Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

by R Ali -
Number of replies: 7

$release  = '3.1+ (Build: 20160609)'; // Human-friendly version name
$branch   = '31';                       // This version's branch.
$maturity = MATURITY_STABLE;             // This version's maturity level.

PHP 7.1

Server version: 10.1.27-MariaDB - MariaDB Server

Hosting type: Shared

=======================================================================================

Good day,

Hope someone can help me.

I was trying to upgrade from 3.1 to 3.7 (latest). But the upgrade failed and I could not go back to the previous version. It comes up with blank page when I tried processing the upgrade. I tried accessing the debugg page from the url following the instructions I read about this but it worked once and I was able to access some parts of the installation while others bring up blank page.

I later read I should upgrade to 3.2 first before 3.7 but that did not work either. All the 3 versions are not working now, each comes with blank page each time I try to load the application.

Previously, I upgraded php 7.1 to 7.2 for the wordpress installation I have on the same server but the moodle installation will not load, it brings back blank, which was why I decided to upgrade moodle to the latest version for compartibility with the php 7.2 version. But I had to downgrade php when it did not work,  At the first instance, it worked but then when I attempted upgrading moodle, all went awry.

Any help to resolve this please will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Rafiat




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In reply to R Ali

Re: Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
It's really important to read the release notes. So...

https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_3.7_release_notes#Server_requirements
Note the 3.2 is *required* so, yes, you have to upgrade to 3.2 first

https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_3.2_release_notes#Server_requirements
Moodle 3.2 is fine with PHP 7.1 but Moodle 3.1 is NOT!! This does mean that there should be no problem upgrading PHP to 7.1 and then upgrading to Moodle 3.2 but you will not be able to run Moodle 3.1 any more.

Personally, I would restore the Moodle 3.1 site from the database backup I hope you took (!).
THEN... modify config.php to enable full Debugging using the debugging lines from Section 7 of config-dist.php
Perform the upgrade to 3.2 - check for errors on the screen and if you have problems carefully check your web server's error log for any other recorded errors.

As 3.2 is a necessary step that needs to work properly first. There's no point in thinking about 3.7 just yet.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Interesting. One group of system administrators are complaining about the progression of the system software requirements, especially the PHP. And there are others who believe that there is no limit, no PHP max, for Moodle! May be it is the fault of WordPress, which seems to have no problems with the recent acceleration of PHP versions - 7.0 to 7.3 in a very short time compared to 5.4 to 5.6. Here is another example: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=392235.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
My view is that you probably shouldn't use a version of PHP that didn't exist for the comparable version of Moodle. For example, Moodle 3.6 and PHP 7.3 were both released in December 2018, so there's no chance that Moodle 3.6 could have been tested with PHP 7.3.
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In reply to Howard Miller

Moodle releases, PHP and WordPress [OT]

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Makes sense to me. As two cases appeared within a week, two WordPress admins, both upgraded PHP to 7.2/7.3 and experienced trouble, makes me curious whether there is a connection to WordPress.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Moodle releases, PHP and WordPress [OT]

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
A common problem is installing Moodle within the Wordpress directory. Wordpress' rather intrusive .htaccess rewrite rules then happily break Moodle.

This should't be related to the PHP version, however.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

by R Ali -
Thank you so much for your reply.
I will go through your suggested solutions and comeback with the outcome when I am done.
Much appreciated.
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Problem upgrading to 3.7 from 3.1

by R Ali -

Hello Howard Miller,

Thank you for the response.

I have restored the 3.1 version but it does not log in normally. After entering the login details, it returns blank as before.

I used the debug url and I was able to set the debug on in the admin area.  From their I could navigate to the course online but not the Dashboard, Site front, Notifications and some others.

This is the error returned with the blank page:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 73400320) (tried to allocate 1110016 bytes) in /home/sites/..../public_html/..../lib/classes/string_manager_standard.php on line 138





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