Phorum Support Forums - 5.1 Phorum Support

Legacy problem: phorum5.1.25 on Debian 12

orinoco — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 06:16:04 -0400

Disclaimer: yes, I know that 5.1.25 is outdated and depreciated, but I'm stuck with it as I will explain.
yes, I know that I am an irresponsible server admin to others, but between upgrade hell, data loss abyss and potential legacy security issues I'm on the legacy side. If you want to help me despite all this, read on.

After many years I couldn't ignore the upgrade problem of my Debian server anymore and I will switch from Debian 9 to Debian 12 and I try to move my legacy phorum forums to it. With 5.2.x forums this worked almost flawlessly. Another phorum 5.1.25 (low traffic) I could upgrade to 5.2.23. But one 5.1.25 is causing problems. As I realized that 5.1.25 does not work (just blank install page after configuring config.php) on Debian 12 LAMP, even with php5.6-fpm, I also tried to upgrade to 5.2.23 but failed the step after

Quote

Upgrading from patch level 2007100800 to 2007100801

I only get the header of the admin.php upgrade page, it breaks in the second HTML-table.

Now my questions:
Is there a way to find out what breaks the upgrade?
Is there a way to run phorum5.1.25 on Debian 12?
I guess it's a database problem. mariadb 10.1.48-0+deb9u2 on Debian 9 works. mariadb 10.11.6-0+deb12u1 on Debian 12 doesn't. Which version still works with 5.1.25?

I will continue testing, but if someone knows a quick solution it would save much time and nerves. Thanks.

P.S. I brutally skipped mysql-patch 2007100802.php. It just renews the thread info. Does not seem to be necessary. At least I got all my phorum-forums databases in ver5.2.23, "just" loosing templates and modules ... well maybe I can save a bit of them. Is probably the better solution as this works with current mariadb version of Debian 12 and at least php7.4 (php8.2 seem to work to but the default template is broken; maybe not much needed to fix this)

Possible to Purge Stale Files from a command line?

Mark Fresh — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 12:25:30 -0400

version 5.1.25

When I run Purge Stale Files on the admin interface I get Internal Server Error

Error log says:
Premature end of script headers: admin.php, referer: [www.sitename.co.uk]

Is it possible to run Purge Stale Files from a command line to reduce the overhead?

Thanks
Mark

Re: How to switch the Phorum database to support Unicode?

Lega4 — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 11:00:57 -0400

Thanks for the script!

Quote
Ulf Dunkel
Run the script ;-)

Is it possible that this script requires Phorum 5.2.7? It won't run with 5.1.25:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: phorum_db_interact() in /.../phorum/convert_to_utf8.php

Any hints?

As a simple solution, you could copy mysql.php and mysql folder from 5.2 to your installation, run the script and then restore old mysql.php. It works for me, so I can upgrade to UTF8 without having dozens of issues with upgrade to 5.2.

Also you may want to comment the block for converting tables, since it's better to do manually from mysql console (also it could take a lot of time, ~5-10 min for my small phorum instance)

SET @DATABASE_NAME = 'phorum';
SELECT CONCAT(  'ALTER TABLE `', t.`TABLE_SCHEMA` ,  '`.`', t.`TABLE_NAME` ,  '` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;' ) AS sqlcode FROM  `information_schema`.`TABLES` t WHERE t . `TABLE_COLLATION` = 'cp1251_general_ci' AND t.`TABLE_SCHEMA` =  @DATABASE_NAME ORDER BY 1 LIMIT 0 , 999;
#then execute all the queries which will be printed by this query

Re: phpBB conversion

sborzabor — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 15:25:02 -0400

HM...

Re: How to switch the Phorum database to support Unicode?

cactux — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 11:40:10 -0400

Quote
Maurice Makaay
If you do get problems with serialized data, then check out the conversion script that I am working on. I already used it successfully on my own database test conversion. If you have some weird problems, then this might save you: convert_to_utf8.php.

Once I migrated the forum to UTF-8, the subject of messages is lost if it contains accentuated chars.
How can I correct?

Re: Can't log-in to Phorum Admin

butterfingersbeck — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:09:08 -0400

It's OK - I went into the database on my hosting site and changed the Admin parameter on my log-in from 0 to 1, and that fixed it. Thanks for your prompt response!

Re: Can't log-in to Phorum Admin

Thomas Seifert — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 14:25:46 -0400

Did you create a new account first and modified the script to update the new user afterwards?

Re: Can't log-in to Phorum Admin

butterfingersbeck — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 08:10:57 -0400

My client's forum was being spammed on a daily basis. I accidentally deleted my e-mail address along with all the spam ones, and now I can no longer access the Admin page. I tried the Rescue-Admin script - it seemed to run OK, but I still can't get in to Admin. I tried clearing cookies, relaunching Firefox and changing the password.

HELP!!!

Re: Mass user deletion

Maurice Makaay — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 05:44:43 -0500

If you mean that it doesn't work for 5.2, then I think this is what you need to change in here:

phorum_user_delete -> phorum_api_user_delete

Re: Mass user deletion

autoven — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:35:15 -0500

The script is no longer valid for 5.1.
Which line i need to update so that the script can work?

Re: archive forums

Thomas Seifert — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:06:48 -0500

No, just in the phorum admin.

Re: archive forums

Michael Horton — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:06:06 -0500

OK sorry to bother but can I create this folder in Admin or does it have to be done on the host side?

Re: archive forums

Michael Horton — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:44:25 -0500

thanks

Re: archive forums

Thomas Seifert — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:39:23 -0500

Create a folder "Archive" or "Read only forums" and move your forums there - and make them read-only.

Re: archive forums

Michael Horton — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:38:42 -0500

Trying to seperate the list of Read Only forums from the active forums to make it easier for folks to find. So seeing if there is some sort of way to do that?

Re: archive forums

Thomas Seifert — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:36:33 -0500

What's the purpose of archiving? If its only to make them read-only, then yes, just set that permission.

archive forums

Michael Horton — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:49:38 -0500

Is there a way to aechive old forums in a seperate area or is only way to make them READ ONLY? I'd rather archive then delete old forums

Can i edit privacy of forums

Rigel Bernard — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:49:00 -0500

Can i create a private forum where my clients can send me samples of coin images.

Re: 24 hour format on posts

lordthistle — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:35:56 -0500

For example, I modified the following values in the file include/lang/italian.php:

$PHORUM['long_date_time']="%d %B, %Y [%H:%M]";
$PHORUM['short_date_time']="%d/%m/%Y [%H:%M]";

The chars for the time format are [%H:%M]

%H stands for 24 hour format.

Re: phpBB conversion

Skye N. — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:05:12 -0500

Related script for conversions....

[www.phorum.org]

Re: phpBB conversion

Skye N. — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:37:48 -0500

Awesome, thank you very much for posting this!!!

Going to try on Phorum 5.2 and PHP 5.3.3 from a phpBB 3.0 install

Re: Getting a blank page on an upgraded Phorum

Maurice Makaay — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:12:07 -0400

There's all kind of stuff going on that isn't directly Phorum related. Are you administering this machine yourself or is it hosted with a company? In that last case, it might be best to contact that company for help.

Both issues (open_basedir config in PHP and ModSecurity config in Apache) must be fixed by configuring the host correcty.

Getting a blank page on an upgraded Phorum

henny — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:51:18 -0400

Hi,

I have used a phorum for my students already for quite some while. Originally it was in Korean but since there are no language files anymore I changed it to English. However I haven't used it for quite a while (nor did my students) and now when I try to take a look at it I understand why. All it gives is a blank page. When I try to go the admin page, I can login but after that I get a blank page as well.

When I look at the log files I see the following (don't have that kind of problems with other phorums on the same server though)

[Tue Sep 06 04:31:19 2011] [error] [client 58.123.210.146] PHP Warning: is_dir() [function.is-dir]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/storage/vhosts/student.henny-savenije.pe.kr/httpdocs/:/tmp/) in /storage/vhosts/student.henny-savenije.pe.kr/httpdocs/phorum-5.2.11/include/cache/file.php on line 209, referer: [www.student.henny-savenije.pe.kr]
[Tue Sep 06 04:31:19 2011] [error] [client 58.123.210.146] PHP Warning: is_dir() [function.is-dir]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/storage/vhosts/student.henny-savenije.pe.kr/httpdocs/:/tmp/) in /storage/vhosts/student.henny-savenije.pe.kr/httpdocs/phorum-5.2.11/include/cache/file.php on line 209, referer: [www.student.henny-savenije.pe.kr]
[Tue Sep 06 04:31:19 2011] [error] [client 58.123.210.146] PHP Warning: is_dir() [function.is-dir]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/storage/vhosts/student.henny-savenije.pe.kr/httpdocs/:/tmp/) in /storage/vhosts/student.henny-savenije.pe.kr/httpdocs/phorum-5.2.11/include/cache/file.php on line 209, referer: [www.student.henny-savenije.pe.kr]
[Tue Sep 06 04:31:25 2011] [error] [client 58.123.210.146] ModSecurity: Audit log: Failed to create subdirectories: /var/asl/data/audit/20110906/20110906-0431 (Permission denied) [hostname "www.student.henny-savenije.pe.kr"] [uri "/phorum-5.2.11/index.php"] [unique_id "TmWF-X8AAAEAADZEdwYAAAAI"]

Any help is appreciated.

Re: Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

Thomas Seifert — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:45:57 -0400

I've got no way to diagnose this further and I've never seen this.

Sounds to me like you can't replicate this problem either and its only users reporting it to you.

You need to try to get more input from the users having this problem. E.g. screenshots, html sourcecode etc..
As you can see this is not a general problem but either something in your server configuration or the users computers.

Re: Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

simgio — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:31:25 -0400

Hi Thomas,
thanks for your reply.
Here is a common request from students in regards to the forum:

been trying to login to the forum and i get no login page or anything... it´s just stuck on the first page one comes to. i have tried firefox, chrome and using safari all the time, thought it was some browser problem but nothing happens :P neither of the links in the right corner works.

I am unable to login to the forum. I still cannot and it is getting very frustrating. I need to be able to login in order to get support for the modules. Can this please get sorted asap? It is really holding me up from completing assessments. I tried logging in from home using Firefox, still to no avail.

These issues have only been happening since we made it a closed forum (i.e. must login to view threads) any further ideas, it is not happening for no reason at all.

Thanks again, I know it is very hard to research an issue when you cannot replicate it yourself. There is definitely an issue though, we receive an email a day or more of the above nature.

Perhaps I am off the mark, it may not be a safari or Chrome issue, I am stabbing in the dark too.
Thanks Simone

Re: Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

Thomas Seifert — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:15:50 -0400

Well, I just tried it now with both google chrome and safari - both latest versions. No problems at all. Both logged me in without troubles.

Re: Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

simgio — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:03:53 -0400

Hello Thomas, any feedback on this please?

Re: Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

simgio — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:49:49 -0400

Hi Thomas,
thank you for your support. The URL is here:
[www.thegraphicdesignschool.co.uk]

Thanks
Simone

Re: Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

Thomas Seifert — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:18:35 -0400

Show us your URL.
I'm using Chrome and Safari and never had a problem to log in to a phorum.

Problems with Chrome and Safari logging in

simgio — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:55:49 -0400

Hello support,
recently we have noticed that Chrome and Safari will not let our users log into our Phorum. Firefox is working fine.
Is there anything that can be done by yourselves or us to deal with the browser incompatibility issues please.
Thank you
Simone