UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 6 Version 6 Support Arghhhh Upgrade woes from 6.1.1b to 6.5.5 -> 7

Hi all,

this is driving me potty.

OS: Linux (SuSE 9.2)
Web-Server: Apache 2.0.50
PHP: 4.3.8
MySQL: 4.1.10
Installed UBB Version: 6.1.1b (don't ask, long story, but before you get shocked ubbt.inc.php has a neat little redirect to the tips.fbi.gov site , gets the script kiddies every time)
And the entire server will be updated afterwards so please no comments on vulnerabilities of specific versions or bugs in the software packages. All important patches are installed.

Install Task: Upgrade to version 6.5.5 to prepare for V7 Upgrade and move entire forum to a new server. Currently the installation is under http://www.<domain>/ubbthreads/ (very old Linux installation but sufficiently hardened), however the new location will be http://forum.<domain>/ or in other words it goes directly into the web-root. The domain/site is a virtual apache setup.

Completed Tasks: Moved entire forum to new server, changed config files to reflect new location and got rid of this ugly ubbthreads/ subdirectory. All tested, all working fine the same as the current production forum does. Of course a mirror of the production DB is created and imported on the new server to do the upgrading dry run as i have very little time to do the upgrade. The forum is frequented 24x7 a day so i can cause a max of 60 minutes maintenance window.

I have the Upgrade guide to version 6.5.5 and followed it to step 21 down to the T. However Step 21 made me realise very quickly that there is a workflow error in the Guide. If you move (according to Step 5 of the Upgrade Guide) config.inc.php, theme.inc.php and main.inc.php to the include directory already the altertable PHPs won't find the config. So i worked around it and COPIED the files back to their original location. So i have two config.inc.php's, two main.inc.php's and two theme.inc.php's on the system, one under the root install and one in the includes directory.

I then call UPGRADE.html and start at altertable-6.1-6.2 the upgrade process, but run immediately into following error message:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_input() in /home/aaddef/public_html/install/altertable-6.1-6.2.php on line 28

Before i copied the config.inc.php back to their original location i had following errors:

Warning: main(/home/aaddef/public_html/config.inc.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/aaddef/public_html/ubbt.inc.php on line 65
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening '/home/aaddef/public_html/config.inc.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:') in /home/aaddef/public_html/ubbt.inc.php on line 65
Warning: main(/home/aaddef/public_html/theme.inc.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/aaddef/public_html/ubbt.inc.php on line 67
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening '/home/aaddef/public_html/theme.inc.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:') in /home/aaddef/public_html/ubbt.inc.php on line 67
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_input() in /home/aaddef/public_html/install/altertable-6.1-6.2.php on line 28

so this was the reason why i copied the config files back to their old location. The Warnings are gone, but the fatal error remains.

Help please!! Either i am a complete pillock and can't read or there is really somwhere a bug along the line.

And a comment to this: Wouldn't it have been easier to just provide the blank DB-Update SQL scripts so that one can simply run them against the DB and then just do more or less a fresh install of the actual forums software? I.E. backup old install, delete old install, copy new files in place as in a new install, modify main.inc.php and config.inc.php and forum is updated (or of course with the install.php just set the DB connection parameters). Quite frankly i would prefer a fresh install of the actual forums software and only update the existing DB to the 6.5.5 version to keep all old messages, posts and users etc. If somebody has by chance the required SQL commands for the upgrades please feel free to send them to me... saves me the work to go through each altertable php and search and replace any variable name with the actual value and of course afterwards an extensive test period if really everything was modified as it should be.

BTW all permissions and ownership on all files are set correctly. Directories to 777 and files to 655 (SuSE doesn't require the x to be set to execute php scripts under wwwrun). Owner is set to aaddef:users (I am the only person with access to the server so the group users is not a problem), the apache daemon user has read access to the files required and during install i have the required files set to 777 or 666 so that the apache user can modify the config files. If i do a complete fresh install also with a blank DB everything works fine and it takes only a minute to install.

Thanks in advance,

Tom

BTW version is 6.1b and not 6.1.1b

Ok, I think the first clue I was able to gleem from that is this line here:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_input() in /home/aaddef/public_html/install/altertable-6.1-6.2.php on line 28

This is in the ubbt.inc.php file, but I believe was something new added around that time. So, my first guess is that you might have some old files floating around there instead of the actual 6.5.5 file. Take a look at your ubbt.inc.php file at the top. In the comment/header area you should see a line that says:

# File Version 6.5.5

Doohhhhhhhhhhhh

Thanks Rick, it is indeed the old ubbt.inc.php . OK i am officially a pillock .

But i won't test this tonight out anymore. Need to get up in about 4 hours after 3 weeks holiday. Guess i need more holiday if i still make stupid mistakes. Next job i have will come with 90 days holiday and a £120k salary .

Tom