Serendipity Forums

I've been running into this problem for over a month now - and am starting to lose my mind. I'm not a system admin but have done my best to figure it out and can't. Sorry for the long post -but I'm going to try and explain this in full detail so it will hopefully make sense to some guardian angel reading this post who can rescue me.

I'm running a test version of serendipity on my C drive in Wamp. I can get it to install and basically run with no problems. However, whenever I try to do just about anything short of simply adding a new entry consisting of only text - both the serendipity_admin.php goes blank/or is displayed in a wacked (no css way) and the front page goes totally blank. I end up with HTTP 500 if I look at it in IE.

I'm guessing it is either a permissions problem or something is hosing the mysql database. This same thing happened on my production version running on our internal server and the only way the support person could resolve it was to install a new version of serendipity and switch it to version 5ish of mysql. We don't know if that really resolved the glitch.

I have to figure out how to resolve this on my local version before I dare do anything on the production version.

Right now, I've had to wipe it out and reinstall it about 5 times with clean new mysql databases. If it is a permissions issue - can someone explain in newbie terms how to change permissions on the directory when it is running on a C drive. I can right click and go to properties but don't know how to run a chmod 777 on my c drive folders.

The other problem it might be is some weird character is getting passed to the mysql database which is causing it to die. I never encountered this in earlier versions of serendipity with wamp - it has only been with the newest release of both serendipity and version 5 of mysql. This whole glitch especially happens if I change anything under general settings (like the blog description) via the administration suite. I'm using MySQL client version: 5.0.45

Thanks in advance!
Rebecca

Hi!

Did you enable URL Rewriting in the s9y configuration? Have a try without that.

A HTTP/500 error is a very generic one. Can you check your PHP and Apache errorlog? Usually they give a clue on what's happening. PHP errorlogs are configured through php.ini ("error_log" directive and "display_errors"), apache logs are configured through ErrorLog in httpd.conf.

Your idea of the mysql server dieing might very well happen, but this would be very strange. MySQL 4.1 didn't help either? Are you running the latest PHP version?

Try to enable/disable the option "Use database charset" in the s9y configuration screen, maybe this can help with the 'weird characters'?

HTH
,Garvin

Hi Garvin! Thanks for the response.

Since my serendipity blew up again last night - I'll have to wipe it out and do another install. I've been leaving all the settings at default when I do install and I'm not getting any red error alerts. URL rewriting is off by default. The "weird characters" I mentioned below was probably vague - this blows up if I try to install plugins, insert media, urls etc. Only pure text seems to keep it running in entries. The busted version I have right this minute - has a blank front page. The serendipity_admin.php page is running but it has no style sheet. I looked in my wamp error logs for php/mysql dated specifically for last night's blow up and there basically nothing - this is what appears in the mysql error log (php log had no entries): (note: I did shut down and restart wamp to see if that would help). I am running Php 5.2.4. The production server version blew up on mysql 4 something which is why the ISD person in charge switched it to version 5. I switched to 5 when I upgraded wamp prior to using the new version of serendipity.

Last night it blew after I installed a couple of plugins - including easy podcasting - I followed the instructions exactly and added external lib etc. I went to add Media - saved my entry and that was when it crashed this time round. I have noticed (might not be related) that my database password isn't being saved in the Administration-->configuration -->database settings screen (serendipity_admin).

Since I've already experienced these type of crashes on the production server (different server etc - not using wamp) - run by a ISD guy (who doesn't really know serendipity) - I'm not convinced it is just a local issue. I'd like to examine the serendipity permissions but as mentioned earlier don't know how to do a chmod on a c drive (local version).

Mysql Logs
Version: '5.0.45-community-nt' socket: '' port: 7860 MySQL Community Edition (GPL)
071207 18:56:51 [Note] c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe: Normal shutdown

071207 18:56:51 InnoDB: Starting shutdown...
071207 18:56:55 InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 0 2063640
071207 18:56:55 [Note] c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe: Shutdown complete

071207 18:56:58 InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 2063640
071207 18:56:58 [Note] c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe: ready for connections.
Version: '5.0.45-community-nt' socket: '' port: 7860 MySQL Community Edition (GPL)
071207 19:24:18 [Note] c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe: Normal shutdown

071207 19:24:18 InnoDB: Starting shutdown...
071207 19:24:21 InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 0 2245808
071207 19:24:21 [Note] c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe: Shutdown complete

071207 19:24:25 InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 2245808
071207 19:24:25 [Note] c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe: ready for connections.
Version: '5.0.45-community-nt' socket: '' port: 7860 MySQL Community Edition (GPL)

Hi!

Please save your serendipity_config_local.inc.php and .htaccess files after you do a clean, working installation. Once s9y "blews up" please compare the current files with those backups. I am suspecting that something changes in these files, most probably the URL rewriting things.

Please also try to save a DB sql dump of your "serendipity_config" table at the point where s9y works, and make another dump at the point when s9y doesn't work anymore. Compare those two dumps and check which config values might have changed.

I've not really heard of this before in this forum, nor had this on my own servers. The most usual HTTP 500 error code is either missing write/read privileges on serendipity_config_local.inc.php or templates_c directory, or directives in .htaccess that the server might choke on.

A HTTP/500 error must show up in either Apache or PHP error logs. Please have a thorough look and enable the config directives I mentioned. The MySQL log doesn't really help at this point, I'm afraid.

Regards,
Garvin

Thanks Garvin! Just did the clean install and saved everything you specified. So will be in touch as soon as it blows up again.

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:50 pm Post subject: Http 500

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Garvin -
It died again - exact same problem as mentioned above - blank front page and serendipity_admin page with no css. I installed the easy podcast first this time around (following the clean install) - worked almost like a charm. (the rssfeed was showing up with a fatal xml error yesterday but when I deleted the entry and tried again - it worked. So I then modified the installed "static pages" - was working fine. Then I installed a linked list plugin and as soon as I hit "save" - it blew.

The serendipity_config.inc file shows no changes. I'm looking at the mysql dumps but really don't know what I'm looking for. So I'm pasteing them both here...

**********************************************
MYSQL dump at CLEAN INSTALL
*********************************
-- phpMyAdmin SQL Dump
-- version 2.11.0
-- http://www.phpmyadmin.net
--
-- Host: localhost:7860
-- Generation Time: Dec 08, 2007 at 04:39 PM
-- Server version: 5.0.45
-- PHP Version: 5.2.4

SET SQL_MODE="NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO";

--
-- Database: `serendipity`
--

-- --------------------------------------------------------

--
-- Table structure for table `serendipity_config`
--

CREATE TABLE `serendipity_config` (
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`value` text NOT NULL,
`authorid` int(11) default '0',
KEY `configauthorid_idx` (`authorid`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

--
-- Dumping data for table `serendipity_config`
--

INSERT INTO `serendipity_config` (`name`, `value`, `authorid`) VALUES
('template', 'carl_contest', 0),
('dbNames', '1', 0),
('serendipityPath', 'C:/wamp/www/serendipity/', 0),
('uploadPath', 'uploads/', 0),
('serendipityHTTPPath', '/serendipity/', 0),
('templatePath', 'templates/', 0),
('uploadHTTPPath', 'uploads/', 0),
('baseURL', 'http://localhost/serendipity/', 0),
('autodetect_baseURL', '', 0),
('indexFile', 'index.php', 0),
('permalinkStructure', 'archives/%id%-%title%.html', 0),
('permalinkAuthorStructure', 'authors/%id%-%realname%', 0),
('permalinkCategoryStructure', 'categories/%id%-%name%', 0),
('permalinkFeedCategoryStructure', 'feeds/categories/%id%-%name%.rss', 0),
('permalinkFeedAuthorStructure', 'feeds/authors/%id%-%realname%.rss', 0),
('permalinkArchivesPath', 'archives', 0),
('permalinkArchivePath', 'archive', 0),
('permalinkCategoriesPath', 'categories', 0),
('permalinkAuthorsPath', 'authors', 0),
('permalinkUnsubscribePath', 'unsubscribe', 0),
('permalinkDeletePath', 'delete', 0),
('permalinkApprovePath', 'approve', 0),
('permalinkFeedsPath', 'feeds', 0),
('permalinkPluginPath', 'plugin', 0),
('permalinkAdminPath', 'admin', 0),
('permalinkSearchPath', 'search', 0),
('permalinkCommentsPath', 'comments', 0),
('allowSubscriptions', '1', 0),
('blogTitle', 'RNDTV', 0),
('blogDescription', 'we are what''s on', 0),
('blogMail', '', 0),
('lang', 'en', 0),
('charset', 'UTF-8/', 0),
('calendar', 'gregorian', 0),
('lang_content_negotiation', '', 0),
('enablePluginACL', '', 0),
('fetchLimit', '15', 0),
('RSSfetchLimit', '15', 0),
('enforce_RFC2616', '', 0),
('useGzip', '', 0),
('wysiwyg', 'false', 0),
('enablePopup', '', 0),
('embed', 'false', 0),
('top_as_links', '', 0),
('trackReferrer', '1', 0),
('blockReferer', ';', 0),
('rewrite', 'none', 0),
('serverOffsetHours', '0', 0),
('showFutureEntries', '', 0),
('enableACL', '1', 0),
('magick', '', 0),
('convert', 'C:\\WINNT\\system32/convert.exe', 0),
('thumbSuffix', 'serendipityThumb', 0),
('thumbSize', '110', 0),
('maxFileSize', '', 0),
('maxImgWidth', '', 0),
('maxImgHeight', '', 0),
('onTheFlySynch', '1', 0),
('dynamicResize', '', 0),
('mediaExif', '1', 0),
('mediaProperties', 'DPI:IMAGE;RUN_LENGTH:VIDEO:AUDIO;DATE;COPYRIGHT;TITLE;COMMENT1:MULTI;COMMENT2:MULTI', 0),
('mediaKeywords', '', 0);

*****************************************************
MYSQL DUMP after blow up

****************************************************

-- phpMyAdmin SQL Dump
-- version 2.11.0
-- http://www.phpmyadmin.net
--
-- Host: localhost:7860
-- Generation Time: Dec 09, 2007 at 03:58 PM
-- Server version: 5.0.45
-- PHP Version: 5.2.4

SET SQL_MODE="NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO";

--
-- Database: `serendipity`
--

-- --------------------------------------------------------

--
-- Table structure for table `serendipity_config`
--

CREATE TABLE `serendipity_config` (
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`value` text NOT NULL,
`authorid` int(11) default '0',
KEY `configauthorid_idx` (`authorid`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

--
-- Dumping data for table `serendipity_config`
--

INSERT INTO `serendipity_config` (`name`, `value`, `authorid`) VALUES
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/title', 'Categories', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/authorid', 'all', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/sort_order', 'category_name', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/sort_method', 'ASC', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/allow_select', '1', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/show_count', '', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/parent_base', 'all', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/hide_parent', '', 0),
('@serendipity_categories_plugin:275a57dbc49b5661ea9b6c1c020356ca/hide_parallel', '', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/title', 'Syndicate This Blog', 0),
('serendipity_event_contentrewrite/fromstring', 'from', 0),
('serendipity_event_contentrewrite/tostring', 'to', 0),
('serendipity_event_weblogping/manual_services', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_nl2br:dfadb3e9eeb3f450df2106731f716322/isolate', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/info', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/installdesc', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/installflvdesc', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/easy', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/use_player', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/automatic_size', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/width', '360', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/height', '180', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/align', 'left', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/firstmedia_only', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/epheader', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extendet_enclosure_attributes', 'Podcast,Video', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extendet_enclosure_position', 'none', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/ep_automatic_size', 'false', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/ep_align', 'center', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/expert', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extflv', 'flv', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extquicktime', '3gp,mov,mp4,mqv,qt,flv', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extwinmedia', 'avi,mpg,mpeg,wmv,flv', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extflash', 'swf,flv', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extxspf', 'mp3,xspf', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/extaudio', 'ogg,m3u,pls,m4b', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/use_cache', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_podcast:7d4ad50194c6bb15cf842e9d84504ad0/plugin_http_path', 'plugins/serendipity_event_podcast', 0),
('template', 'bulletproof', 0),
('template_engine', 'default', 0),
('serendipity_event_spamblock:326a18c4530ebf9ed59caf6d33791c4a/hide_for_authors', 'all', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/db_built', '17', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/markup', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/articleformat', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/show_childpages', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/shownavi', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/showonnavi', 'true', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/showtextorheadline', 'false', 0),
('serendipity_event_staticpage:fd8ee47d8ef55b685c9df2e101ae25a8/use_quicksearch', 'true', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/bannerURL', '', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/field_managingEditor', '', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/field_webMaster', '', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/field_ttl', '', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/field_pubDate', '1', 0),
('@serendipity_syndication_plugin:f1049581af75ea605087d8857709d56a/show_feedburner', 'false', 0),
('dbNames', 'true', 0),
('serendipityPath', 'C:/wamp/www/serendipity/', 0),
('uploadPath', 'uploads/', 0),
('serendipityHTTPPath', '/serendipity/', 0),
('templatePath', 'templates/', 0),
('uploadHTTPPath', 'uploads/', 0),
('baseURL', 'http://localhost/serendipity/', 0),
('autodetect_baseURL', 'false', 0),
('indexFile', 'index.php', 0),
('permalinkStructure', 'archives/%id%-%title%.html', 0),
('permalinkAuthorStructure', 'authors/%id%-%realname%', 0),
('permalinkCategoryStructure', 'categories/%id%-%name%', 0),
('permalinkFeedCategoryStructure', 'feeds/categories/%id%-%name%.rss', 0),
('permalinkFeedAuthorStructure', 'feeds/authors/%id%-%realname%.rss', 0),
('permalinkArchivesPath', 'archives', 0),
('permalinkArchivePath', 'archive', 0),
('permalinkCategoriesPath', 'categories', 0),
('permalinkAuthorsPath', 'authors', 0),
('permalinkUnsubscribePath', 'unsubscribe', 0),
('permalinkDeletePath', 'delete', 0),
('permalinkApprovePath', 'approve', 0),
('permalinkFeedsPath', 'feeds', 0),
('permalinkPluginPath', 'plugin', 0),
('permalinkAdminPath', 'admin', 0),
('permalinkSearchPath', 'search', 0),
('permalinkCommentsPath', 'comments', 0),
('allowSubscriptions', 'true', 0),
('blogTitle', 'RNDTV', 0),
('blogDescription', 'we are what''s on', 0),
('blogMail', '', 0),
('lang', 'en', 0),
('charset', 'UTF-8/', 0),
('calendar', 'gregorian', 0),
('lang_content_negotiation', 'false', 0),
('enablePluginACL', 'false', 0),
('fetchLimit', '15', 0),
('RSSfetchLimit', '15', 0),
('enforce_RFC2616', 'false', 0),
('useGzip', 'false', 0),
('wysiwyg', '', 0),
('enablePopup', 'false', 0),
('embed', 'false', 0),
('top_as_links', 'false', 0),
('trackReferrer', 'true', 0),
('blockReferer', ';', 0),
('rewrite', 'none', 0),
('serverOffsetHours', '0', 0),
('showFutureEntries', 'false', 0),
('enableACL', 'true', 0),
('magick', 'false', 0),
('convert', 'C:\\WINNT\\system32/convert.exe', 0),
('thumbSuffix', 'serendipityThumb', 0),
('thumbSize', '110', 0),
('maxFileSize', '30000000000', 0),
('maxImgWidth', '', 0),
('maxImgHeight', '', 0),
('onTheFlySynch', 'true', 0),
('dynamicResize', 'false', 0),
('mediaExif', 'true', 0),
('mediaProperties', 'DPI:IMAGE;RUN_LENGTH:VIDEO:AUDIO;DATE;COPYRIGHT;TITLE;COMMENT1:MULTI;COMMENT2:MULTI', 0),
('mediaKeywords', '', 0),
('serendipity_event_linklist:5b66d4d25fe073ac53e7b4e85581d396/active', 'false', 0),
('serendipity_event_linklist:5b66d4d25fe073ac53e7b4e85581d396/style', 'no', 0),
('serendipity_event_linklist:5b66d4d25fe073ac53e7b4e85581d396/display', 'category', 0),
('serendipity_event_linklist:5b66d4d25fe073ac53e7b4e85581d396/cache', 'false', 0),
('serendipity_event_linklist:5b66d4d25fe073ac53e7b4e85581d396/category', 'custom', 0);

Hi!

You did compare serendipity_config_LOCAL.inc.php, right? serendipity_config.inc.php is a completely different file.

The SQL-Dump looks sane, this shouldn't really be causing it.

When you have the "blewn" s9y installation, could you please try this: Browse the serendipity_plugins table. There, you can see a list of plugins you have installed. Please try to delete there the rows of a plugin you last installed, one by one and see if the s9y installation starts to work again. This will allow me to see if maybe some Plugin PHP files got downloaded wrongly and are cuasing the breakage.

Regards,
Garvin

This error 500 seems to pop up every now and then, and so far there doesn't seem to be an explanation for this. For some time now some of the visitors to my blog are reporting a lag and/or an Internal Server Error (500).

So I checked back and found that I can reproduce it - kind of. It doesn't happen every time but far too often. Additionally, I sometimes cannot login to the backend. Very strange, since this seems to happen only in Firefox (at least for me Opera works, no IE here).

Ok, I'm no beginner with S9y, so I started with deactivating some plugins but the problems remained. I added some debug code to plugins that talk to another server, but nothing. Unfortunately my blog is hosted at a cheap hoster that doesn't five me access to error.log :O( And I cannot reproduce the problems with my other blog or my dev setup. D'oh.

I'm at a loss here. Does anyone have any ideas? All other apps on this server seem to run fine. Everythings works fine in Opera. I'm willing to use some dirty hacks in the code if you think this will help. But I need your ideas because I ran out of them ...

- Mattsches

Hi mattsches!

Your problem sounds unrelated. It sounds more as if your server is under too high load. Probably MySQL denying access. Your HTTP error log should give a report about this. Also make sure to enable PHP's error_log command.

You must talk to your provider, there's no other way.

I don't think it's browser related, this can'T really be. Are you logged in in FF and maybe not in Opera? That could make a difference.

Regards,
Garvin

Thanks, Garvin, I'll try to check. My problem may be unrelated to the OP's topic, but I didn't want to open another 500-related thread. There are enough of those that still remain unresolved.

It's actually a mystery to me. I can't use my blog in FF, but in Opera everything works fine. It's really, really strange. I will thoroughly check it next weekend or so.

Thanks
- Mattsches

Deleted the last plug-in install...which was Static Pages and my version of serendipity appears to be working again

I'm going to be brave and try to install the easy podcast on the production version. Wish me luck! I need this plug-in installed the most.

I still don't feel like I have the problem 100% resolved since the first couple of times I've run into this I had not used the Static Pages plugin. But I'll keep chipping at it.

Thanks! (will be back if/when my local dies again)

garvinhicking wrote:Hi!

You did compare serendipity_config_LOCAL.inc.php, right? serendipity_config.inc.php is a completely different file.

The SQL-Dump looks sane, this shouldn't really be causing it.

When you have the "blewn" s9y installation, could you please try this: Browse the serendipity_plugins table. There, you can see a list of plugins you have installed. Please try to delete there the rows of a plugin you last installed, one by one and see if the s9y installation starts to work again. This will allow me to see if maybe some Plugin PHP files got downloaded wrongly and are cuasing the breakage.

Regards,
Garvin