I'd been holding back on upgrading my Ubuntu server to 14.04...for good reason: I was running software versions that weren't compatible with my version of Ubuntu.
Well, I upgraded anyways (after months of holding off). It broke my web server and also reverted my Wordpress site back a few versions (3.8.x or something like that...I'd been running version 4.0).
That was this past Saturday. Today is Tuesday afternoon and I'm almost finished restoring the site.
Things that broke:
Wordpress
PSAD
Apache
I'm going to specifically speak to Wordpress now.
This was actually an Apache/Wordpress combination issue. I believe the version that Apache was upgraded to was 2.4.x. It changed the default webserver location from /var/www to /var/www/html, which broke a LOT of my content. The fix was easy: I moved everything from /var/www to /var/www/html, ensuring the file and directory permissions didn't change.
Then, I found a multitude of issues with my Wordpress site's content:
- All image links broke, meaning they wouldn't render, even after moving content to /var/www/html (but I could upload new pictures without issue -- and they'd render).
- I couldn't perform upgrades to v4.0 via the GUI.
- I couldn't install new plugins.
- I couldn't install templates.
First thing I did was upgrade (manually, via CLI) to v4.0. That cleared up some issues.
Next, I worked on trying to get the plugins to work. I couldn't install new plugins. I also couldn't update old plugins to new versions. The error I would get was, "Unable to locate Wordpress content directory". I'd also get "Unable to locate Wordpress plugin directory". What I did was download (via web browser) the "third party host fix" plugin. I loaded it to my Ubuntu server via SCP. I then unzipped it, and moved the uncompressed directory to the plugins folder. It still wouldn't work. I found that a symlink was missing from /var/lib/wordpress/wp-content/plugins, so I created a new one:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 60 Sep 30 19:48 third-party-host-fix -> /usr/share/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/third-party-host-fix
That's linked to /usr/share/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/third-party-host-fix...that also the directory where the actual plugin content is located.
After I did that, I was able to see the plugin in the UI. I activated it successfully. I then tried to update a plugin...I got a different error: "Wordpress could not create directory". Ugh...
I found the solution on how to fix that issue at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WordPress. I went to /usr/share/wordpress/wp-config.php and edited the following:
Changed:
define('WP_CONTENT_DIR', '/var/lib/wordpress/wp-content');
to read:
define('WP_CONTENT_DIR', '/var/www/wordpress/wp-content');
That fixed the issues of installing or updating templates and plugins.
The only issue I need to resolve now is the image rendering issue, but I think I'll just reload all the images, one at a time (there aren't all that many, I believe).
This was a horrible experience but the benefit was that it got me to delve and fix the issue (vs. just wiping everything and reinstalling the whole distribution).
UPDATE:
New issues --
UPDATE:
New issues --
- Can't remove plugins. Error message: "Plugin could not be deleted due to an error: Unable to locate WordPress Plugin directory."
- Using Photo Gallery plugin - galleries will render but the images will not show within the gallery UI. I also can't seem to view the images via browser...may be another incorrect coding issue or even a permissions issue.
UPDATE 2:
- I've fixed the issue with the Photo Gallery plugin. I basically dumped the picture back in the directory where the plugin was looking for them (/usr/share/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery). I hate how hodge-podge this is...crap is everywhere without standardization, but I'm to the point where I just want the site functional again. I just hope things don't break when I next upgrade Wordpress.
- I'll look into the "can't remove plugins" issue tomorrow.
