Multiple Attempts 2.0.4 Upgrade Failure – Page Cannot Be Displayed

I’ve been searching everywhere for how to access these apache error logs. I’ve scoured OneWorldHosting, the internet etc. and no luck. That said, anything this difficult to track down, and the fact that it seems quite possible to hit this limit should have a warning and /or method to sort out whether you’ve hit this limit. I still have no idea other than the host support group to have acknowledged this problem and have provided a solution. I was at the WordPress event in SFO a month ago and provided feedback a number of times. To get wide acceptance of WordPress, it has to get easier and easier. The Five Minute Installation was proof of that understanding. Knowing about a reasonable chance of failure due to a memory limit and having the solution be as tough to track down (including asking someone to track down their apache error log that I’ve still not been able to do, with hours of searching), is not a good thing.

I’ve still not been able to find on the support pages an explanation on how to find this elusive Apache Error Log. That would also be good. I realize that it may be different for different hosts, but if it is part of MySql ? then there must be some similarity in where /how to find it.

Again many thanks to all who tried to help.

Just another thought. How is it possible to have run into this memory problem when I deactivated all the plugins on installation of 2.0.4?

I also reverted to my original 2.0.3 and it also stayed in failure mode?

It seems there is still more to this story.

Ronams,

Last question first: I’d wager that coincided with when your host knocked you down to 2 MB memory for PHP.

As to your preceding post:

I’m truly sorry that this was such a trying experience. As you’ve looked around the support forums, you’ve probably noticed your scenario is pretty rare (and feel free to come back and answer other folks questions!) That doesn’t make it better, but it hopefully explains why the support volunteers didn’t have an instant answer for you.

As WP volunteers are not the hosting company, or Apache, I can’t really tell you where your host keeps your error logs (but I can clarify that they’re apache web server logs, not MySQL logs). I can tell you where I keep mine on my own server, and where they can be found on my DreamHost site, but that just doesn’t help with OneWorldHosting. OWH, however, could tell you where the logs are. They have control over the server. We simply have no visibility.

I’m sorry, we try to be as helpful as we can, often going beyond “just” WordPress support. But there are limits to what we, as WP volunteers, can possibly know about all the web hosts.

Ronams,

I just did a test on my personal server. I just reinstalled everything on it 2 days ago, so Apache, PHP and MySql are all running at their default configuration right now. By default, PHP sets the maximum memory to 32m. Most servers I deal with have it set to 8meg. One site I manage gets over 200,000 hits a day and averages about 3,000 comments a day and that 8 meg limit has never been an issue.

Having said that, I changed my php configuration to 2meg and did a fresh install of WordPress and it did the same thing you were experiencing – just gave a page can not be displayed error. It also won’t log the problem in the Apache logs. At 4 meg, it gives you the php memory allocation error and even logs it in the file. At 6 meg is was running fine. That indicates that it isn’t actually a problem in WordPress, but rather a condition of PHP not being able to generate the error at the 2meg limit. My guess is it is dying while compiling the WordPress scripts.

As far as your logs go, you can have 10 different hosting companies with 10 different log locations. If you are on a shared hosting package then chances are you don’t get live access to your error logs. Most companies run a script that rotates your logs into a directory accessible by the user every 24 hours. Generally you can FTP in and there will be a /logs directory, or access them via C-Panel (if your hosting provider has it installed).

It should also be noted that at 2meg memory limit on PHP that PhpBB, PhpBB3, SMF, Durpal and VBulletin all fail to load and give the same “page not found” error. This is a really bad decision on the part of your hosting company to invoke this limit, especially since it will prevent a majority of PHP software out there from running. They might as well tell people they can run PHP scripts on their site as long as they are simple “hello world” scripts.

I think you’ve made my point. I more than appreciate the help that anyone made and was aware that people were going ‘beyond’ (hello doodlebee!). All I’m suggesting is that there is a clear gotcha that I got hit with that seems at least possible for people to run into. A warning/ mention of this PHP memory limit in the install or upgrade notes would suffice. I’m still waiting for OneWorldHosting to explain how their own blog is WordPress and they advertise how to install WordPress in their support area, yet is going to fail as per my experience and intoxications test proved.

Only good words and thoughts for the support people here. So your suggestion to also help is what I’m doing here by suggesting a warning.

> I’ve downloaded the upgrade and uploaded with my edited wp-config.php.

Did you try the default version?