All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Andre Brassard -
Number of replies: 42
Hi fellow Moodlers.
Anyone come across this:
I installed Moodle 3.1 on a Centos 7.0 system (twice) which  yields the following : after a 'successful' installation and updating the admin profile; I exit the browser (that automatically clears out the cache).

Then I try to re-access my new moodle site and all graphics are GONE. Like the page is in 'text-mode only' mode or something. No front page, just some  headers, such as "Navigation", "Calendar". The only graphics on the whole page is the MOODLE logo at the bottom.

I've successfully installed versions 1.9., 2.1, 2.4 without a problem resembling this. I've tried different browsers, several computers. Same thing.

Please check the accompanying screen shot of the 'front page'. Logging in makes no difference, fyi.

Anyone?
Thanks
Andre B


Attachment moodle_screen_shot.gif
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Unfortunately, yes ... many have seen this (or what appears to be the same problem).

The fix might be this:   with whatever you have to browse files, navigate to the location of the moodledata directtory.   Contained therein there is a cache directory.   Manually remove/delete the contents of the 'cache' directory.

Lots of caching going on now a days ... so clear your browser of cookies and cache for the site as well before attempting to access again.

Then try hitting your site with browser.

'spirit of sharing', Ken
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Andre Brassard -

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions! Unfortunately, it didn't do it. Is there a workaround? This is a serious f@#$@#$ problem!

Best,

Andre B.


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

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

There is also a localcache folder that can be deleted.  

This is almost always a cache issue.  Make sure that both are deleted, then clear your browser cache or try a totally different browser and see if that helps.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Andre Brassard -

I tried that, no dice. Tried 3 different browsers. I think it might be a Cenos 7 thing, at this point. What O.S. are you running, out of curiousity (on your moodle server)?

Thanks,

Andre B.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Have CentOS 5,6, and 7.   It only happened once and when I manually removed contents of cache .... and now, with 3.1 of Moodle, localcache as well, site recovered just fine.   Others have the same issue with Ubuntu and Windows as well with IIS servers also.

This to say don't think it's OS specific.

Did inspect the code with 3.1 recently and did find where it tries to reset opcache if it can find it at the tail end.   MIght have to hard code purge of cache in there as well.

I have gotten in habit of clicking the purge-all caches button link at the bottom of the installation screens when I see them and remember to do so.

Still though doesn't rule out apache setup.   I now pre-tweak PHP, MySQL, and Apache with the changes that I know in a short time will require setting upwards with beginning usage.

If I am correct, the installation uses some libraries from yahoo for the themes and is supposed to load from either yahoo or local or combo.   Do know in those caches are the very .css and .js files used by the default themes upon initial install.

This has been going on for some time now and don't think anyone can submit an accurate tracker for anyone to be able to reproduce consistently.

Then again there is the issue of where one host and what sort of package one has with provider.

Sooooooo ... sorry ... am out of ideas.

'spirit of sharing', Ken


Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -

I am having exactly the same problem.  I am migrating my Moodle site onto Amazon EC2 with Bitnami LAMP stack.  The URL is http://ziml.areteem.org (tried different URL, same result).  The behavior is: I can still log on, so I logged on as admin, then if I purge all caches, the site returns to normal.  But as soon as I hit the site with another browser, the same problem occurs again.  If I turn on the "Theme Designer mode", things display normally, but the pull-down menus, including the top menu (language menu and the admin user's name) and the other menus (such as the site administration links) no longer opens when I clicked on them.

Since so many people with different platforms have seen the same problem,  the problem appears to be in Moodle.  Has anyone have any ideas what this could be?

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Albert Ramsbottom -

Have you guys inspected the output by right-clicking and choosing inspect in Chrome

This will show you the errors associated with the missing graphics, although to me it looks like the css isnt loading

But id they are missing graphics, it is something wrong with you Moodledata folder, not all there, permissions etc


Albert

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Ok, I"ve got an idea ...

My method of installing/updating/upgrading has been to use git and a little bash shell script as the root user.   That means all files acquired from the Moodle repo are tagged as belonging to root user which is corrected in the script with a couple of chown commands.

The solution to the issue of fresh install or update or upgrade and seeing the site fail to use the css files which are present in moodledata/cache/....deepdowninthislocation *had* been to erase all files/directories in that directory.   With Moodle 3.1 now also localcache.

I'd like to propose one other directory be also included in the list .... sessions.

On a fresh install there is only one sessions file ... that of the person installing.

Here's what I noticed when assisting someone else that was having strange issue with an account of admin level and what appeared to be sessions retained even though admin user logged out, the next user that attempted to login found themselves logged in as the admin level user.

In investigating that, tried logging on as one time and noticed the session file for the admin user actually increased in size ... which would make sense (I think).  I then started looking at cookies for the site in FireFox.   The initial cookie from any Moodle site is a sessions cookie and it expires  at end of session.

This is leading me to think the sessions file for the installer might actually have come into play (somehow) when upgrading.

So besides purging caches either with Moodle link or manually, to those having issues on installing or upgrading, suggest also removing all the sessions files in /moodledata/sessions/

Just like Albert, I too can see the site just fine.   Since I've never been to the site before, I don't have any cooike from that site and for sure don't have any session file either.  But an admin level user who just did an update/upgrade surely does.

2 cent thought!

'spirit of sharing', Ken



Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -

Sorry I gave the wrong URL.  The site http://ziml.areteem.org is the currently running one (working fine).  The one having problem is http://zimldev.areteem.org , where I plan to move.

Appreciate all the ideas!  The Moodledata was copied entirely from the old site, and the permission of the entire tree is set to 0777.  There must be something I'm missing.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

When one clones a site for sandbox/upgrade testing, one must run search and replace in the new site.  Diff: zimidev. isn't zimi.

And here's an issue from where sit ... the following command should show me header info about new site:

curl -I http://zimidev.areteem.org/

but what's returned is this:

curl: (6) Could not resolve host: zimidev.areteem.org

Matter of fact, get same reponse for zimi.areteem.org

Tried the same commands from a server.    Same results.

Hosted on 1and1 appears ... check dns from your own workstation.

dig zimidev.areteem.org

0 answers

dig zimi.areteem.org

0 answers

However, I can actually see the web sites via browser ... and can see the issues with zimidev.

Are the Moodles hosted on the same server as your front/end store?

Running some sort of proxy?

'spirit of sharing', Ken



Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -
Thanks for the reply, Ken!

It is ZIML and ZIMLDEV, not ZIMi ... (an "ell" instead of an "eye" after the "m").

There is no hard-coded site names in the Moodle code.  There are two places in the database tables related to "Geocities" mentioning the Moodledata directories; I replace those with the proper ones each time I clone the site.  Of course the database names are modified at the beginning of the SQL file of the database dump.  Also config.php is modified to reflect the new database, the new URL, and new Moodledata directory.

The Moodle version is 3.0.4.

The domain areteem.org is hosted on 1and1.com.  The subdomains ziml.areteem.org and zimldev.areteem.org point to other servers via A records.  Here the site in question, zimldev.areteem.org, points to the Amazon EC2 server.  These seem to have no problems.

I tried to "curl" commands and got responses of the HTML pages, but not sure what to look for in them.

I have done more tests.  Scenario 1: Starting at the "no theme" page, I logged on as admin, purged all caches, and the themes shows in the site.  I logged out, and logged on as a normal user, it is still good.  Now I clear out the browser cache (in Firefox, clear all history), now there is no theme again.

Scenario 2: on Firefox I logged on as admin, purged all caches, the site theme become normal.  Then I opened Chrome, visit the site: no theme.  Now I come back to Firefox and refresh: no theme.

It looks like either Moodle or Apache server thinks the CSS has already been served to the browser and does not send another copy.  Or, more likely, it tries to send another copy but fails, because of permission issues.  Looking into the Moodledata directory, I had done "sudo chmod -R 06777" on it, and the owner and group of the existing files are "bitnami.bitnami" (this is the Bitnami LAMP Stack, and I am logged in as "bitnami").  But the newly created files in the cache, localcache, and sessions directories are all owned by "daemon".  They are still in group "bitnami".  The files in "cache" and "localcache" have permission "-rw-rw-rw-", and in "sessions", all the new sessions are "-rw-------" (owner is "daemon").  This might be a problem, but I am not familiar with how Apache works, so I'll put this question to experts here.

Thanks again for all your help!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

@Kevin ... thanks for correcting guess it shows I need glasses! :\

but back to your problem.

Bitnami ... yes, I noticed that Amazon has quite of few of those with apps pre-installed ... kinda.

Amazon also offers a regular Ubuntu without Bitnami ... but no Moodle - nor apache, nor php, nor MySQL.   The regular Ubuntu actually built by Canonical for Amazons virtuals.

Me thinks that Bitnami offerings are for folks that were looking for an easy button ... they will find, however, Bitnami images not the way to go.    Correct me if I am wrong, but if PHP, MySQL or Apache needs an update for security reasons, one cannot use apt-get or whatever Ubutnu normally uses for package mangement, to acquire just the piece that needs updating.   With Bitnami don't you have to go after the bitnami package that contains the update?     Wow!   That adds a level of complexity and puts your server 1 step removed from the true source Canonical.

So what one reads in Moodle.org docs may not apply to bitnami installs.   OR if it appears to might not be correct for Bitnami installs.

See ... I think on the typical Ubuntu install apache user/group is www-data:www-data and NOT bitnami:bitnami .... and daemon ... have no idea!   Just know that's not typical on Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, nor SuSIE Sled.   Not saying change it ... see next line ...

So since you've got Bitnami what do Bitnami forums/folks say about this?   They provided the package to Amazon!!!!

BTW, those curl commands just acquire some addtional information about the server ... like:

Server: Apache
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.6.25

Think I'd manually remove *contents* of moodledata/cache/ and moodledata/localcache/ and moodledata/sessions/

Remove cookies and caches from all browsers used.

Just did a look see at a 3.1.x functioning site using clean theme

Check this out:

[root@sos moodle31data]# find ./localcache -name \*.css
./localcache/theme/1473652118/clean/css/all.css
./localcache/theme/1473652118/clean/css/all.2.css
./localcache/theme/1473652118/clean/css/all.0.css
./localcache/theme/1473652118/clean/css/all.1.css

That 1473652118 is an epoch time stamp

So in your site ... use the same command and we can see what theme you are using.

On the functioning site used for finding ... is a CentOS box:
/var/www/moodle31data/localcache/theme/1473652118

drwxrwsrwx 4 apache apache 4096 Sep 11 22:50 clean

So be liberal with permissions ... if your data diretory is already protected and apache user is the only user that can access and  interact, suggest

chmod ugo+rwx moodledata -R

'spirit of sharing', Ken



Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Responding to own post ... how sick is that!

Decided to check on BitNami upgrades myself and what do you know, I was right.

In reading a Bitnami forum in which a poster asked this:

"I want to update PHP version on my live wordpress bitnami application on bitnami cloud from PHP 5.5 to 5.6"

The response confirmed what I said ...

"You can easily launch a new cloud image with the latest version of WordPress and PHP 5.6 ..."

.... blah blah blah ...

then finally:

"After launching it, you can migrate the data to to your new instance"

Translation ... into semi non-geek.

To get higher version of PHP for WordPress, user had to get another virtualized Btinami package installed ... another new server ... then one could 'migrate' (copy) from old WordPress site to new site.

Seems like a lotta trouble to me ... when I know with a normal Ubutnu I could apt-get the updates/newer PHP and use wp-cli to acquire update to WP + the addons + the theme  on the same box, with same IP don't have to mess with DNS changes etc..

So it appears that when you get ready to upgrade PHP/Moodle you'll have to do the same unless you cheat an use git.

So what appears to be easy to install ... and probably is ... isn't necessarily that easy to maintain and update or upgrade.

My 2 cents, of course.

To each their own ...

'spirit of sharing', Ken



Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -

Hi Ken,

Really appreciate your detailed response.  I am new to Amazon WS and it appeared that Bitnami was a fast solution.  On their product page they said that it automatically updates the apps, so I thought it was nice to have that taken care of smile  Haven't had time to explore the Bitnami forums yet.

I found this thread here and it looks like many people have the same problem but no one has a definite solution, so perhaps my experiments can shed some lights for Moodle experts to diagnose.  By the way, I have the moodledata directory tree set to "06777" and manually removed content from "cache", "localcache", and "sessions" each time.  It is the new cache and session files that have less permissions, and make me wonder if that is the culprit.

Well, it seems that a better solution is to build a standard server on AWS, and install the apps myself.  I'll try it tonight and see if it helps.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Didn't see this:

"On their product page they said that it automatically updates the apps"

URL please ... if you don't mind.

Automated updates is sort like automated backups in Moodle.   If, for example, you had 2.9 of Moodle the 'autoupdate' would work with git ... but only in the 2.9 series.  IF the automated updates brought your PHP to version 7.x, is PHP now further ahead than Moodle code at 2.9?   Uhhhh, yes.   Does Moodle 2.9.x code have anything in it that has been depreciated in PHP 7 and will that cause more than a warning and actually lead to a fatal error?

Have seen servers setup with automated backups in Moodle that filled up the drive.   Couldn't make SQL backups, one DB of a Moodle corrupted (lost it's engine???!!!), no one could login to Moodle ... couldn't write to sessions directory a small less than 1K file.   So automation is good but not un-controlled.   Anyone remember the Guif Oil Spill?

Yeah ... I see providers that have 'unlimited' in their descriptions of packages/services offered but what does that really mean?    I dare say it won't be on demand.   I have known of some 12th grade students that would love to put that to the test!!!

Yes, the issue has been especially present with 3.1 of Moodle.   Nothing definitive yet.

Wonder how many potential Moodle users have been lost because they do not have a medium to high 'failure quotient'.   Uhhhhh ... not good.

I have a hard time with the octet way of setting permissions ... so help me out .... what does "06777" look like when one ls -ld [a_moodle_directory]?

Yes, I've seen that also ... I set more liberal  permissions and Moodle comes along and sets them less.   Think there is a config.php addition or setting in mdl_config table which could set that in 'stone'.

Will be interested in your findings.   Just do the whole thing via command line - and let's see if that doesn't result in a better experience. ;)

'spirit of sharing', Ken


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -

I misunderstood about the bitnami automatic update.  They just said the Stack was "regularly updated" so you always have the latest versions of the apps.  That actually means you will get the latest version of everything when you install.  The URL is:

https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B007IN7GJA

To answer your other question, the 06777 permissions looks like this:

[bitnami]~/mdldata/zimldevdata/temp$ ls -la
total 20
drwsrwsrwx  5 bitnami bitnami 4096 Sep 20 11:10 ./
drwsrwsrwx 11 bitnami bitnami 4096 Sep 20 02:00 ../
drwsrwsrwx  2 bitnami bitnami 4096 Sep 19 19:29 backup/
drwsrwsrwx  2 bitnami bitnami 4096 Sep 16 22:22 questionimport/
drwsrwsrwx  3 bitnami bitnami 4096 Sep 18 02:52 typo3temp/

I will report on the manual installation afterwards.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by monika sharma -

 please let me know After it is written to the file a box pops up asking if I want to look at this in my browser (has nothing to do with the server, I haven't uploaded the files yet). I select "YES", this is when the problems begin actually, it may have begun when it was saved). When I look at it in the browser using this method there are missing graphics. If I publish it again there are still missing graphics but different graphics are missing as compared to before.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Albert Ramsbottom -

Codebase is corrupt

CSS corruption

On dev site

http://zimldev.areteem.org/theme/yui_combo.php?rollup/3.17.2/yui-moodlesimple-min.css


On working site

http://ziml.areteem.org/theme/yui_combo.php?rollup/3.17.2/yui-moodlesimple-min.css


Albert

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Albert Ramsbottom

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
Good find, Albert!
Now the question is ... how did it get corrupt?   That code base provided by Bitnami as it's part of the Bitnami package?

Hmmmm ....
https://docs.moodle.org/dev/YUI
Note: As of Moodle 2.9 we are transitioning away from YUI to AMD modules and JQuery.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -
Thanks, Albert!

What can I do to fix it?  If it is the YUI code base that's in error, replacing it with the correct one should do it, right?

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

@Kevin ...

what do you have in moodledata/localcache/theme/ ?

There should be an epoch time directory there ... like: 1473652118

Contained therein a 'clean' (default theme for new installs)

Inside clean:

css - directory where one finds the .css files
javascript_footer.js
pix

ccs on a sandbox 3.1 site

-rw-rw-rw- 1 apache apache  23949 Sep 19 03:35 all.0.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 apache apache 295874 Sep 19 03:35 all.1.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 apache apache 274527 Sep 19 03:35 all.2.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 apache apache 594212 Sep 19 03:35 all.css

In inspecting the combo loading ... which is recommended to leave on for production sites, it looks like Moodle doesn't use the  entire library and builds from that it's own - unless I am incorrect, of course (wouldn't be the first time).

So if your functioning site does have the above file and the dev site doesn't have the above files, ... and doesn't appear your site can re-aquire them, care to try and copy from your functioning site to your dev site?

'spirit of sharing', Ken






Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Kevin Wang -

@Ken,

I have all those files, though the sizes are different from yours.  Both the working site and dev site have the same files of the same sizes.

-rw-rw-rw- 1 daemon bitnami   1124 Sep 22 15:14 all.0.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 daemon bitnami 285784 Sep 22 15:14 all.1.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 daemon bitnami 268327 Sep 22 15:14 all.2.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 daemon bitnami 555083 Sep 22 15:14 all.css

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andre Brassard

Update (on caching issue): All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Andre Brassard -
Just an FYI: after a fresh install, if I preserve my (firefox) cache and DONT' clear it out, exit Firefox, re-launch Firefox, the site comes up no problem. As soon as I clear out my cache, it barfs. All CCS's & graphics gone (except for the Moodle logo at bottom).

So, it NEEDS the cache'd data
Andre


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Update (on caching issue): All graphics gone, after install. Trully vexing problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Albert found corruption in files.

Wonder this anyone having this problem wouldn't mind testing this:

Only if you were success in creating an admin account and can log on.

Go directly to:

http://site/admin/settings.php?section=themesettingclean

that should force you to log on and forward you to the page for settings of clean ... the default them used on installs.

Don't change/add anything .. just scroll to the bottom and Save.

Here's the behavior I noticed when I did that ...

It regenerated a new epochtime stamp directory.

/moodle31data/localcache/theme/1473652118/clean

with the css directory and all those .css files.

Keeping fingers crossed because I can't seem to be able to replicate the issue.

''spirit of sharing', Ken


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Andre Brassard -

Hey Ken.

The good news is (how in heavens did you find this workaround ..), going to the page you listed (http://site/admin/settings.php?section=themesettingclean), there's an option at the bottom to "purge all caches". I clicked on that, and it fixed my site! Graphics were back, along with (apparently) all Cascading Sheets.

The bad news is as soon as you clear out your Firefox cache (or whatever browser, presumably), it goes back to no-graphics mode (as before).

I'm ready to set my computer free, out the window (and see how well it flies).

On a serious note: this HAS TO BE A PLATFORM  thing. Fyi: when I was running Centos 5 with php 5.3, I had no problem installing/running Moodle 2.6. Now, Moodle 2.6 breaks on Centos 7 with php 7, with the graphics-be-gone problem.

Plus, this problem seems to show on select users (aside from me), while (most?) others run 3.1 just fine.

Andre

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Well, we may have hit upon the issue.   Back just before Christmas Holidays a couple of years ago Moodle folks offered a 'gift' and announced that it was OK to use PHP 7 but only Moodle 3.0.1 (most recent version at the time) had been tested and known to work with PHP 7.

Later Moodle HQ did test older versions of Moodle with PHP 7 but don't think they tested with Moodle 2.6.x.    So IF you are running Moodle 2.6.x that's probably the issue.   Only looking at web server logs might one see those errors or exceptions.

Now about that purge caches at the bottom of the setup for Clean theme ... that button is there for all themes, me thinks.    If it hurts, don't do it! smile

What I was trying to get the server to do is re-aquire the YUI combo loaded stuff.   And from poking around in the code, I got the impression that those weren't checked very often to update.

Once the server has the .css files ... then don't clean out your cache on the FireFox workstatiion ... in your case ... running 2.6.x very well might be the issue.

Afraid the only fix for you is to upgrade Moodle .... say at least to 2.9.highest.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Andre Brassard -

I was just trying to draw attention to the fact that, since I've upgraded to a new package through 1and1.com, with Centos 7.0 + php 7, even Moodle 2.6 doesn't work. It DID under Centos 5.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Kevin Wang -

@Andre

The behavior is exactly what I saw on my site: "purge all caches" brings the graphics back, then cleaning browser cache (or visit from another browser), breaks it again.  I am running Moodle 3.0.4.

@Ken

I would like to report a progress on my site.  On Amazon AWS, I started a fresh instance, and this time installed Apache server, MySQL, and PHP all by myself following the tutorial on the following page:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/install-LAMP.html

It was like a breeze.  Everything was done in a couple minutes, very easy.  I guess the Bitnami LAMP Stack is not needed after all. Then I configured a virtual host for my site, copied the MySQL database and Moodle code and data, setting all the necessary permissions.  Now it works fine!

http://zimldev.areteem.org

Thanks for all the information and help in this forum.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Andre Brassard -

Kevin:

Can you tell me what platform(s) you're using? Which distribution of Linux (presumably), what version of Linux, especially what version of PHP and mySql (or are you using mariaDb) ...

Glad to hear I'm not the only one experiencing this God-forsaken problem.

Andre

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Kevin Wang -

@Andre

I am using AWS - Amazon Web Services.  The following is the image I used for Launching an Instance:

             Amazon Linux AMI 2016.03.3 (HVM), SSD Volume Type

Also available are Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu Linux, and Windows Server.

According to the tutorial link I mentioned in the previous post, after launching the Linux instance, I ran the following command to install everything:

             sudo yum install -y httpd24 php56 mysql55-server php56-mysqlnd

From this command you can see the version of everything installed.

You are definitely not the only one with this problem.  I did a Google search when I first had this problem, and it looked like it's been around for a few years and several Moodle versions, and nobody has had a definite solution yet.  And that was what brought me to this forum.  I'm beginning to think that this is a symptom of several different problems in the Moodle setup and the cause for each site's error is different.  For my own site, I have no idea why the error occurred in the previous setting, and no longer occurs in the current one, because essentially it was equivalent to reformatting the hard drive and rebuilding the Linux system from scratch.  For the time being, I have my fingers crossed.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Andre Brassard -

Thanks for the (sobering) response. I'm starting to get a tad cynical about the whole (moodle) package. In my opinion, it's getting too complex! Trying to adapt to every conceivable hardware platform. By the way: who even does QA for this thing. I have the feeling the 'added functionality' is just slapped in willy-nilly. I guess that's the essence of open-source for ya  (:

I still think there should be a desktop-only version that's SIMPLE (relatively), stable and predictable.

Now I've got yet-another problem. I'm uploading small html files to add as content and it's just hanging. Yet another 'issue' to chase.

Best, Andre

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Derek Chirnside -

As has been said Andre, you are using quite an old version of Moodle.  You may be better to upgrade: it will solve a lot of problems for you.

In my opinion: If you are looking at a future with Moodle, you need to consider allowing for regular upgrades: in otherwords, don't do too much hacking of the code.  Clearly define what you want and check out the plugins etc.  And if you don't find what you want, ask in the forums, there are often several ways to do things. As was said in and old movie "with great power comes great complexity".  I just ignore all the complexities and work with what I need.

Your 'small HTML files' question is too vague to even start to answer.  Hanging can mean a range of things.

-Derek


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Andre Brassard -

You make a good point. An HTML file is nothing more than a text file, as I'm sure you know.

But, here's a snapshot of the hanging 'file upload'. Notice the little circle in the middle of the "select files" box. Ever seen that?

Thanks,

Andre

Attachment Hanging_moodle.gif
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Andre Brassard -
Hi Derek.
I guess I was unclear about the various versions of moodle I've tried: 3.1+ 3.1(stable), 2.8 and 2.6.

That's why I think it's my platform: version of Linux (Centos 7)?  Php 7?

I was running moodle 1.9, 2.3 and 2.4 on Centos 5 and never encountered so many issues.

Andre
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Andre,

Have you tried right click, Inspect element, to look at the code causing the problem?

I think that your problems are probably caused by something in your platform setup. I also am running Centos 7, MySQL 5.6.31, and Php 7.0.7. I currently have two Moodle 3.1.2+ sites that were successfully migrated from Centos 5.6. Both work as you would expect, except the semi-automatic plugin update capability has been hit-or-miss.

I tried to also migrate a Moodle 2.9 site, but had problems with it. But I do have installed from scratch versions of Moodle 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, and 2.9 all working.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to AL Rachels

Problem solved (KNOCK ON WOOD)

by Andre Brassard -
For now anyways: the upload problem seemed to stem from having two versions of moodle on my server. The uploading utilities from each version were probably stepping on each other.

Thanks all for all your help and recommendations.

Andre Brassard


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Problem solved (KNOCK ON WOOD)

by Andre Brassard -

Murphy's law: spoke too soon. At least it went farther than last time. But, as soon as I exit Firefox, I can't upload anymore files. The @#$@#$ revolving circle is back and I can't upload anything more.

And, yes, I did a fresh install of moodle 3.1.

Anyone ever see this God-forsaken thing?

Andre Brassard

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andre Brassard

Re: Problem solved (KNOCK ON WOOD)

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Having multiple versions of Moodle is doable, but there are a few things you have to watch out for. Back when setting up my own server for the first time, I had some of the same problems you are experiencing. Taking care of the following two things, fixed my problems, back then.

At Administration > Site administration > Server > Session handling > Cookie prefix, you need to put something unique there for each Moodle site. For instance, for my Moodle 3.1.2+ development site I use m3dev, and for my production site I use m3. Note, if you change this on a working site, it will immediately make you sign in again due to your cookie being changed.

For Centos, In the server at /etc/httpd/conf.d you will need to have separate conf file for each Moodle site that spells out an Alias for the site as well as where the public web pages and private data are located.

This is the contents of my moodle3dev.conf file:

Alias /moodle3dev /var/www/moodle3dev/moodle

# Moodle public web pages - must be publically accessible
<Directory /var/www/moodle3dev/moodle>
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
</Directory>

# Moodle private data - must NOT be publically accessible
<Directory /var/moodledata/moodledata3dev>
  Order deny,allow
  Deny from all
</Directory>

My production site is the same except for not including "dev" anywhere.

The reason for a folder name of "moodle" inside of moodle3dev and moodle3 is to make using git for updates, simpler.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to AL Rachels

Really, really solved (for now: double k.o.w.)Re: Problem solved (KNOCK ON WOOD)

by Andre Brassard -

Ok, I found a workaround, for me anyways. I re-imaged my server to run Centos 6,with php 5.3 and installed moodle 2.4. It works fine for me.

Plus, the upload problem is gone along with the f@#%$#$% graphics-be-gone problem when clearing out my Firefox cache.

Now, I can begin some real work.

Thanks to all who answered and helped aLOT.

Andre Brassard

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Wang

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

@Kevn .... Congrats!   Glad to assist.

Feel free to rate postings that helped as 'useful' ... it's like saying thanks. ;)

'spirit of sharing', Ken


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Good news/Bad news. Graphics-be-gone problem.

by Kevin Wang -

Gladly ... every post in this thread has been useful smile

Average of ratings: -