Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Jay Huber -
Number of replies: 11

Running Moodle latest weekly build.  When an instructor deletes several items from their course, occassionally, the course locks to "Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: PHP catchable fatal error."

I have debugging on for my user, and do not get any error messages.  I have found that deleting the sectioncache in the database for course in question causes it to start working again.

I am trying to narrow down the cause of this problem so I can research it on tracker.  I did a diff of the sectioncache before I blanked it out, and what was regenerated when I accessed the course.  No difference.

It's the first day of spring classes and I have had this happen 4 times today alone.

So, when the sectioncache is wiped out, and the course loads, what other checks are being performed?  Any ideals?

 

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In reply to Jay Huber

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Switch on Debugging. Look in your web server error log after to problem is reported. Hopefully you will find a trace of what actually happened.

Do you have any optional plugins? These can sometimes give problems. Make sure they are the correct/most recent versions.

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Jay Huber -

Thanks

I captured a course that this is happening too and copied my production sql to my development box and am now getting the error.

Debug info: Argument 2 passed to has_capability() must be an instance of context, boolean given, called in /Library/WebServer/Documents/moodle23x/lib/modinfolib.php on line 1097 and defined

Thanks for your help.  Need to do more research on the cause of this and search tracker.

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In reply to Jay Huber

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Andrew Lyons -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Jay,

If you stick the following in on the 1095 (just before the failing if test), then it should generate a stacktrace which will help track down the issue:

if ((!$this->visible or !$this->available) and is_bool($modcontext)) { throw new moodle_exception('generatingstacktrace'); }

Andrew

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In reply to Andrew Lyons

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Brad Meyer -

I upgraded to the latest weekly (as of 1/31) and added that code in. Here's what I get:

[01-Feb-2013 17:26:46 UTC] Default exception handler: error/generatingstacktrace Debug:
Error code: generatingstacktrace
$a contents:
* line 1096 of \lib\modinfolib.php: moodle_exception thrown
* line 1072 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to cm_info->update_user_visible()
* line 327 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to cm_info->obtain_dynamic_data()
* line 1261 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to course_modinfo->__construct()
* line 1928 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to get_fast_modinfo()
* line 1989 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to global_navigation->generate_sections_and_activities()
* line 47 of \course\format\topics\lib.php: call to global_navigation->load_generic_course_sections()
* line 1903 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to callback_topics_load_content()
* line 1257 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to global_navigation->load_course_sections()
* line 3043 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to global_navigation->initialise()
* line 781 of \lib\pagelib.php: call to navbar->has_items()
* line 4 of \theme\leatherbound\layout\general.php: call to moodle_page->has_navbar()
* line 768 of \lib\outputrenderers.php: call to include()
* line 715 of \lib\outputrenderers.php: call to core_renderer->render_page_layout()
* line 232 of \course\view.php: call to core_renderer->header()

 

Also, here's what I got before I added that in:

[01-Feb-2013 17:22:47 UTC] Default exception handler: Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: PHP catchable fatal error Debug: Argument 2 passed to has_capability() must be an instance of context, boolean given, called in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\lib\modinfolib.php on line 1097 and defined
Error code: codingerror
* line 397 of \lib\setuplib.php: coding_exception thrown
* line 355 of \lib\accesslib.php: call to default_error_handler()
* line 1097 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to has_capability()
* line 1072 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to cm_info->update_user_visible()
* line 327 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to cm_info->obtain_dynamic_data()
* line 1260 of \lib\modinfolib.php: call to course_modinfo->__construct()
* line 1928 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to get_fast_modinfo()
* line 1989 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to global_navigation->generate_sections_and_activities()
* line 47 of \course\format\topics\lib.php: call to global_navigation->load_generic_course_sections()
* line 1903 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to callback_topics_load_content()
* line 1257 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to global_navigation->load_course_sections()
* line 3043 of \lib\navigationlib.php: call to global_navigation->initialise()
* line 781 of \lib\pagelib.php: call to navbar->has_items()
* line 4 of \theme\leatherbound\layout\general.php: call to moodle_page->has_navbar()
* line 768 of \lib\outputrenderers.php: call to include()
* line 715 of \lib\outputrenderers.php: call to core_renderer->render_page_layout()
* line 232 of \course\view.php: call to core_renderer->header()

 

One more thing, the only other error that I can see now (at least since upgrading to the 1/31 build) is a ton of Permission Denied errors like (all referring to line 6594 in moodlelib.php:

[01-Feb-2013 17:22:47 UTC] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(C:\moodledata/cache/lang/en/core_debug.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\lib\moodlelib.php on line 6594

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In reply to Brad Meyer

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Brad Meyer -

I updated my test server to 2.4.1+ and am still getting the errors.

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In reply to Jay Huber

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Brad Meyer -

I'm getting the above issue with the same build. Also, course restores are not working and teachers are having trouble uploading files.

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In reply to Brad Meyer

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Brad Meyer -

Also, here's the SQL Query I ran to unlock any courses (for all you SQL n00bs like me):

 update mdl_course set modinfo = '' where id = XXX;

 

Thank you Andrew for the tip!

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In reply to Jay Huber

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Ben Kelada -

We have replicated this bug (differently than what was eventually described above)

replication case: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-37763

cause of error: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-37939

just writing here as this was first search result when we initially looked for this error and it lead us down the wrong path!

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In reply to Ben Kelada

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Luciano Silva -

This is alread correted in build 20130228. But if you update, the complete solution is this:

Clear column modinfo from md_course:

update mdl_course set modinfo = "" where id = XXX;

update mdl_course set sectioncache = "" where id = XXX;

And aply the patchs.

 

 

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In reply to Luciano Silva

Re: Course PHP Errors - Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130125)

by Ludwig Röder -

thanks for the solution!

my question is: how could the data become damaged? i updated my system to Moodle 2.3.4+ (Build: 20130228) two weeks ago and got the error today. Would it be clever to clear this columns for all courses? What exactly do these columns save, course-content or only modification-infos?

What kind of courses can be damaged?

 

thanks for support!

 

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