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Vkaryl, again thank you, and thank you to Everyone Else who responded!

I am really glad I asked about Steps 7 and 8. I would NEVER have known that “run” meant enter the stuff in the address bar. Thanks for clarifying.

I honestly am not sure if any of the changes I have made were to “core” files or not. Anything I’ve done, I’ve done by finding it in these forums or in the Codex or on a WP expert’s blog (where someone made a plugin). I don’t know which “streamline the Dashboard” method I used. I installed the WPGrins plugin and I think I customized some smilies (added some) in the vars.php file. I wish I knew what I did to the Dashboard and whether it was a core file I did something-I-can’t-remember to.

Anyway, I’ve decided this is all a bit much for me today, so I’m going to wait at least til some morning when I’ve had some coffee. I sincerely thank everyone here for their help! ??

Vkaryl THANKs again.

More questions, if you or anyone else gets time:

In Step 7 of the upgrade instructions, it says “7. On the server and at blog root, delete the old WordPress files and upload new ones.”

What old WP files, specifically, does this mean to delete?

In Step 8, it says “8. Now run “www.example.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php”

What does “run” mean? What do I do to “run” it?

Also, it says “if you wish to, you can upload [default and classic themes] to your wp-content folder.

If I don’t do this, won’t my cosmetic changes (my custom header and custom header size, etc.) stay as they were pre-upgrade?

See, I told you I was clueless.
??
THANKS much for any help! ??

Vkaryl, thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it. It sounds like you’ve done a lot to your blog(s) like I have, although it also sounds like you understand what you did and where to find things MUCH better than I do.

I did go ahead and copy everything from my WP folder on the server to my local machine. I don’t know how to “backup a database,” though. Is that what I just did without realizing it?

Also, from reading your post carefully, I am still not quite sure about something.

Are you saying that I should go ahead now and try to do the upgrade (as instructed way up above) and THEN upload my saved -on-my-local-machine-files that I have customized (index.php, vars.php, etc.) so that in effect I am overwriting all of the newly installed “upgrade 1.5.1” files on my server? Is that like putting my customizations BACK in place, but allowing whatever background stuff the upgrade does to still be up there?

If that’s what you mean, I may be able to handle it, but I still don’t know how I’ll ever figure out ALL the correct files I’ve changed so I can then upload and overwrite. I hope that when I notice changes I made last month etc. now “missing” in my upgrade, that I am able to understand HOW to re-make all the changes AGAIN, i.e., to basically do all the customizing again, right? Like I said, I don’t understand in much depth at all. If I get an error I will freak out. <—joking, sort of

Thank you VERY much for your help! ??

I am a new WP user (Fantastico installed it for me) and I have very little real understanding of WP 1.5’s “guts.” So I am very very worried about doing the upgrade, mainly because, like Jinsan said way up above, I have made changes to things I can’t remember now. Things I did based on reading Codex and WP user’s blogs. I did things by very carefully reading instructions, and they worked pretty well, but I have no idea how or why, or what I actually did.

One change I recall was something that stripped down the Dashboard. Another was deleting install.php and upgrade.php and something else, which people said was a possible security problem. I have deleted some links that came with the default installation, too (notifying blog services, etc.)

My question: Will doing this upgrade automatically put all these things-I-can’t-remember-and-didn’t-understand-at-the-time back IN . . . back as they originally were? I’ve spent hours and hours reading the Codex and the power-user’s blogs figuring out how to change OR get rid of these things-I-can’t-remember-now. I installed a few plugins.

But, in this customizing process, I’m pretty sure that I not only deleted some files, but also MOVED some, maybe in the wp-admin thingy? My use of the word “thingy” should reveal my level of expertise, when it comes to WP.

PS: I’m intending my tone here to be humble and polite and totally clueless, and hopefully a bit funny; NOT bitchy and critical and snippy. But I REALLY don’t want to screw up my working WP 1.5 Kubrick, especially since it is now exactly the way I wanted it. ??

PPS: I guess I could email Matt, although I really hate to bother the guy.

PPPS: I love WP; just scared to mess with upgrading. I don’t even know how to do the first step (“backup your database”)! I suppose I will have to search the Codex for a few hours. The thought of that makes me very very tired. <— joking!!!!

Thanks everyone.

Along the same lines as Jinsan’s post (above):

Is there any way to JUST do the security fix without all the rest? If so, where can I get it?

If not, could the powers-that-be at WP possibly look into creating something like this for us?

When you say use 644 for files, does this mean that when you make any change(s) to various templates within the active theme (e.g., index.php, the stylesheet, page.php, about.php, single.php, etc.) you must first be at 666 (“if this was writable, you could edit it”) to make changes, but then change each of these files back to 644, every time? Just checking.

Jinsan, thank you very much for the lucid explanation. It not only worked, it worked both ways you described. (BTW, I use DW without letting it add unnecessary code. )

Just in case anyone ever comes here some day and wonders what happened:

It all started for me when I decided I wanted to create an About Page (with a capital P). I am using default Kubrick in 1.5, and I wanted my new About Page to be just like my main/front/index page BUT with a different header (same size OK, but not same design/colors) and NO sidebar. Just a nice simple About Page. I even wanted to use the same footer as is on my front/main page.

I have tried everything, and read everything, including the links above. I keep getting the parse error I posted above. I’m thinking now it might be something about wp-blog-header, which is not really mentioned in the newer stuff but is in the older help posts. Or maybe it’s something about where to upload the file after I make it in Dreamweaver, although that doesn’t seem too hard to figure out.

Thanks for the link to the tamba thingy. I think that might just be IT. ?? I’ll keep tryin’.

So…basically you’re saying I have to make a whole new theme to get an About Page with a different header, no sidebar, and no parse error. Yeow. ??

I’ve tried the above instructions several times. I keep getting this error message when I “View” my new ‘About’ Page:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_ENDWHILE in blog/wp-content/themes/default/about.php on line 33

I’m using WP 1.5, Kubrick.

Here’s what I have tried (with the above bad result): I copied my default theme’s ‘page.php’ template, renamed it “about.php,” uploaded it (to themes/default/about.php), then in my Admin area I “Created a Page” using the new template “About” that now appears in my dropdown menu on the “Write Page” page.

I’m new to WP and php. Have read all the ‘make a template’ stuff I can find in the Codex. What am I missing here? I must be doing something dumb. Or I have a setting wrong somewhere?

I do see an “ENDWHILE” in the page’s code, but remember, I just copied the code straight from the standard un-messed-with Kubrick ‘page.php’ file.

The reason I’m not creating a Page based on a copy of my index.php template is because I wanted to use a different header for the About Page; and also I don’t want the sidebar.

I saw the post here about putting in a different header on a new Page, too, but can’t get that to work either.

FYI:

I “Created a Page” and WP did nothing to any of my .htaccess files. It did NOT add anything (i.e., no “# Begin WordPress, etc.).

Which is as I had hoped. Just leaving this comment here in case anyone else comes along some day and wonders about this exact situation. (Note again that I did NOT have the permalinks set up, and I still don’t.)

YMMV.

Excellent link. Someone should see about getting that up on the Codex somewhere, in the front, IMHO. ??

Thanks! Sounds like I should just use the “Write a Page” feature within WP and take my chances on it not messing up my existing htaccess file, which I am positive IS writable (I mess with it all the time).

Good to know I can delete the newly-created page if it doesn’t work OR if I just decide I don’t like it, etc. AND that I can delete the WP-generated directives (whatever they may turn out to BE) from my htacess file as well.

Crossing my fingers. Thanks again for all your help.

PS I guess as to creating my own simple Template, I don’t understand how I would get my CONTENT to appear inside it.

Moshu, thanks for the fast reply. I’m talking about making my own pretty simple About Page template, sorry. Just my regular header and a footer and some text.

And also I wanted to know if there was a was to do whatever WP does to my htaccess file MYSELF, because I am worried about WP messing my htaccess file up. I guess what I keep asking is, is there any way for me to insert the new rules into my htaccess file MYSELF, rather than letting WP do it? What are the new rules?

And while you’re here (?), if I DO use WP’s Create New Page thingy, is there an EASY way to delete the newly-created page, should I decide for some reason I do not like it? I know I could go into my htacess file and delete whatever WP throws in there, by hand, but what about deleting the Page itself? Any trick to that?

Thanks so much for your help.