Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

by annahtreek ihtoj -
Number of replies: 8

Hello everyone,

I installed Moodle in a subdomain sometime last year http://bit.ly/1Ii1o9E

It was working perfectly fine until May 29th MT and since May 30th, my site is showing up a blank page. ( I haven't logged in since May 2nd and I did not make any kind of changes to my server or website in the back end). The way I found that it was not working - was when my cron mail stopped coming on 30th. I have a daily cron job which sends me mails and it stopped from May 30th.

I tried enabling the debug mode by adding the following to my config.php

ini_set ('display_errors', 'on');

ini_set ('log_errors', 'on');

ini_set ('display_startup_errors', 'on');

ini_set ('error_reporting', E_ALL);

I see no errors displayed at all. STILL blank page. (tried on all browsers)

I use Moodle 2.6.1+ (Build: 20140220) and my host is hostgator. 

I was suspicious if hostgator did something to php so I installed 2 new moodle sites - one in a new folder in the subdomain that was giving problems http://bitly.com/1SWQ45M and another in an entirely new subdomain http://bit.ly/1Mmv1oF. The 2nd one works fine but the first one shows blank page again! 

I am a new to moodle but I have fairly good skills in programming . Can someone please help me figure out what exactly went wrong?


Average of ratings: -
In reply to annahtreek ihtoj

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

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

That's not how you enable Debugging. You'll find the correct lines down in section 7 of your config-dist.php. Nevertheless, enabling debugging is the right thing to do.

In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

by annahtreek ihtoj -

Hi Howard Miller,

Thanks for the help. I deleted the codes I added in config.php and  uncommented  section 7 of my config-dist.php like this

//=========================================================================

// 7. SETTINGS FOR DEVELOPMENT SERVERS - not intended for production use!!!

//=========================================================================

//

// Force a debugging mode regardless the settings in the site administration

@error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT); // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

@ini_set('display_errors', '1');    // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

$CFG->debug = (E_ALL | E_STRICT);   // === DEBUG_DEVELOPER - NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

$CFG->debugdisplay = 1;             // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// You can specify a comma separated list of user ids that that always see

// debug messages, this overrides the debug flag in $CFG->debug and $CFG->debugdisplay

// for these users only.

$CFG->debugusers = '2';

//

// Prevent theme caching

$CFG->themedesignermode = true; // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// Prevent JS caching

$CFG->cachejs = false; // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// Restrict which YUI logging statements are shown in the browser console.

// For details see the upstream documentation:

//   http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/api/classes/config.html#property_logInclude

//   http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/api/classes/config.html#property_logExclude

$CFG->yuiloginclude = array(

     'moodle-core-dock-loader' => true,

     'moodle-course-categoryexpander' => true,

);

$CFG->yuilogexclude = array(

     'moodle-core-dock' => true,

     'moodle-core-notification' => true,

);

//

// Set the minimum log level for YUI logging statements.

// For details see the upstream documentation:

//   http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/api/classes/config.html#property_logLevel

$CFG->yuiloglevel = 'debug';

//

// Prevent core_string_manager application caching

$CFG->langstringcache = false; // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// When working with production data on test servers, no emails or other messages

// should ever be send to real users

$CFG->noemailever = true;    // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// Divert all outgoing emails to this address to test and debug emailing features

$CFG->divertallemailsto = 'root@localhost.local'; // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// Uncomment if you want to allow empty comments when modifying install.xml files.

$CFG->xmldbdisablecommentchecking = true;    // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// Since 2.0 sql queries are not shown during upgrade by default.

// Please note that this setting may produce very long upgrade page on large sites.

$CFG->upgradeshowsql = true; // NOT FOR PRODUCTION SERVERS!

//

// Add SQL queries to the output of cron, just before their execution

$CFG->showcronsql = true;

//

// Force developer level debug and add debug info to the output of cron

$CFG->showcrondebugging = true;

I still see only a Blank page. What am I doing wrong?

In reply to annahtreek ihtoj

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

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

Just checking - you copied those lines across to config.php (config-dist.php does nothing and is for reference only)?

Have you checked in your web server's error log?

In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

by annahtreek ihtoj -

Hi Howard,


I copied it to the tail end of config.php and I see no difference. I checked the web servers error log in cpanel manager and it is empty too. 

In reply to annahtreek ihtoj

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Blank pages normally have two causes:

1.  Corrupted cache - trying clearing your cache (you can delete the cache folders from your Moodledata folder, NOT your moodle folder)

2.  PHP incompatibility.  I would guess that there was a PHP change with your server and perhaps your htaccess file is now incorrect.  I would check with your host on that.

In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

by annahtreek ihtoj -

Hi Emma,


Thank you for trying to help me out. I cleared the cache folders - but it made no difference. 


I have contacted hostgator regarding this issue. Awaiting a reply. For moodle installations, I don't see the .htaccess file. Why is that?



In reply to annahtreek ihtoj

Re: Moodle 2.6.1 Site Blank Page

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

It really depends on your setup with the host.  Some hosts use a htaccess file - some use a php.ini file - you might compare your existing installation to your new one and see if there are any files in the old install that are not in the new one - that should give you a clue.