By droshani on

I have upgraded from D 6.4 to D6.5. Everything is working fine, I ran the upgrade and I could login into the site as Admin. The problem is I can not access the Administration section of my site. As soon I click on Administration section I will get dead blank page. Any suggestion what I can do to fix this please?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Increase your php memory_limit a bit (http://drupal.org/node/207036)
Try memory_limit = 32M (or more), and max_execution_time = 45 (in the same way).
Try running update.php once more.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I have them on 40 now, and I tried this on a project that does not have much data in it. Do you think this might be case?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

PHP memory is the most usual cause of blank screens (there are more causes: http://drupal.org/node/158043) and it happens in particular pages. Sometimes a single module may peak at 40M more on a page, for example during resizing a large image. If you have many modules installed, you could try 64M.

The amount of content doesn't always matter, because it doesn't come up in one page. Of course it might cause query timeouts on some server.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

It is not the matter on loging in. I can log in as Admin but when I click on Administer section it goes blank. I think I did something wrong that I was not log in as Admin when I did update the file from D6.4 to D6.5, now it does not let me to access the maintenance section of the site.

I did run update couple time but still the same problem remains.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

It seams that I have lost access to /?q=admin only and If directly want to access /?q=admin/build/block or /?q=admin/build/modules I can do it without any problem, so it is just the root page page which I have problem with.

I did log in and upgraded my to D6.5 again and ran update.php but it did not help. I know the first time I forgot to login when I did replace the D6.4 files with D6.5. I am not sure if this did it.

Any idea how I can fix this?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

So, something happens where you go specifically to /?q=admin and Drupal reads the modules' information, and is it is not memory...

Did you upload any new modules or themes (even without enabling them)?
Check for duplicate copies of modules in /sites/all/modules and /modules or corrupted .info files.

Also check for possible mod_security problems (http://drupal.org/node/110219), in case mod_security is installed on your server and a module contains a word that it doesn't like.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

The only thing I did, was updating D6.4 to D6.5 without loging in as Admin, then this happened. now everything works but the main /?q=admin page.

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

I don't see any reason that not being logged-in as admin could have caused a problem, if you finally managed to run update.php.

One possible cause is that something was overwritten by the upload, for example some required .htaccess setting which you used to have.

Did you check the mod_security link? I have seen at least one case in the mailing list where it caused a similar problem exactly in the admin page. mod_security is a weird one; even the word "mother" in a module's description may cause a failure.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

When I do update I do not over write the Site folder and the .htaccess , I did the same update for 4 other projects and every thing went well but this one which I failed to loging as Admin before I update D6.4 to D6.5,

Where do I find this mod_security, please?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

In a link in my first reply.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I did not find it, but it worth saying I have no security mode. And direct access to the most element in Admin page is working but I can not get the front page for Admin in my Drupal. May be I have to clean or flush the database some how.

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Let's see what we have so far:
- You ran update.php, it competed successfully and it did not stall. So, your menu cache has been rebuilt fine.
- You are not using clean URLs, so you are not using /admin but /?q=admin. So, it is not a problem of a path taken over by something else.
- According to your last reply, Apache's mod_security is not enabled on the server (http://drupal.org/node/110219), so that is not the problem either.

I am out of ideas at this point.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I have five projects with Drupal, I did update all of them to D6.5, but I forgot to log in as Admin into this one so this particular problem has happened some how. I did log in and did the update again, ran update.php successfully but the problem still remaining.

I use this /?q=admin all the time.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I did add

# Turn off mod_security filtering.

SecFilterEngine Off

to my .htaccess but it did not help and it is still the same. :(

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

this one gone black dead white as well

/?q=node/add/image

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

if you look at this

http://www.kirmashan.com/

you will see that I can not access the contact section or Image section (top links) they are dead blank, Do you think I can install a fresh copy of Drupal 6.5 and import the old database to into it? Will this solve the problem?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Probably not, Drupal's files *and* the database will be exactly the same.

Many or your pages give a blank page the first time, and only appear when you try again a couple times. Also, there is always a message "thumbnail derivative image was missing. The derivatives will be rebuilt to regenerate it", which repeats when you load the page again.

- image processing is a very memory-hungry operation
- it fails to create the thumbnails, that is why it repeats itself
- an out-of-memory failure can cause blank screens

Disable your image-handling module and then run update.php again, to make sure that it completes.

Or, increase your PHP memory to 96M and run update.php again.

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

Memory size is set to 96M in php.ini but I still can't load the administration page to try your suggestion of disabling image-handling modules.

Help!

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Exactly the same symptoms? A completely blank page without any error messages, even when you use /?q=admin and not just /admin ?
And you have checked for mod_security as well?

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

Regards,
Nigel

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

Further to my last message, I used /?q=admin/build/modules to access the modules menu and switched off everything which had anything to do with graphics in the non-core modules.

I could then access the administration screen but everything ran really S-L-O-W-L-Y. For example, to set the site on line from the Site Maintenance menu took 100 seconds. Clicking on the 'Reports' link took 95 seconds to respond. Next I asked for a Status Report it only took 10 seconds to respond for some reason and various other requests worked fine until about 10 seconds later when everything went slow again.

Could it be something wrong with my server? (It's one that's hosted by 'Host Excellence')

Cheers,
Nigel

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

I should point out that normal web pages are served up acceptably quickly - within 3-5 seconds. It's just when you want to do something more complicated that everything is really slow.

I have another site running (Drupal 6.4) on a different Host Excellence server and it's working fine.

Regards,
Nigel

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

My website is on Host Excellence too, but I have 4 other projects on my hosting. All other projects are working fine but this one. It is very slow and all the white blank pages are still remaining.

Today when I upgraded from D6.5 to D6.6 my blank contact page is back. So I am not sure why that one is prepared. Some pages are dead white but when I reload couple times they start to appear.

I managed to disable the Image.Module and ran the update, then I got access to all the pages as before. No problem. So I thought it is time to put back the Image.module, well I was wrong all problem reappeared. I can now say that the problem is with new Drupal and Image.Module somehow. The thing is that I have Image.Module on other website running Drupal and I do not have any problem with those. So why should be any problem with this Site and Image.Module?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Check by yourself that the php memory_limit which you have set in php.ini really works inside Drupal. Don't simply believe the setting, test it.

(In Drupal 6, you must make sure first that the "php filter" module is enabled in admin/build/modules.)

Create a new page, enter <?php phpinfo(); ?>, select "PHP code" input format, and preview that page to see your real settings inside Drupal.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I have done this but I do not know what do I look for

http://www.kirmashan.com/?q=node/77

I am not sure if it is ave to have these info online :(

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Your memory_limit is 40M, which may be enough or not, depending on what your modules may do on specific pages. If you have already set it to a higher number in php.ini, make sure that it is not overrided by a lower value locally in .htaccess or in settings.php.

You could also try increasing the max_execution_time from 30 to 60, in the same way.

Putting the phpinfo online is no big risk generally, except if your server already has a vulnerability and someone notices.

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I did all these measures but as soon I enable Image.Module the problem is there. I have this module in tow other project with many pics and there is no problem but this web site.

Is there any way I can flush Image from my database and try to re install the module?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Of course you could disable it in admin/build/modules and then go to the Uninstall tab and remove all its data, but I doubt that this module alone is the problem. It is probably just "the last straw which breaks the back of the camel".

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

But it's still hopelessly slow. Here are my PHP settings...

http://cats-whisker.com/aio/node/23

What puzzles me is that for normal web pages the site works well but for anything to do with administration it goes slowly. I wonder if the potential problem with graphic issues is a red herring and that when graphics are enabled it just tips the balance to make the site's functions so slow that we get a time-out - thus the blank page. (This is just an uneducated guess!)

I see that someone else on another thread seems to be having a similar problem.

Regards,
Nigel

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

I only mentioned graphics because when they are processed (resizing, thumbnails etc) there is a memory consumption peak.

If you have hundreds of unused modules uploaded, that also might be a problem with the modules admin page.

About general slowness, check admin/settings/performance and enable at least css and js aggregation (only in Drupal 6). Try a Firefox diagnostic add-on called "yslow". You can also use the devel module to check query execution times and memory consumption on any individual page.

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

Interesting development...I decided to run update.php again and magically the site started running quickly again! I found that I could navigate around the admin menus quickly as normal with no problem. I then decided to re-activate the 'Acquia Marina' theme (which I had switched off when all these problems started and reverted to Garland). The site imediately went slow again. When I reverted back to Garland the site was fast. Although it looks like the 'Acquia Marina' theme is the culprit I don't feel I have conclusively proved this yet.

(Please note that the 'Acquia Marina' theme I am using is the latest version.)

Regards,
Nigel

PS Cog.rusty - I noticed your note after I posted this so I tried enabling css and js optimisation and also cleared the cache but there's no difference. It still goes very slow when I enable Acquia Marina. I tried 'Pushbutton' and 'Green N Black' and they work fine. The finger of suspicion is gradually turning towards Acquia Marina! However, I notice that Koyauni is not using Acquia Marina so I guess there is something else going on. Maybe this needs two threads.

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

At a glance, the acquia theme seems a bit code-heavy.

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

I just tried the 'A3 Atlantis' theme and the site went horribly slow again so clearly it's not just 'Acquia Marina' theme that's causing the problem. Something that both 'A3 Atlantis' and 'Acquia Marina' are doing (but which some other themes are not) is slowing things up. (I'm also quite sure I could find other themes that would cause these problems.)

I didn't have any of these issues with Drupal 6.4 (and even though 6.5 was around for such a short time I didn't notice any problems there either).

Is there any way to monitor what the server is trying to do during these long delays?

Regards,
Nigel

NigelFK’s picture

NigelFK commented

I found this...

http://drupal.org/node/220278

...which tells you to disable the Update module. This workaround worked for me.

Regards,
Nigel

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I think my case is a different. As soon I enable Image.Module then I will not be able to access the admin page or status report page. Whatever has happened to the integrity of my Drupal D6.6 happened when I did upgrade my Drupal from 6.4 to 6.5 without loging as Admin. I am not sure what has been changed but I can not reverse or put this right.

I have too much data to be able to recreate my web site.

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

What php memory_limit do you have now?

droshani’s picture

droshani commented

I did this last week

http://www.kirmashan.com/?q=node/77

but it is 64Mb

I am sure it has nothing to do with Memory. Many only main developer can say what will happen if you upgrade without being logged into the site as Admin

sarath’s picture

sarath commented

you mean