By emancipator on

I have backed up my site folder and uploaded a brand new drupal-6.3/

I have also uploaded my site folder to drupal-6.3/sites/

When I am trying to run update.php I get the following

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@nscientia.skule.ca and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

This is not just for update.php, but for every thing in the drupal-6.3 folder.

Any ideas?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

mantyla’s picture

mantyla commented

For me, the most common or even the only reason this occurs is that when upgrading, I forget to copy my old .htaccess file to the new location. The default Drupal .htaccess file has a number of directives which will cause a 500 error if they are not allowed. For example, the Options directive is a security risk, since it can be used to enable CGI scripts, and I have chosen to forbid its use altogether in .htaccess files.

emancipator’s picture

emancipator commented

Thanks for the reply.

I have un-commented most of the directives that I think may cause this but it is still giving me the 500 error. But when I first installed drupal (6.1 at the time) I do not remember disabling any directives.

What directives in particular are you referring to?

One thing worth mentioning is: enabling the renaming url from "www." to no "www." in .htaccess got processed (ie. the browser actually shows the url without www.).

Another thing worth mentioning: It gives me 500 server error even for the freshly untared drupal installation (ie. I just untarred it, I didn't even put my backups in, it should give me the installation page)
I am lost...

mantyla’s picture

mantyla commented

I don't have a lot of experience with which directives can trigger a 500 error, but I believe that with the right conditions, any one of them can. Basically, in your server configuration some directives are allowed to be overridden in .htaccess files, others might not be allowed, and those would result in errors. I can't know which, if any, directives are not allowed in your setup.

In fact, since the url was rewritten to have no "www." I don't think the .htaccess file is to blame. If you want to be certain, move the file away temporarily and see if the error still appears - if yes, the .htaccess file was probably fine and the error is somewhere else.

The unfortunate thing is, a 500 error is very vague. I know a few things which can trigger it, but it can be anything really. My only advice is to take a look at the error log of your server, and if you can't, ask someone who can to do so. The record in the error log is probably more specific, and knowing what it says will get the problem sorted faster.

emancipator’s picture

emancipator commented

premature end of script headers: /www/home/tim/public_html/drupal/index.php

emancipator’s picture

emancipator commented

I believe this is a very elementary thing that went wrong but I just can't figure out which.

radman16’s picture

radman16 commented

Yes, I am having the same problem. I'm not experienced enough to be able to figure it out on my own so any help would be greatly appreciated.

janp13’s picture

janp13 commented

I can't figure it out either. If anyone can help me in words of one syllable :o) I would be very grateful. Jan

mantyla’s picture

mantyla commented

Unfortunately, that entry in the error log isn't as much help as I'd hoped. It is the PHP equivalent of saying "something went wrong" in more words.

However, it does give me some ideas to try. First, check your file permissions. If any of your files, for whatever reason, is unreadable when index.php tries to reference it, this might result. Considering you just updated, the file permissions of the new folder might not be what they used to.

Another thing is to focus on the fact that it is a PHP error. If all you did was upgrade Drupal, take another look at the only part of Drupal that deals with PHP - the .htaccess file. This time, look for the PHP options there and see if that part is different or missing from your old .htaccess. Try quoting out those options, see if it helps. Quote out them all and then one by one to isolate the one(s) causing the problem.

janp13’s picture

janp13 commented

This is what is in my .htaccess file:

SetHandler Drupal_Security_Do_Not_Remove_See_SA_2006_006
Options None
Options +FollowSymLinks

I suspect there is something wrong there ...

Also, the update.php file will not run even though I've tried changing things as suggested.

Thanks for all the help so far.

mantyla’s picture

mantyla commented

This is your root .htaccess? To me this looks like the .htaccess file created in the files subfolder.

janp13’s picture

janp13 commented

Anyway, the site is up and running again after a configuration change on the server (done by the hosting company).

My problem now is that the sight is offline and I have no idea how to get back in! There seems to be nowhere to log in and reset it. Help - again!
Jan

mantyla’s picture

mantyla commented

/user/login or just /user should do the trick.

janp13’s picture

janp13 commented

thanks for the tip, but it still returns "page not found, operating in offline mode". Any other ideas?
Jan

mantyla’s picture

mantyla commented

I made the assumption that you were using clean urls and index.php was the directory index file. Not to take any chances, these two should work: /index.php?q=user or /index.php?q=user/login.

If those don't work, I can't imagine what the trouble is.

janp13’s picture

janp13 commented

The guy that hosts the site has sorted it out for me but I now have to reset everything from scratch - oh well - good learning.

There is one other thing I have just noticed - I now have an rss feed icon on our mission statement section. How do I get rid of it? It wasn't there before we went to 6.3 and I have searched everything for some way of turning it off. If I click on it a page of code appears. (Needless to say I know nothing about rss!)

Jan