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#186562 06/14/2007 12:09 AM
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Hi. I just installed UBB 7.1.1 and am having problems with Captcha. My server has Imagemagick installed, and the path to it is /usr/bin/perl which I put in the "Path to Convert". In the "Path to Mogrify" I put in /usr/bin/mogrify (because I saw it suggested in other related posts here).

I have Captcha enabled, but when I try to register as a new user no Captcha image is shown. I have run the Captcha test on my server, but only get a blank page. Anyone have a suggestion or a fix that I can try?

Cheers-
John

PS, I tried changing the "Path to Convert" to /usr/bin/convert but still had the same issue..

Last edited by Rugby; 06/14/2007 12:12 AM.
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Trust me, the path to imagemagick is not /usr/bin/perl; this is the path to perl...

Your path will vary, but in most cases it'll be /usr/bin/convert and /usr/bin/mogrify however you'll need to check to be sure.

The captcha image will not display if the paths are not set properly

If you are unsure of how to look up the path to Convert and Mogrify, you should have your webhost provide those paths for you (should ImageMagick be installed)

Last edited by Gizmo; 06/14/2007 3:31 AM.

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Well, I contacted my webhost and was told that ImageMagick is installed on the server, and that the needed paths are as follows:
/usr/local/bin/convert
/usr/local/bin/mogrify

I have changed the ImageMagick Settings in the UBB Control Panel to reflect this, but still no Captca image shows up in registration? Does anyone else have any ideas I can try?

Thanks!!


Originally Posted by Gizmo
Trust me, the path to imagemagick is not /usr/bin/perl; this is the path to perl...

Your path will vary, but in most cases it'll be /usr/bin/convert and /usr/bin/mogrify however you'll need to check to be sure.

The captcha image will not display if the paths are not set properly

If you are unsure of how to look up the path to Convert and Mogrify, you should have your webhost provide those paths for you (should ImageMagick be installed)

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What version of ImageMagick do they have installed?

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Have the image files been uploaded and that Java script too,
remember i done something similar.

Check you have uploaded the captcha folder.
Sorry its been a while you see.


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Hi Rick. Its Image::Magick 5.5.7

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The Captcha folder is in the images directory, right where UBB has them placed. FYI, when I FTP'd to the website I moved the images folder as Binary per the setup instructions.

Why are some of the simple things in life so difficult sometimes?

Thanks!
John

Originally Posted by Mark S
Have the image files been uploaded and that Java script too,
remember i done something similar.

Check you have uploaded the captcha folder.
Sorry its been a while you see.

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Ah, that would be it. The CAPTCHA feature requires ImageMagick 6 in order to work properly.

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Ask your webhost to upgrade to the latest version smile

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The benefit of ImageMagick is that you can download the binary files, uload to your server, and link to them in the control panel.

Last edited by Gizmo; 06/16/2007 5:33 AM.

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Hi again. Well, I've asked my hosting service to upgrade to ImageMagick 6 and they won't until they upgrade all of their perl modules. They told me their is a work around and to inquire on their support forums, which I did, but very little help was offered.

It seems to me that during the UBB install process it said something about in order to use Captcha, I needed access to either ImageMagick or something else??? I've searched the UBB documentation and forum to no avail. Is their another module or program that will work on Captcha?? Without a functioning version of Captcha I can't see going live with my UBB Board.

All suggestions are appreciated!

Cheers,
John

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ImageMagick6 and GD with font support ( i forget which) can both run the captcha system.

ImageMagick has a "binary" option that you can install yourself as a user; it shoudl be as easy as uploading it, setting the paths to it, and chmodding it 755.


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Hello... My webhost has recently upgraded to ImageMagick 6.3.4 so I am trying to get Captcha working on my board again. In my control panel I have selected to use ImageMagick in the "Registration Settings," and under "Paths & URL" set the paths to "convert" and mogrify" as follows:

/usr/local/bin/convert
/usr/local/bin/mogrify

If I try to register as a new user there is still no Captcha image displayed. By the way, the paths above are what were given to me by my webhost. I also tried dropping the "local" out of the path just for fun and it didn't work either. Does anyone have any thoughts on what can I try next??

Cheers--

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The best suggestion is to ask your host to confirm the path to convert and mogrify.

I doubt they have changed, but you never know.

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While logged in as an admin user, bring up the following on your forums:

ubbthreads.php?ubb=captcha&t=im&test=1

That should give some type of information if it's encountering an error of some sorts.

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Rick, I ran the test and got the following error:

"PHP error: /usr/local/bin/convert/: not found"

I tried dropping the "local" from my paths and got the same basic error - "PHP error: /usr/bin/convert/: not found"

This is pretty frustrating... what can I try next?

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Hmm, the error looks a bit odd. Do you have a trailing slash at the end of the paths? It looks like it's set to

/usr/local/bin/convert/

When it should just be:

/usr/local/bin/convert

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I took out the trailing "/" at the paths end and now get the following error after running the test

"PHP error: /usr/local/bin/convert: Unrecognized option (-annotate)."

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If that's the case, then it sounds like they actually "downgraded". annotate was added in version 6, but not available in version 5.

Either that, or they have both versions installed, and they gave you the path to version 5 and not version 6.

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Likely that they have both versions running beside eachother; I'm thiking that we need a utility in the CP that checks the version...

You can create a "test.php" file which has the following which should read out the version (be sure to update "convert_path" to be your path):
Code
<?php
function ImageMagick_version() {
	$convert_path = '/usr/bin/convert --version';
	$return =  shell_exec($convert_path);
	$x = preg_match('/Version: ImageMagick ([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*)/', $return, $arr_return);

	return $arr_return[1];
}
echo(ImageMagick_version());
?>

Should read out something similar to: 6.2.8


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Hi,

For some reason Captcha has stopped displaying images during the registration process on my site? I've checked the forum permissions and everything checks out as okay. When I run the captcha test that Rick suggested 5 posts above (ubbthreads.php?ubb=captcha&t=im&test=1), I get the following error:

PHP error: convert: unable to read font `/usr/www/users/iwrf/forums/images/captcha/fonts/_vti_cnf' @ annotate.c/RenderType/1075.

If I refresh the page I get this error:

PHP error: convert: missing an image filename `GIF:/usr/www/users/iwrf/forums/cache/03995596e1f846ffdeb0fbe94aec60a0.gif' @ convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/2775.

I'm not sure what has happened as everything was working fine a week ago, and I haven't changed any settings before then or since. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can try to get captcha working again so people can register on my forum again??

Many thanks in advance!!
www.iwrf.com/forums/

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delete the _vti folder(s) from the images/captcha folders; they're not valid fonts and are thus b0ging things


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That solved the problem, THANKS! Any idea what caused the _vti folders to be created in the first place?

One more question. I'm using UBB version 7.2; is there a way to replace the captcha images with the newer images that captcha now uses? The older ones can be a bit difficult to read.

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the _vti folders are from Front Page Extensions on the server, they tend to place themselves in every directory, which can harm some scripts which are expecting only their own data to be within the directories.

And the images are simply the backgrounds, the letters are generated from the fonts within the captcha directories.

If you have ImageMagick available on your server you'll notice that images generated with that (vs GD) will be easier to read.


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He has imagemagick, since he's using convert. wink But on many servers it seems that GD will give better quality than ImageMagick. Guess it kind of depends.

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I switched over to GD2 and that makes the image much easier to read. Is is possible to replace the 2 fonts (bullpen_.ttf and eflb.ttf) that are in the captcha/fonts directory with something else to help clear up the generated image further?

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Rick
He has imagemagick, since he's using convert. wink But on many servers it seems that GD will give better quality than ImageMagick. Guess it kind of depends.
Weird... Figured if its better on some it'd stay that way tongue...


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Originally Posted by Rugby
I switched over to GD2 and that makes the image much easier to read. Is is possible to replace the 2 fonts (bullpen_.ttf and eflb.ttf) that are in the captcha/fonts directory with something else to help clear up the generated image further?

Thanks!

Yes, the font's and backgrounds are read dynamically at the time of the CAPTCHA generation. So you can use any .ttf font you'd like. One thing to note, there is a bit of a blur put on all fonts. You don't want to clear of an edge to the font as it makes it much easier to crack the CAPTCHA.

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Yeh, the clearer the worse you're off... There are bots and scripts designed just to crack captcha's, so you don't want to make it too easy for them...


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Thanks guys.. I'm going to take your advice and leave it as it is.

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A++ on this thread

Somehow I got a _notes folder in my CAPTCHA images folder and it wasn't working .. Deleted it and its now working great.

I think this folder popped up from Dreamweaver and/or a server move I did awhile back.

I needed to turn on the captcha on registration due to an increasing number of spambots registering on my forum.

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Dreamweaver is known for placing a _notes folder.


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I'm going to have to get a list of all of the various auto-generated folders/files and just have it ignore those.

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That is a tough job. Just like frontpage places the stupid files. And wsftp if logs are enabled it will place a log.txt file in every folder that you upload to. God only knows what other programs add files.
It almost seems to be easier to add the caveat to the manual.


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Originally Posted by Rick
While logged in as an admin user, bring up the following on your forums:

ubbthreads.php?ubb=captcha&t=im&test=1

That should give some type of information if it's encountering an error of some sorts.

I'm using GD2 and after re-install my files the captcha is not working any more. I just did a re-install for all files, nothing else changed on my 7.3.1 version.

I run Rick's code and got this:
PHP error: sh: /www/forum/images/captcha/backgrounds/background2.jpg: Permission denied

if I hit reload, got this:
PHP error: sh: /www/forum/images/captcha/backgrounds/background1.jpg: Permission denied

I play with those files permission, and if I give 777 it gave a diff. error:

PHP error: sh: /www/forum/images/captcha/backgrounds/background1.jpg: cannot execute binary file

any other comments please?


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Okay well try this.
What would be the URL to the backgroung1.jpg
Let us know what it is.
It sounds to me if it is not a extra file issue then it is a file permission issue.
You should be able to type.
http://mydomain.com/forums/images/captcha/backgrounds/background1.jpg. and get a response with a background image.
It should have 755 for the folder for me the file is 644

Last edited by Ruben; 09/30/2009 5:34 PM. Reason: Something hosed up my post. Corrected post

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Yes, I can get the picture when I go directly:
http://www.imigrar.com/forum/images/captcha/backgrounds/background1.jpg


my Folder is 755 and the files are 644

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For GD2 the test url should be:
ubbthreads.php?ubb=captcha&t=gd&test=1
If still a issue then
open a support ticket and let us know what happens.


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I get a background image when I go to that URL posted above.

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Yes I do to. But he is cross posting now.
Trying the gd test url it is a blank page. He was using the IM test url which for me is the same (blank page)but that does not apply according to his post. Either does permission errors.


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