able to do it.  The files you have (1.6.4 if you’ve downloaded the latest version) will work with 1.6.3, and can complete the upgrade.  But if you do not solve the problem of not being able to write to your config file, you will have problems in the future when changing certain settings, and it may also indicate related problems like cache files not being able to be written to/over, CAPTCHA not being able to create images, etc.

If you can again roll back to the 1.5.2 version of your database, and email me FTP and database access, I can take a quick look and see if there’s something being overlooked.  If the standalone script wrote to the file fine, the upgrade script should be able to do so also, again, it’s the same code, same directory structure, same permissions.

Can you please send me your E-mail address?

Thank you,

Adrian

Adrian, you can contact Derek via his profile page. Actually, using “MSG” under his avatar works, too.