Thread

Hi,

ExpressionEngine 1.6.3
Build:  20080421

I want to edit the File Upload Preferences and create a couple of new directories.

But if I choose to either edit the default Main Upload Directory or create a new upload destination, after about 30 seconds of loading a completely blank page is shown in the browser.

I’d appreciate some help with debugging this…

Odd- wonder if we can get a php error.  Do you have them turned on for superadmins in ‘Admin- System Prefs- Output and debug’?  If that doesn’t do it- open up system/index.php and edit:

error_reporting(0); 
change to
error_reporting(E_ALL);

And- is this a new problem?  Anything change between the time it worked and now?  What extensions do you have installed?

Hi Robin,

I’ve set Debug Preference to option 1, with no change - still get the blank page. This is the URL shown in the address bar when the timeout has completed:
http://www.photographyblog.com/milamber100/index.php?S=0&C=admin&M=blog_admin&P=edit_upload_pref&id=1

I’ve never actually used this option before, so I don’t know if it has ever worked in the past!

There are 2 extensions installed - Akismet Check (v.1.1)  and Comment Spam Prevention (v.1.1)

I’ve done a bit more poking around, and there are a couple of other Admin options that also display a blank page after a timeout. These are:

Custom Fields > editing one of the Default Field Groups

Utilities > SQL Manager

I’m not seeing why those extensions would be in play- but in ‘Admin- Utilities- Extensions Manager’ try disabling all extensions via the big button, top right.

Any difference?  If not- I think I’d go ahead and update to the latest 1.6.4 version, just to blow the dust out.  I’m not spotting obvious commonalities in the pages mentioned (file upload had me thinking directory checks, but that doesn’t leap to mind with the others).  White screen is also often a signal of php memory issues.  But- those aren’t really heavy pages.  Still- how much php memory do you have?  In ‘Admin- Utilities- PHP Info’? 

But yep- check memory (seems unlikely)- then update to 1.6.4?  Sound doable?

Disabling the extensions doesn’t make any difference to any of the non-loading pages.

There’s a lot of info displayed on the PHP Info page - which specific part do I need to search for?

Search in the page for memory_limit- EH is running 64MB.  I tend to say less than 16 may be a problem, and 32 is my preferred minimum.

Hmmm - searching for “memory_limit” doesn’t find anything.

I thought it was always in there, but….  Try just on ‘memory’- you’ll spot more cases, but should see something.  I think php default is 8MB.

Searched for “memory” - just finds:
Zend Memory Manager   enabled

I did find this in the Configuration - PHP Core section:
post_max_size   8M

No- that’s a different critter.  And I’d expect a different error if that was in play.  And I wouldn’t expect it to be in play.  Who is the host?  We might find mention of them on the forum, see if any issues have cropped up previously.

If not- I think I’d go ahead and upgrade.  And- do you have access to error logs?  Those blank pages are likely throwing errors- we just can’t see them.

Hi Robin,

It’s a small UK host called UKDedicated, I very much doubt if you’ve heard of them.

PhotographyBLOG is actually split across two servers - the databases on one, and files on another. I’ve currently got cPanel / WHM access to the file server, but not the database one. Which server’s log files would the error show up in?

I’ve found the memory setting in php.ini, which was set to 16M, and increased it to 32M - but that hasn’t solved the blank page problem.

I’ve also just remembered that you actually did a couple of upgrades for me in the past - 1.5.2 - and that you had a similar issue with seeing the MySQL tables from the EE backend.

I’m not super-keen on doing upgrades - would you be interested in doing this one for me?

In the mean-time, I’ll try to get hold of the error logs for the database server, if that will help…

Mark:

If you follow the instructions here, the upgrade process is pretty painless.  I recommend making a backup of both your MySQL database, as well as all of your current site files prior to doing so.  Always smart to be cautious. 

The update wizard will ask you to press a couple of buttons, and you’ll be done.

Let us know if you run into any hiccups during that process.

-greg

Hi,

Still on 1.6.3 at the moment.

My webhost has identified that choosing that CP option crashes the webserver process.

They’ve traced the process details and supplied a text document - but I can’t upload it here due to “The file you are attempting to upload has invalid content for its MIME type.” error message.

Try zipping it- I suspect it will attach ok in that format.  Be curious to see what’s triggering it.

Hi Robin,

Here’s a zipped version of the text file.